Family Flower Pillow

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Many, many months ago I ran across this image on Pinterest:

i'm going to make these pillows as Christmas gifts for the grandparents!
Keepsake Hug Pillow
"This is a great gift idea for grandparents", I thought to myself and I dutifully pinned it onto my craft ideas board. Perfect, because it can involve our entire family, because I have a giant stash of fabric and perfect because the final gift folds in a small envelope I can ship across the country. I don't however have a fancy sewing machine that would make nice neat letters and numbers, and as time went by I kept coming up with new ways to design our hand print pillows.  
 
We traced our hands onto a thick cardboard folder.  I cut them out and then traced them onto Wunder Under.  Ivory pealed he paper backing off of the fabric hand prints and I ironed them into place.  While I sewed one, Sylvan paraded the other two around the house. 


Each of our hands a single petal of a flower.


Red, orange and yellow thread added a little detail. 


And there they are: three 14" square pillowcases ready to folded and slipped into envelopes.  


This Family Flower Pillow stayed with us.  

It was my prototype, so some of the stitched details are a little off and the corduroys has a little less luster than the fabric I chose for the grandparents.  Sylvan kneels next to it on the couch, shouts: "Five!", and slaps the hand prints.

With each time the fabric passed under my sewing needle, each spin the hand prints took as first red, then orange and yellow lines wove across the palms I couldn't help but think of flowers and families, and families and flowers..  and then that families are a little bit like flowers... we all bloom and grow together. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 26, 2012 at 6:55 PM

    I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pillow cover!!!!!
    Mama/Omama

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heidi WestDecember 26, 2012 at 7:46 PM

      I am glad you do! I hope you have a pillow laying around that you can fit into the pillow case. The colors are going to look great on your sofa.

      Delete
  2. CarolDecember 26, 2012 at 9:32 PM

    I love our pillow and it is MUCH prettier than the one that inspired you. I'm glad you told how the kids were involved. This is a very special gift.

    ReplyDelete

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