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So this project is a baby pillow for a newborn. His initials are "VSF" and I plan to have this cute dolphin and whale design with each letter going in a diagonal across the pillow.

Pattern: https://www.etsy.com/listing/546177058/ ... phabet-pdf" target="_blank" target="_blank
18ct Anne Cloth Pillow Sham: https://store.stoneycreek.com/prefinish ... 28232.aspx" target="_blank" target="_blank
-----(does not come with pattern)
9" Pillow Insert: https://store.stoneycreek.com/pine-moun ... 12605.aspx" target="_blank" target="_blank

This part is copied over from my "omg what do I do" thread on the General page:
So I've encountered my first roadblock which means possibly lots of hand holding the fabric rather than a proper Q-Snap or hoop. So, by "pre-finished" they really mean pre-finished. In other words, if you don't know what a pillow sham is, it goes over a pillow (okay obvious so... what's the problem?). A pillow sham's back side has overlapping fabric to hold the pillow inside. One half of the fabric will cover say, 50% width, and the other half below (or on top, your pick) will cover 75% width going the opposite direction.

So this means I get to hold the flaps open while I stitch which means... two handed stitching. Not my favorite. It is just loose enough in-between the two layers (where the pillow would reside) that I can almost slide the needle in and out on one side, but honestly that might actually make me go even slower stitching over 1.

First impressions:

1) It's a bit smaller than I envisioned. Okay, well bright side, it's for a baby, so a small pillow makes sense.
2) The 9" pillow Stoney Creek recommends to come with it is... flatter than I expected. Since the edges are machine finished, I'm not comfortable ripping it open and stuffing it a little extra for that tight poof.
3) Happily, the yellow backing fabric is no where near the eye sore I feared it would be.
4) The piping is really clean. A good bonus to me.

I'm currently counting out to make sure I have 90x90, as you see from the pins, I'm only 30 in (I keep getting distracted). Also, enjoy my adorable hedgehog pincushion that I spent way too much money on when my tomato broke and leaked everywhere. I had so many pins I got fancy.


First "hmm" moment. The listing says it's a 5x5" stitching area. As you see, it's slightly less. However, measuring the opposite direction did yield almost exactly 5", if not slightly more by a row. I'm sure I can work with a row or two off.


Bright and sunny, but not an eyesore. Most westerners would say the flower is probably a hibiscus (one could claim the middle is a stamen). However, after months of staring and comparing kimono flowers and stylized patterns to determine seasonality (I practice kitsuke (the art of dressing in kimono)), to me it really appears to be a Sakura flower (5 petals, has a divet in the middle). But It's not really one or the other, so who cares? I thought it was more of a joke on myself that I've been staring at kimono so much that my mind automatically compares it to their selection of flowers.


Pillow is a bit flat as I've mentioned. I've also had to trim the finishing off the edges- all four corners had thread dangling. I fray-checked all four corners. Listing claims it's muslin. I'm sort of fabric deaf, so I couldn't really say one way or the other.



After careful counting, I'm happy to say it's exactly 90x90 despite the seemingly 1/8th of an inch off set.

I'll just say right up front: I'm in awe of the final shot of the pins (oh, and love the hog, btw).
What a lot of interesting information. As this is for an infant, I don't see the flatness of the pillow a bad thing at all. It'll do the necessary, like propping Small Person up in his/her pram when older and such. That's even presuming that Parental Unit allows what will be gorgeous to even be USED!! Oh, and I like that bright yellow backing. You have the summer sun to make it look perfect.

This looks like an adventure. For some reason, I would have thought that the backing would either have been separate or attached in a way that you could stitch normally though I can't picture how that would be. Are there instructions or hints with it? What you describe will work, I'm sure, it will be a bit cumbersome I would imagine, until you develop a rhythm or method that works for you.

Looking forward to seeing your updates!

Carole

I'm with Carole, not sure how I would like stitching on that the way it is already finished off--would make the stitching very tedious. Looks like you have a good start with planning it all out though, and I do look forward to seeing your update on this!!

