You know how one thing leads to another, right?  Well a couple of years ago after I bought my new Bernina Sewing Machine I happened to be in a fabric store and saw this pillow.  It was February and freezing cold, and the pillow  was so stinking cute it made me smile.  What was it you might ask?  It was a gnome pillow.  It was bright and obnoxious and the cutest thing I had scene in a long while.  I’ve said it before here on the blog I don’t do cute.  I don’t even like the word cute, and heaven forbid you come into my home and tell me how cute it is, I’m libel to deck you!  What was it about this pillow?  No, the question should be what is it with all the gnomes.  Come on, they are everywhere.  Well this pillow also had of course Christmas trees and a truck and it was huge, 36″.  It looked like a good challenge and It took me back to all the darling appliquéd clothes I made for my girls when they were little.  Having to reteach myself all these sewing skills that I had lost after 25 years of not lifting a sewing machine presser foot, I decided to buy the pattern.  The nice clerk says to me oh we have a fabric bundle for it if you’re interested.  Hmm, could I really make something so obnoxious?  Well that is part of the charm so I said sure I’ll take that too.

Fast forward almost 2 years and a billion projects later, right before Thanksgiving I take this project out of the drawer.  I hate having undone projects.  So I am determined to figure out this pillow.  I read thru the directions, go buy the extraneous stuff required to complete the project and come home with enthusiasm and determination.  I open the bag of fabrics all neatly folded and tied up with a bow!  Some pieces are like 3″ square.  I trace all the pattern pieces on to parchment paper as recommended and start cutting and fitting all the small pieces of material to the fabric.  Yeah, things like shoes, noses, pants, beards and hats.  Then there were the trees and don’t forget the truck oh and the Tree Farm written on the truck.  The sleds and the lanterns, oh my!  Lets not forget the banner with 17 little triangles I could go on but 67 pieces later they were all cut out, positioned and ready to sew onto the main fabric.  Oh then of course you have to do a decorative stitch around each piece of fabric.  This is a three day pillow!!! One day to cut, one day to piece and one day to do your decorative stitching, and free motion quilting (which I had never done before).  When it was all done it was far from perfect, I learned a lot, and tried to figure out who was going to get this imperfect work of ART!  After much thought and deliberation I decided it would go to Florida.  

Surely this would make Florida laugh and they have the biggest sectional known to man.  Well received when it arrived, I got a phone call before they opened it and got the response I was hoping for but my son in law layed claim to the pillow saying it was his life story all wrapped up in a crazy gnome pillow!  After all he does own a dump truck!  Ok you can’t get better than that.

Then I turned around and did it all again!  I got to thinking about what it could look like with better fabrics.  Linen grounding fabric and the truck in velveteen, Real wool pants, furry beards and lanterns made from faux leather and shoes of real ultra suede.  I decided to reduce the pattern by 15% to make it a more manageable size for a queen size bed.  I selected colors that were more my style and I used fabric that was in my stash.  The only thing I had to buy was the fabric for the beards and the wool for the pants.

Taking the things I learned from the first pillow I created something that was fun but something I could work with.  After 3 days time I threw it on our bed with a beautiful red quilt I picked up at our Assistance League Omaha Thrift Shop and called it a day.  It was fine, and fun and once I got a couple of wreaths and a small tree in there this room was looking like Christmas.  Then I took a walk thru Pottery Barn.  Oh S___.  I’m sunk.  They had a quilt that I had seen online but not in person.  I just knew it would look great with the gnome pillow.  Because you know this is very important!!!  I left PB saying to myself no, you don’t need this.  I got in the car and headed home but then it kept calling me.  

I turned the car around and drove back for the quilt.  I didn’t buy the shams because they just had Euros but I knew I had some linen at home that would work and I could whip some shams up.  Because you know it’s December and I have nothing else to do!!!  So that’s what I did.  I can now say I can put a fork in the Christmas bedroom and walk away content.  

I know my plates should come down over the bed for perfection but you know what perfection is overrated.  I do not want to put anymore nails in that wall since I just redid that room this year.  And of course the new quilt will have to be retired sometime this winter. 

 Don’t ask what the husband response was.  A lot of eye rolling and I’m sure there was some under the breath commenting going on.  Oh well such is life living with me!

Am I crazy or is this so stinkin’ cute?

Thanks for stopping 

Shelley