Buttery Toasted Patchwork Pillow

I'm having trouble coming up with new words to describe these yellow and brown wool pillows - toasty is first and foremost on my mind when I look at them. I'm working my way through two stacks of felted wool I bought from the City Quilter. They have quite a nice selection - I actually bought a teal/blue spectrum stack as well, but I I've been holding back from starting to work on it, as I feel like I'm on a roll with the yellows and browns.



I designed this pillow while on the subway, but had to improvise once I was actually executing it. These wools are bought in stacks containing beautiful but slighly mishapen pieces - it's not like I have even full fat quarters of any of these, so they almost force you to do patchwork.

I had hardly any light yellow fabric yet, and a lot of brown, so the rows containing yellow pieces ended up being 2" tall while the one containing solely brown pieces were 3". It's very hard to see this, but the corner pieces are a slightly different yellow than the others, again, improvised out of necessity due to not having enough of either yellow color.



I was also planning on having the rows and colums of brown (except the 4 dark pieces) be the same shade of brown, but I discovered that was not to be either. However, I enjoyed the troubleshooting process and was relieved that ultimately I was able to come up with a combination that worked - both in sticking as closely as possible to my original vision, and in having enough fabric to execute it.



These wool projects take longer than the cotton ones, because pinning and pressing are absolutely key. Pinning is just about the same in difficulty (show above) but the pressing of the wool seam allowances is a bit challenging. In order to prevent bulking up the patchwork, I pressed open the seams.



You really have to presss the hell out of it, and put some elbow grease into it to make it work.
Overall, I'm glad with the results - it lays flatter than my previous wool patchwork project.



The next step was that I hand embroidered the contrast stitching. It's fun to do this with the wool fabric. First of all, I love embroidery. And you don't have to use an embroidery hoop, because the fabric is nice and thick and a little stiff.



And here's a picture of the final product again!

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I (heart) Joel Dewberry Fabric

I love this line of Aviary fabrics from Joel Dewberry. Faux bois woodgrain and bird motifs all in the same collection, and in orange and brown, one of my favorite color combinations? I can't think of any single collection that reflects my current aesthetic so perfectly. (BTW, if you like the woodgrain aesthetic as much as I do, check out one of my favorite blogs, It's (K)not Wood, which is entirely devoted to covering the topic of fake wood! They have also made note of this fabric.)

I first saw these fabrics on the shelves of purl soho, and I immediately snapped them up. These are all from the Bark palette - Sparrows in almond, and Woodgrain in both Orange and Chocolate. I did go back to buy a few different varieties of the Woodgrain. I have no immediate plans for them, but it seemed like a good idea to have them in my stash for future patchwork projects.



The first thing I did was create this pillow cover for the chicken. He also loves orange, brown, birds, and woodgrain, so it went really well with his existing pillows.



Also pictured here is a pillow by west elm in the back. I have to admit I am a bit of a fan of west elm. I go to their store, website, and catalog for inspiration (as well as actual shopping), and right now I use their pillow inserts for all of my pillow projects. While adopting their aesthetic as a whole could be a little dull, I have found that a lot of their items provide good backdrops for my handmade and more personalized projects, such as these.



The pillow in the middle is made from a barkcloth fabric from reprodepot and stuffed with fiber fill. The chicken's mom made this for him; this was before I was a crafter myself. She sewed it and we filled it; I remember how intimidated I was initially, and how satisfying it was to complete these. I think it was one of those aha moments where I realized I could do something that I thought I had no talent in.



I just made these coasters last night. There is a layer of cotton batting in between two layers of fabric. The tricky thing about working with the Sparrow fabric is cutting and sewing the birds so they appear in exactly the right place!



Now I'm enjoying a cool glass of water on the new coasters...

"Little Odd Forest Coasters"

littleoddforest_coasters, originally uploaded by itsknotwood.

I found these on the Flickr site of one of my favorite blogs, It's (K)not Wood. This blog is devoted to anything and everything faux bois (fake wood). I actually did try to embroider my own faux bois many months ago, but it was too bloody boring for words. I might be willing to try it again on a small sized project though, like a coaster or pin-cushion.

Faux bois is one of my favorite aesthetics of late, and I actually have several variations of faux bois in my fabric stash. I think faux bois is very evocative, whether it makes you think of nature, or it makes you of some kind of Larry Clark basement photo shoot. Personally, it makes me think of both, and I like that.

These coasters are made by the littleoddforest, where they are available for purchase.