Pillow talk.

Happy Monday! It's a rainy day here in Toronto- the perfect kind of day to be stuck inside working on loads of projects. It's exactly what I am doing today! I had some corrections to make on a map of the world I am illustrating for a kids book. Though only a map, not too creative, it's my first piece to be published in a real life book and I'm as pleased as punch. I will break the news of it's release right here so stay tuned. 

My second project of the day that I've wrapped up is a Christmas present. Yes. I know it's April. I still have a few more presents to finish. I'm hoping to be finished with all of them before the midway point of the year. This is when I really should get started on Christmas 2011 gifts if I want to actually finish them on time. Sheesh. 

Anyway, the present that I finished today is for a pretty important girl- Leanna. Without Leanna I would never have survived a year of back and forth to Mississauga. Not only does she bubble over with positive attitude and is an awesome friend. She also has the car that takes me on my daily trip to the 9-5 office. She deserves an extra special present. So I made her a set of hand embroidered pillows!

The process of making these pillows was, in conception, quite easy. In actual manufacturing, it was much more time consuming. I changed my mind a million times on colours, design, and made mistakes. Lessons learned from this experience: first, the only way I can trust the embroidery floss colour codes is if I keep them organized. Second, is that if I'm blindly trusting the colour codes I should always embroider in the daylight. It would have saved me a bit of time in re-doing if I had followed these two. Third is that I should measure twice, cut once. Or design twice, do once in this instance. When I decided that the mustard yellow I was using was ruining everything it was after I had already added it to both pillow tops. Definitely should have thought that one out beforehand. At the end of the day (or three months in this case) I ended up with a couple of beautiful pillows that I think will look lovely in Leanna's home.  

The last stitch/ behind the scenes

I swear that my little lady Ramona thinks she is trying out for America's Next Top Kitty Model every time I get out the camera. I went to set up the pillows for a shot and look who decides to sneak her way in. I decided not to fight it and let her have her way. Tomorrow she goes in to be spayed and de-clawed (I know- "BOO", "HISS", but you haven't seen my hands or couch) and she is princess for the day.

Look at how she smiles with her eyes.

 

Here they are on a couch. This was my first experience making pillows and I would totally do it again. Only I'd do it better.

 

Finally, some catless shots. 

It's my Claire Monday today, and I was sent a job earlier this morning that is pretty amazing. I'm to sure if I can expose the project just yet, but I will say that it's for a charity ad and I get to paint a running shoe for it! The shoe is being couriered to me this afternoon. I'm hoping to get a few more items checked off my to do list before it arrives, so back to work for me. 


Hope you like the pillows!