St. Patrick's Day Pillow

Back in January I had an awesome idea to make a shamrock pillow for my sister in China, whose birthday is on St. Patrick's Day. My plans were lofty. Little did I know that I'd be ripping out stitches and taking multiple-day breaks before this project was done. 

I started out with these fabrics. Two were purchased remnant fabrics from Joann's and the other two were given to me by my grandma and a friend. I only spent $5.00 tops on this project. 

I cut out a pattern heart and quadrupled it. 

Then I pinned it into a shamrock and cut out the satin-y fabric for the back of the pillow. 

I did the same with the printed shamrock fabric, pinned it down...

...and sewed around the edges. 

At this point, I started making it a 3-D pillow, where I thought I was going to add a strip of canvas between the two shamrock panels. HA! That idea was only good as an idea. Canvas is really hard to manipulate, especially in the shape of a shamrock. I got through 1/4 of one side of the pillow and had to walk away out of fatigue and frustration. A few days later I went back and ripped out the stitches. 

A regular pillow is good too. 

I lined up the two panels as best I could. 

I flipped the inside out, pinned them, and sewed around the edges, leaving a gap in the bottom of the shamrock (or let's say crotch because that's what it looked like). 

In order for the shamrock to keep its form right-side out, I had to trim very closely to the outer seam. 

I flipped it right-side out and embroidered over the eight four-leaf clovers in the pattern on the front. Can you find them? This picture is pre-embroidery.

I stuffed it with some poly fil that I bought ages ago. 

I pinned up the crotch and hand-sewed it closed except for a little opening. 

The last step was figuring out the embroidery function on my sewing macine. 

I did several practice letters, and it still looks like kindergarten and/or etch-a-sketch writing. Oh well!

I attached the monogramed stem and sewed it all up. 

Here's the final product that I wrapped and shipped to China. 

It's not much like my original plan, but I think it's cute and personal. There are very few creative projects that I do that end up looking like my original plan. I think that's just part of creative endeavors. 

I skyped with her this morning, and she loved it. Here she is with the pillow in China: 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Happy Birthday, Angela!