Stitching with a Shimmy

The pillow in question

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have a phobia about REALLY finishing needlework. I’m working on it. But I’m always terrified (and it really is terror) that I’m going to ruin a piece of stitching that I’ve spent hours and hours working on. If it entails more than just lacing it to a back and sticking it in a frame, I freeze.

But I’m taking it gently. I have several pillow designs that I want to release this year. They’re going to include finishing instructions as well as the needlework design. (There, I said it!) So I’ve been trying to get myself to finish the pillows I have half finished around the studio so that I can do it.

I started with this candlewicking piece. I got the kit at a garage sale for about 25¢. The stitching was finished in about a week other than the three months I spent trying to find enough thread that matched for FOUR knots after I ran out. Candlewicking thread is NOT all the same. Ick. But I found it, finished the stitching three years ago and put it in my “Finished Objects to Finish box.” (As usual, click the photos to enlarge for more detail!)

The "scary" zipper... Not so scary after all!

Last week I dug out my Singer Sewing for the home book that my heart-sister the former interior stitcher recommended, teased the instructions out of three different areas in said book (not the best organized, but really good instruction!) and to paraphrase Nike, “just did it.” I’m pleased. I’m not completely happy with the zipper, which I wanted because we always have pets and cats like to bring up hairballs right where you don’t want them: In other words, the pillow cover NEEDS to be washable! But it’s more than serviceable. I’ve made a pillow form for the crazy quilted pillow I posted about ages ago, and now I just need to attack it with the black backing, black zipper and the same book. I figure by the time I get to the models, I’ll have enough stitched that I’m not QUITE so terrified any more.