Royal Bee Pillow

One of my very first posts described my "current projects" (which, of course, are less than half of the projects I ever end up working on at any given time).   I have made significant headway on the throw pillows for our new couch though.  In fact, I have probably made too many already!  Though I have two more (embroidered G's on a navy field) in the works. 

 The centerpiece is a pillow with a cross-stitched Napoleonic Royal Bee in navy blue on an ivory field.  I have seen a similar motif screen printed a bunch but I have seen much (if any) embroidered and I really love the texture of embroidery - even if it just cross-stitch.  I couldn't find a free bee pattern that I liked a whole bunch so I printed the picture of a queen bee from ClipArt ETC  to use as the inspiration for my pattern.  I traced the pattern onto graph paper, getting rid of a lot of the detail in some places and adding more stripes and different wing patterns in others, so that the pattern would be easier to stitch.  I only did half of the bee this way and then filled in the other half so that I would have a symmetric pattern.  I used a crown from this pattern.   The wreath was modified from this pattern and if I could find what I drew, I would share it with you.



I then cut the embroidered piece in a circle and trimmed it with a piece of lipped, braided cord.  I cut a corresponding (slightly smaller) hole in the rectangle of fabric that would make up the front of the pillow and then stitched the pieces together.  The pillow is trimmed with the same cord and the back has an envelope opening.

The square pillows are a navy and cream herring bone with the same braided cord.  The bolsters have a navy, blue, and cream stripe, with navy caps, and, of course, the same cord.  I really liked a tutorial I found for using pleats for the cap ends of the bolsters so I tried this, finishing of with frog tassels that match the braided cord.

I am super happy with how everything turned out, though there is really no room to sit on the couch any more!  Now I have plans for pillows for almost every soft surface in my house!

This project is linked to at these great parties.