New Burlap Heart Pillow - PINK!

I have another burlap project here!   First, I have to apologize for this lengthy post.  I'm not good at cutting down or packing light.  Please feel free to skim over this because, I just bet you all know how to make this!  But just in case - here we go!  

This is something I had been thinking about for a while but needed to get through the holidays first.  I have worked on several burlap projects and got to thinking - wonder if I could dye this stuff and have more color options?   Heck yea!  And I chose PINK for my first attempt.  

I bought the lightest cream-colored burlap I could find.  Don’t know why but I really wanted to do something pink!   Sooo – I decided on RIT Fuchsia dye.  I remember using RIT as a kid {eons ago} and it was so easy.  Still is! 

I followed the RIT instructions for a washing machine.  The longest cycle on my machine was for 12 minutes so I set a timer and before it could drain I would turn the dial back to the 12 minutes.  I did this twice, using cold water.  My husband hooked our machine up and just can’t understand why the hot water doesn’t work.   Duh?  All you lovely ladies out there with handyman husbands – I am so jealous!  Mine is a true “bull in a China shop” but I guess I will keep him!   He's lucky he's cute!

Ok- small problem.  I was a little impatient {surprise there!} and, even though I knew burlap would unravel in the washing machine, I had no idea just how much!  Wow, bet I lost about 5 – 6 inches off the width. {Grrr}  Next time I will loosely stitch the sides   Or try liquid fray check.  {You can see in the picture how much it unraveled}   If you don’t want to mess with that I would highly recommend using a piece at least one fourth wider than the size you want to work with.  Thankfully, my washing machine survived!  

Now – on to the pillow!  Whew – it took a while to get here and I will try to make this as short and sweet as possible!  {Big wink here}

 

Made 23 of these red burlap rosette puppies.  Yep, these guys get a little hairy looking...... actually really hairy looking.  But hey - that is so part of burlap charm.  {I did trim them up a bit.}  They were a little unruly and I'm so sorry I don't have a pic of that.  Next time.

I wanted a 14 x 14 inch finished pillow so I made a 16 x 16 pattern.  And cut it out!

  Saving this fringe for another project, another day!  Ha!  Always dreaming.......

Took a square piece of paper 8 x 8 inches, folded it in half, sketched out half a heart, then cut it out for my heart pattern.   {Kindergarten skills here guys}  Bingo!  I used this pattern to cut out the red felt  heart I was going to use for the base of my 23 rosette heart.

Arranged the flowers on the heart, and once I liked the way it looked I glued these babies onto the felt heart with Liquid Stitch.   

Since I had a little trouble with the large ric rac on my other pillow, I decided to make my own red burlap piping for this one.  Using a wooden yardstick I measured 2 inch diagonal strips on what was left of my 1/2 yard of red burlap.  These were shorter pieces than I would like because – well – that’s all I had!  

Cut out 5 strips and sewed them together at the ends.  Ironed the seams, folded the strip in half and loosely stitched it around cotton cording to make the burlap piping.  

Then, centered the heart on the pillow and sewed this lovely bunch of flowers onto the pink burlap pillow square, making sure to stitch through each flower to keep any of these guys from falling off.  {Sorry no picture because I know you know how to do this}   Now I was ready to finally finish!  Yay and more yay!!!  Pinned the cording in between the two pillow squares {with their right sides facing - but, yet again, I know you know how this goes}   Stitched around the pillow, leaving 5 inches open to turn it right side out.  Yea, that's larger than you normally like but I wanted to be sure my rose filled heart survived the turning out!

And here is my newest baby ready to all grow up!

  All grown up!

Well, it's not quite what I envisioned, but close.  I originally was thinking pink and black.  Maybe next time.?
Wish the final picture did the pillow justice..  I hope to get better at this soon!  .


There's a fun party going on now through April 30th 
check it out!

Now that I finally figured out how to link to the parties and put their link to my POST  and NOT just my blog, here they are in no particular order order:

The Shabby Nest, The Country Chic Cottage, Support Blog for Mom's of Boys, Leelou Blogs, Craftomaniac, My Romantic Home, I Heart Naptime, French Country Cottage, Tip Junkie, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Thrifty Decor Chick, Night Owl Crafting, Embellishing Life,  Fun To Craft

Quick easy and healthy dinner!

This is what we threw together for dinner last night.  What a tasty wrap it was!

For each wrap we used:

Tumaro's Low Carb Garden Vegetable Tortilla

{and use as much or as little as you like of the following}

Roasted Chicken from Costco  - or any ready roasted chicken

1 Tbs Fage Fat Free Greek Yogurt {might be good with Fat Free Ranch dressing}

1 Tbs On the Border Salsa {or your favorite}

Lettuce

1/4 Cup Grated Mexican Cheese

You can certainly add other things like chopped tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc,  but this was all we had.

Layer however you like and roll it up!  Hope you enjoy.

There other options - add things to the Greek yogurt.  I think we will mix in a little ground red pepper or hot sauce next time.

Black Burlap Heart Pillow

     So – this is what I made Saturday night.   

I started out ironing freezer paper onto muslin then printed my “happy hearts” onto the fabric.

Removed the freezer paper and ironed a piece of fabric fusion on the back of the muslin. 

  I sketched a heart around the message, determined the vertical center of the heart and folded along that line.  Then I cut out the heart.  Just like we all did in elementary school!  

Next, I made a 10” by 10” pattern out of posterboard I had on hand.  Used a little chalk to trace the pattern around the black burlap.  Then I cut those babies out

Loosely stitching the ric rac to one piece of the pillow was the biggest challenge for me.  This was a last minute decision and, as usual, the craft buzz adrenaline was going strong.  So, why plan ahead?  Next time, and there will be a next time, I will cut the size of the pillow so the ric rac will work well around the corners.  

Anyway, after I stitched the ribbon around the piece, I pinned the 2 pieces together and sewed all the way around, leaving a 2” opening.   Turned it right side out, ironed it, and eyeballed where to place the muslin heart.  {The tape measure was in another room and, remember, I wasn’t stopping for anything!!!}

 I removed the backing from the fabric fusion adhered to the heart.  Placed it on the pillow and ironed away!  Then I stuffed that cutie pie and stitched the opening closed.  I thought I would be finished here, but no….I had a few more ideas.  

I decided to loosely hand-stitch around the heart to give it a touch of shabbiness.  Then,  I happened to remember the red burlap rosettes I had made for my next pillow!  {Coming soon} Grabbed one and stitched it to this rascal.   There you go!  My new favorite pillow!

Check out this great party going on now through April 30th!

The Shabby Nest, The Country Chic Cottage, Support Blog for Mom's of Boys, Leelou Blogs, Craftomaniac, My Romantic Home, I Heart Naptime, French Country Cottage, Tip Junkie, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Thrifty Decor Chick, Night Owl Crafting, Embellishing Life,   kojodesigns

Love the Chicken Napoleon Avocado Sandwich

I happened upon a really interesting recipe by The Sweeter The Better     It's her post about the recipe Chicken Napoleon Avocado Sandwich.  Well, since I love some puff pastry with just about anything, I had to try this!

Just look at this and you will know what I am talking about!   Made it last night and - people - I am in LOVE with this.  Unfortunately, I love mayonaise {thanks Mom}  This mayo mixed with cayenne pepper is one of my favorite kicks.  Oh yea, already thinking bout the places I can go with other version of mayo with spices.  

This is one of my all time favorites!   Check It Out!  Let me know what you think.............