Welcome to Project Knitway or should I say Project Renottaway? It's my cyberspace place to post my favorite things...thoughts about family and creativity and design. One of my favorite things is making stuff, specifically clothing and accessories from fiber and metal. So you'll see a lot about that here. I also love spending time with my family, so there will be a bit about that too. When I'm not with my family or in my studio, I am most likely at nextdoor, my store. I have always had a store ever since I was a young woman. I started with a weaving store called the niddy noddy in Waukesha eons ago. I ended with nextdoor in Brookfield. It's my dream store filled with great clothing, especially denim. Really nice women work and shop there, it's a fun place to be. You can find us there every day and online at www.shopatnextdoor.com So come for a visit here and there.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Pillow Talk

I love pillows! Anytime I feel the need to redecorate, the first thing I do is change out my pillows. Sometimes I buy them, but most of the time I make them. It's creative and cost effective, all you need is a few yards of fabric and a bag of stuffing. Lately I have been creating my own "fabric" by adding fabric photos printed on my ink jet printer (refer back to my last blog called Jet Set). It's simple and so much fun. You can print any image onto a piece of fabric and stitch it down to a background piece. Here are a few examples.
I did these for Baby AJ's room. I was thinking how much fun it
would be to scan one of his first drawings and make it into a pillow. 

Bobcat was done for a friend in Tucson, who took this photo of a bobcat out in her garden.

Cat Nap for my friend Ann.

Leaves of Grass...a fabric photo of a scanned leaf image
appliquéd down with stitching continuing the design.

I'm a big believer in simplicity when it comes to making things and this includes pillows. I like envelope pillows because you can remove the cover from the pillow insert easily. No zippers or closures are required, yet the end result is very professional. In my next blog I'll show you step by step how to do this. 

Stay tuned, stick to your knitting and make something today!

Renotta