Christmas Gift Pillows

Happy New Year!  It's been nearly a month since I posted- December was hectic- so I thought I'd better hit the reset button and calm myself down.  I took a break from nearly everything, and here I am today, ready for the new year.

For my first post of 2015 I've been chomping at the bit to feature some printed silk pillows I made as gifts.  These  were more fun than it's possible to put into words.  I brought them home just so I could photograph them under the Christmas tree, before sending off to their recipients.

The small center pillow was made from a greeting card which I received.  The moment I saw it I knew it had to become a pillow, so I scanned it and printed it onto silk, then had a blast deciding how to put it together and embellish it.  The people depicted on the card are actually the senders, one of whom did the amazing artwork.

There was a lot of trial and error, printing and scanning onto a variety of printable fabrics, before I finally got it  printed onto silk with a color saturation close enough to the card. 

Once I had a print I was satisfied with, I fused the silk to white lining, then fused that onto the pillow face fabric.

Then the fun began.  I rummaged with abandon, digging out treasured bits of trims before settling on this combination, which I hoped was just bad enough to be good.

It was a hit!

I used a similar technique to print one of my own photos onto silk- sunset over the Hudson River from Croton Point.  The color has been barely manipulated, just enough to enhance the turquoise and blue to blend with the beautiful watery silk strie face fabric.  A little braid frame echos the creamy sunset colors, and vibrant turquoise baby corduroy microcord completes the embellishment.

The baby corduroy came in handy for the Eiffel tower pillows too.

For a Paris lover, I ordered from Spoonflower these two Eiffel tower photos printed onto a cotton-silk blend, then backed the fabric with plush napped cotton sateen.

They're backed with a soft charcoal colored linen and welted with that turquoise microcord.

 

Also from Spoonflower I found a great Dr Who print- the Tardis in Van Gogh's "Starry Night."   One yard made two, one apiece for two Whovians.  A little more rummaging through the trim treasure bin yielded this black popcorn fringe that is just silly enough.

And there you have it, Christmas gift pillows!