Monday, September 17, 2012

A Couple Small Finishes

I made this little hooked piece from a kit I bought from Ali Strebel when she taught a workshop for our guild a month or two ago. After thinking about how to finish it, I decided to make it a pillow with proddy fringe and I like the way it turned out.


Usually when I make a pillow, I sew all around the outside edge leaving an opening so it can be stuffed. Then I sew the opening closed by hand. However, I've learned that the seam allowance I  take when hand sewing isn't always accurate, and then the piece gets skewed a bit.  Now I usually piece the back of the pillow and leave an opening in that. Then I sew completely around the outside edge - in this case it was 1/2" from the last row of hooking. I turn the pillow inside out - then stuff it and sew the opening on the backing fabric closed. 



I added two rows of proddy fringe in the 1/2" seam allowance - for the back row I used all brown fabric, and on the front row I alternated between brown, blue and red.



I do like the way it turned out, but it sure did use a LOT of my wool fabric! I think I used more fabric for the fringe than I did to do the actual hooking! Can't imagine how much would be used if an entire rug was prodded! I don't think I'll do this finish very often just because of that reason. Oh, and one more piece of information - I tried to use my rug hook to bring the fringe through the linen backing, but it kept pulling the white polyfil out - so I ended up using a hemostat instead and it worked wonderfully!


Another project I recently finished was turning all my little hooked pieces into tiny pillows. 


Here they are displayed on my coffee table in an old sifter. 

The Utah Hook-In was held over the weekend. I write the blog for the Guild, so if you would like to see some of the rugs that were on display there, you can check it out here.

6 comments:

Woolly Mammoth Woolens said...

Love your little pillows, especially the colors!

annie said...

love your things!

Janet O. said...

Your big pillow is very fun, but you know me--the minis steal my heart!!

Ann said...

Love all your finishes - very nice. I like the idea of displaying all your smaller pieces together, it sure makes a beautiful statement. ~Ann

jody said...

oh my gosh you have been getting alot done! love how they all came out and they look great all together! enjoy your day gayle!

The Wool Cupboard said...

Gayle, Your little pillows are beautiful...love the colors you have chosen!

Hugs,
Linda