Easty's Home: The Weekend Warrior

The softer side of my warrioress-ness:

After a fairly restless night getting used to my hyper house guest,

Manny!

Petey giving me the put-the-camera-down look

I finally tackled that throw pillow project I've been putting off for reasons including but not limited to: a) I needed an iron/ironing board, b) I needed at least two hours of quiet, and c) I am still a little afraid of my sewing machine. One time (at band camp) I was using the wrong thickness of needle to sew some denim - the machine is called the BabyLock Denim Pro II for goodness sake - and it broke off and hit me in the lip. It really hurt but my first thought was, "Thank God it wasn't my eye!"

Since then I've been wary of the thing and have always worn glasses/sunglasses/ safety goggles when putting it to use. I have a lot of meshugas, I know. As my dear Aunt Molly would say, I may be high maintenance but at least I'm self-maintaining. The whole point of me blogging this stuff is to document my learning process when it comes to DIY and overcoming my fears.

I get daily emails from Joss & Main, One Kings Lane, Fab, Beyond the Rack, My Habit and The Foundry, which are all websites listing daily designer sales up to 80% off retail value. I am addicted to scouring these sites but am extremely restrained when it comes to buying. Only on a rare occasion will a deal so fabulous catch my attention that I throw down the plastic for a piece of bargain basement gold. Most recently it was a Fab.com tea towel that will be framed to hang over the future breakfast nook...more on that later when it arrives in 10 to 22 days.

The most common pieces that I rummage through are linens and decor. Graphic prints are so hot right now and I love yellow and white chevron throw pillows, but not at the $65+ price tag! So I popped into the local fabric store when James was in town, found the very print I was looking for and a 16x16" pillow form to work with. That lovely yard of yellow and white goodness has been sitting on my sewing table for a month and I no longer had excuses a and b standing in my way. Time to kick the dogs outside and conquer c!

Sometimes I plan and plan and plan, other times I just jump right in. This time was a jumping plan. Without a pattern to work with (not that I would really know what to do with one if I had it) I started measuring and estimating that I would give myself an extra two inches on each side to work with.

20x20" square

There was some pinning, some ironing, a lot of stitching, peddling and some cussing, but before long it was starting to look like a pillow!

Now how do I finish this? That took the most time out of anything. After two broken needles and no blindness, I decided to hand stitched it shut and spot clean later, I guess.