BlueSusan Makes Guest Post

Hi there, I'm Sarah, visiting you today from BlueSusan Makes.  How fun to be invited to guest post for Laurel while she is busy caring for little Baby J.  Laurel is an old college friend of mine and for all of you who only know her in the world of blogs, she is just as great and genuine in real life.  I only wish I lived closer to her.  I love to make things and "BlueSusan Makes" is my place to show off the things I make for my family and home, or to sell at seasonal craft fairs.

Today I'm showing off a pillow I made recently.  It was originally intended to be made as a Valentine's day accent inspired by this pillow...but I plan on leaving it out all year long.   It reminds me a bit of a beaded door curtain.

A couple of weeks ago I got new gray couches and it looks great on them...but a little lonely. So I grabbed some pillows from my kitchen bench and some fabric from my stash to experiment with colors.

How about a little turquoise?

Or maybe some Orange?? 

Or maybe turquoise and orange...

Okay, enough playing with pillow colors! Here's a quick peek into how I made my "Beaded Door Curtain" pillow.  I used my Quick Pillow Cover Tutorial and appliqued felt circles to the front.

  

For a 16" inch finished pillow I started with a long rectangle 17" X 40".  (a 1/2 yard of fabric will be just enough). I hemmed each short edge. Then found the center and drew a line along it.  Next I drew the rest of the lines 2 1/4 inches away from the center line (3 on each side, 7 lines altogether). For the felt circles I used 28 - 2" circles, 20 - 1 3/8" circles, and 21 - 1" circles.  It took some rearranging to get them to all work out. Then I stitched them down making sure to leave 1/2 inch on the long edge for a seam allowance.

To finish the pillow I folded the hemmed edges into the center overlapping them about 4 1/2 inches and then stitched the side seams closed making an envelope closure.  For a more thorough explanation of the finishing process check out my tutorial HERE.

 Thanks for reading! Feel free to stop by BlueSusan Makes and say hello! And "Thank You"
 Laurel for the fun opportunity.  Have fun getting to know your newest little "duckling"!