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.