Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Pillows - and my new scanner

As some of you have read - I got a new photo scanner a little while back - and I've been making good use of it. I am scanning 35 years worth of family photos - and when that is done - I have hundreds of old family photos - from Don's family and my family - old B&W photos from long ago.

It has been such fun to see all the old photos going by on the scanner. I started with when we were first married - oh those long years ago - and so far I am up to when our kids were in Jr. High and High School. What a fun trip it has been. Along the way I've scanned the photos of crafts I have done over the years - and today I thought I'd share with you some of the needlepoint pillows I've made. I used to have a business making hand made dolls, doll clothes, stuffed animals and needlepoint pillows. The rancher's wives where we lived loved to have parties at their homes - like tupperware parties - except that I'd bring my items for sale and they would order. Then I'd go home and work like crazy to get the orders completed before the next party.

Christmas pillows were very popular - in different colors for different families -
to match their christmas decor . . .




Santa has a big fuzzy beard - and the one was often changed to reflect a little girl - instead of the train running around the edge there were dollies and girlie things . . .


I made samplers - the ladies picked the things to go in the sampler - this one was for someone's mother and had the things she was involved in - orchestra, swimming, biking, scuba diving etc.


This holiday sampler could be personalized too.


Special pillows for anniversaries were a favorite . . .

The teddy bears were quite popular - and always
available in special colors, with ribons to match . . .


I really liked the holiday teddy bear . . .


And a cute pink one for a little girl's room . . .

The stitching was done on brown needlepoint canvas, with the canvas left unstitched for the background, giving a country feel to the pillows. The floss was regular embroidery floss, satin floss and metallic floss, depending on the pillow. The ruffles were moire' satin. and sometimes the pillows had a double ruffle, lace and then moire' satin. I really enjoyed making them and probably made 100 or more. I still have the patterns, but never made a pillow for our house. I made a lavender teddy bear for our youngest daughter, her room was all lavender when she was in Jr. High and High School.

16 comments:

Barb said...

What wonderful pillows....

Jocelyn said...

Great pillows!

Anonymous said...

WOW...What beautiful pillows!! What a lot of work!!
Love,
Marilyn
xxoo

Lili said...

I love that sampler one and the idea to use the brown canvas. Why is it you never ever get one for yourself though. I can't even begin to imagine making 100 of them. I have only made 2 needlepoints ever. (And if the truth be told, I have an unfinished counted cross-stitch I started about 9 years ago, right before our oldest grandson was born, I don't think he would want it for his room anymore though!) ~Lili

Pat said...

You sure made beautiful items and I can understand why people loved to buy them!

Small City Scenes said...

My oh my you were a busy gal. I used to like to embroidery and used to embroider on denim jackets. Back in the day ya know. MB

Unknown said...

I do think you are romantic at heart...love those pillows.
Regarding the photos, I went on facebook with my photos for my family and now my cousins, and aunts and uncles are connected because of the photos.
I am sure that like me, you look at some and remember it like yesterday...It's a lovely trip, and you have so much to be thankful for because of all the health issues of the past year.

Are your ready for the Olympics? Lots of handwork for the next couple of weeks is in the plan here.

Sharon T in Napa said...

I love your pillow photos! I just got back the DVD from Costco containing old family vacation slides. Even one of me about 18 months old on a pony.,,,LOL! Now they are uploaded into my computer so it is such a treat when one of these old photos come up on my slide show screen saver.
I'm thinking of starting a hand stitching group that can meet once a month. Would you be interested?

Crispy said...

Goodness a lot of work went into those beautiful pillows. You going to make one for yourself now? LOL

Crispy

Micki said...

These pillows are just amazing! I love to make pillows too, and recently made a few for our bed in our bedroom.
Micki

Dena said...

Your hand work in your pillows is beautiful. I'm sure they were treasured by the recipients.

The Quintessential Magpie said...

What neat pillows, and congrats on your new scanner. I need one, too!

XO,

Sheila :-)

Heike said...

Those are gorgeous :).

Purple Pam said...

It appears that you are having lots of fun with your photos. Those pillows are darling.

Sunny said...

whew! I can see you put alot of work into them and they are very beautiful!

JoyceAnn said...

You're so talented , JoAnn. The pillows are wonderful , glad you shared them with us.

~ Blessings ~