Some people ask that I use certain colors in their Holding Pillows. I don’t mind getting input on the colors, after all, how comforting is a pillow if you don’t like the colors.
But I do want to come up with the image that I stitch in the circle as I work on the pillow. Because it’s when I’m working on the pillow that the idea comes to me. And that part is important to me. I see it as part of the creative process, what makes the pillow unique.
Joanne wanted a black and gold Holding Pillow because it’s going to a Purdue Graduate.
As I worked on the pillow I couldn’t help but think of a crescent moon, black with a sliver of gold. And since it’s going to a recent graduate, I felt the waxing moon was appropriate.
I made Waxing Moon yesterday, just sewing up the bottom this morning before starting on another pillow.
Linda actually sent me two of her favorite old corduroy shirts to use in a Holding Pillow for her. One was burgundy, the other beige.
I started with the burgundy and there on my work table was a strip of woven fabric that I’d put aside to use in a pillow. It was just right.
That and Linda’s shirt guided the colors in the rest of the pillow. And when I got done with the top of it, I kept seeing one of the low twisted trees that grow out of a crack in a rock in a hot windy place.
So I stitched my version of that tree with the sun rising behind it. A determined fire tree, passionately aglow.
One of the other things that Linda sent me was a bunch of wool roving. She had it for a long time and hadn’t used it so she asked me if I would stuff her pillow with it.
What a joy that was. It felt so good on my hands and gave the pillow a springy density.
