Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Beginnings of a Ring Bearer's Pillow.


Things have been busy around here. We adopted a PUPPY and I got a new TATTOO!! (Posts coming)  Not to mention it has been BEAUTIFUL outside and it is hard to be inside when we are getting our first tastes of Spring here in Georgia.

In the evenings, after dinner, when night begins to fall I have been working on Ashley's ring bearer's pillow.

I am thoroughly enjoying exploring weaving fabric. I decided  this was the direction I wanted to take with Ashley's pillow. (Honestly, it is about all I am thinking about with fabric these days and how to get more out of it because it just looks so cool - I've got some great ideas in my mind of pieces I want to try making it work in.)

I cut strips of wonder under 2 inches X 8 1/2" wide (this is half the length of wonder under by the yard - it seems to be a great size for me to work with.)

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Then, I iron it to my fabric and cut it out.

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Since it is going to be a ring bearer's pillow and Ashley's dress is off white, I'm using a few different shades of whites and off whites to make it more interesting rather than just off white.  

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I then pull the paper off the back of the 2" strips and trim them down to 1/2" strips.  I like getting the paper off earlier rather than later because it's easier to get off.  You do not have to pull it off until you are ready to iron, but I like having it out of the way before I start weaving.

I starched my muslin -heavily.  And I cut it a little bigger than I want the pillow to end up. Then I lightly made a line 1" from the edge of the fabric to have a starting point and began weaving.

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I decided while gathering supplies for the pillow I wanted to make it even fancier looking, so I'm adding strips of ribbon in.  If you look closely, you can see them in this picture.  They stay put when the wonder under sticks to them.  I am using an ironing cloth over everything when I iron to keep them from melting under the heat of the iron since some ribbons do this.

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It's coming along nicely.  I should be done with the weaving this weekend and ready to do some stitching on top and get it made into the pillow.

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My plan is to add the ribbons that will hold the rings on by hand so they can easily be removed when the love birds get home.

Now, it's opinion time... I can't decide whether to add an image to it or not.  I like it just as it is because it looks more traditional, but since she's going to be using it in her home, it might be nice to have one.  I don't want to tell you what I am thinking of doing IF I do one because I want it to be a SURPRISE, but I would love to hear what you all think - especially YOU, Ashley!

5 comments:

  1. I want you to do whatecver you think is best! I am loving it already!

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  2. I like it as is! An image, I think, has the possibility to make it look too schmaltzy...

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  3. two bluebirds holding the ribbons?

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  4. Can you do a thread-painting/quilting type of thing that shows faintly, but doesn't overpower the simplicity of the piece. By the way, it looks great!!

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  5. I agree with Frances. A faint image would be pretty. Check out Judy's face images on this link. Click on the one with faces and see how many faint ones there are. So cool. http://judysimmonsfiberart.blogspot.com/2010/09/three-quilt-happenings.html

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