Serinde wrote:I'll just say right up front: I'm in awe of the final shot of the pins (oh, and love the hog, btw).
What a lot of interesting information. As this is for an infant, I don't see the flatness of the pillow a bad thing at all. It'll do the necessary, like propping Small Person up in his/her pram when older and such. That's even presuming that Parental Unit allows what will be gorgeous to even be USED!! Oh, and I like that bright yellow backing. You have the summer sun to make it look perfect.

I'm pretty anal retentive like that. And of course, I'm taking a picture, so of course it has to be pretty!

rcperryls wrote:This looks like an adventure. For some reason, I would have thought that the backing would either have been separate or attached in a way that you could stitch normally though I can't picture how that would be. Are there instructions or hints with it? What you describe will work, I'm sure, it will be a bit cumbersome I would imagine, until you develop a rhythm or method that works for you.

Looking forward to seeing your updates!

Carole

Well I mean it did say pre-finished, I guess the completeness of it just didn't occur to me you know? And no, not a single instruction came with it. It just came with a flyer for collecting online exclusive halloween patterns OR stitch one of them free for the next nine months.

karen4bells wrote:I'm with Carole, not sure how I would like stitching on that the way it is already finished off--would make the stitching very tedious. Looks like you have a good start with planning it all out though, and I do look forward to seeing your update on this!!

Me too, I'm positive it will be tedious!

WOW the prep for this gorgeously cute design is totally amazing. Thanks for sharing all the how to do info.

Incidentally pillows for babies are generally very 'thin` so as to keep the spine straight.

Squirrel wrote:WOW the prep for this gorgeously cute design is totally amazing. Thanks for sharing all the how to do info.

Incidentally pillows for babies are generally very 'thin` so as not to keep the spine straight.

See, I'm just not a font of knowledge where babies are concerned, so I feel better about this. Incidentally however, this is not marketed as a baby project. The happy resolution is that I've chosen to use it for such a person that it works in my favor.

So as I've joked so often over the years (in self deprecating humor), I'm not exactly stellar with math. Honestly barely passed Trig in high school. But you'd at least think I could find the middle and space them our evenly, right?



@Carole, so they'll fit, I just have to learn how to count again. You know, maybe repeat Pre-K.

You and me. And this is an elegant illustration of why prep can be so vital...!

Serinde wrote:You and me. And this is an elegant illustration of why prep can be so vital...!

and me too. My father who expected good grades from his daughters would say "With not much work you should get at least a B, with work an A, and if Carole passes her math classes we'll be very happy"

Carole

Looking forward to following this!

rcperryls wrote:

Serinde wrote:You and me. And this is an elegant illustration of why prep can be so vital...!

and me too. My father who expected good grades from his daughters would say "With not much work you should get at least a B, with work an A, and if Carole passes her math classes we'll be very happy"

Carole

Mabel Figworthy wrote:Looking forward to following this!

One down! This took me an embarrassing 3 hours and 22 minutes because I had to stitch with both hands and flip it inside out (at least partially) every start and finish.

How you end up having to hold it:


One letter done:


Up close:


And you know me, I gotta show my back!

I am very impressed that it only took 3+ hours to stitch. Going to be perfectly adorable! Great progress!!!

Carole

He's a gorgeous whale! And I know from experience how difficult it is to stitch on anything already sewn up, so I think you did really well to get it done so quickly and neatly!

That's going to be terrific! Thar she blows!

Started letter F! Unfortunately I have to monkey my way around the sham to make it work. My left arm ends up curled almost in a full 3/4 box shape and my fingers on the same hand are holding the back open. Yikes!

Yes, you have to be a bit of a contortionist to stitch this sort of thing - good luck! (And don't strain or twist anything )

Mabel Figworthy wrote:Yes, you have to be a bit of a contortionist to stitch this sort of thing - good luck! (And don't strain or twist anything )

I agree! I am truly impressed by your fortitude with this. I'm not sure I would have stuck with it!

Carole

Great update, Gabrielle. Your stitching (and the back) looks very neat in spite of having to stitch in an awkward way.

poppy wrote:Great update, Gabrielle. Your stitching (and the back) looks very neat in spite of having to stitch in an awkward way.

I absolutely agree!! Looks so very pretty!!