My “Earth” Holding Pillow

I begin making each of my Holding Pillows by finding the fabric that will take up the bottom portion of it.

I walk through my studio, looking at the fabric in my shelves.  When I find a soild color with some kind of texture or weight to it, I consider it.  If it “feels” right to me, if it speaks to or sparks something inside of me then I pull it off the shelf.

After that I look for the fabric I’ll cut into strips for the top portion of the pillow.  When I find them, I arrange and rearrange them until I the look right to me.  Then I sew them together.

While I am doing that, if I don’t already know, the idea of the small stitched drawing inevitably reveals itself.

When I’ve sewn all the strips together and backed them with Interfacing, I do a quick sketch of the image I’ll stitch in the small circle.

It usually takes me at least two tries, sometimes more,  on my sewing machine to get the drawing right.  Once it’s done I sew the circle onto the front of the pillow.

I look for the pillow backing the same way I looked for the fabric on the front.  It about the color and pattern or texture and feeling.  I use a piece of interfacing on the backing to.  I want the pillow to have a density to it and the interfacing helps achieve that.

Next I sew the front of the pillow to the back leaving an opening at the bottom big enough for my hand to fit into.

After that I stuff the pillow. And when I think there is enough stuffing, I stuff it some more and some more.

When it’s so full I can barely pull the opening together, I pinch the two folded sides of the fabric together with my fingers and hand sew the opening.