I have all of those designs on my sewing machine. Do you have any friends with embroidery/sewing machines? If so, you can buy the disk and I'd bet they'll do them for you if you pick out the fabric and thread (I say this because I've done a few LOL)

I bought two Suzani pillows (hand embroidered) from Uzbekistan last year. Love them. They did not include the inserts (luckily I had down inserts that would fit). They came wrapped like this (about 6" x 4" x 4") and took 2 months to receive (I thought the packaging was really cool):

{{gwi:1539931}}

{{gwi:1539932}}

The person I bought them from was UZCRAFT777 on Ebay, but there are other sellers there also.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ebay Pillows

Exactly what is that "?????" on the package?

LOL It's a wax seal. Pretty cool, huh? The paper looked handmade. Very thick. Then it was wrapped with the twine and sealed with wax - to hold it on. The paper tucked in the front came all the way from Uzbekistan like that too. I love the pillows but the packaging was very interesting to me as well. fyi, The pillow covers were wrapped in tight plastic wrap underneath the paper.

Wow! Allison! Wow!! Those are gorgeous!

I was drooling over Suzani pillows while traveling a few weeks ago. They were just too expensive and the colors less vibrant than I would have liked. So I passed. These I will have to consider as the next decorating scheme begins to unfold!

The pillows are gorgeous. The wax seal, not so gorgeous. On my monitor it looks really disgusting!

I scanned in a picture from the magazine. Not the best quality, but I think you can get the idea. The pillows are in the corner of the purplish couch.

Thanks so much!

Here is a link that might be useful: Embroidered Pillows

oops,try this...

Here is a link that might be useful: pillows

I can't see them, bestyears...

Did you try looking in the back of the magazine for the source?

I have a brother disk with what looks like those fish on it. You use it in a brother capable embroidert nachine. A better quality one will do the larger pieces. Really, visit a sewing machine...they might know someone who does this for a fee. (It's not hard!)

Igloochic,
Really? As large as that? Can you point me to a link that would show designs?
Lynn

Here's a close-up view.

This looks more like crewel embroidery to me--and not so much like the type of embroidery my Bernina does. Anyway, I love these pillows, too. I have found some koi-print fabric, which could be used to create iron-ons to put onto pillow fronts to somewhat mimic this look. They wouldn't be embroidered, but they'd have the same design appeal. Another eBay seller sells cut-outs from koi-print fabric that are prepared with iron-on adhesive.

Here is a link that might be useful: Koi-print fabric

It does look like crewel but I know that there's a card (the one I used fit bernina's...I had to go a bit back to figure it out) and I think it's called "Asian Carp" I can't find it (it's probably a five or so year old disk) But! The big thing is that if you have a picture of a carp or fish, there are computer programs to scan them in and then a disk can be made to embrider it onto a pillow piece before the pillow is made. A high quality embroidery machine/sewing machine can do a patten as big as a 12" embroidery field (mine can anyhoo) so you can easily get a decent sized fish in a design (or two). Colors are completely up to you.

http://www.babylock.com/sewing/ellegante/

This is just a picture of a machine at work. There is equipment out there that scans a live pic and makes an embroidery design from it (like your grandson or something) or you can find a picture of a fish :) And it can be reproduced in an embroidery design. There are however patterns that include koi but you'd just need to buy the disk (ok and then the machine and learn to embroider...) Or visit a sewing shop and have them point you the right direction. There are LOTS of women who supliment their thread budget with work like this for very little.

amcofar -how did you do that?!?! Igloochic, thanks for the info on how embroidery machines work. I am a seamstress (clothing, home dec and quilting) myself, but have never gotten into embroidery. We actually have an embroidery shop right here in town that may be able to do something for me. I don't actually want koi -that was just an example.... Now I have to figure out what I do want!
Lynn

Sorry... one more post on this subject. On a whim, I decided to google the homeowners name, as listed in the magazine. And lo and behold a tel. number shows up! I'd really like to call her, because I am now obsessed with these pillows, but am hesitating because it feels like a breach of her privacy or something. What do you think?
Lynn

Lynn, Please don't take offense to my response.. but I absolutely say DO NOT CONTACT her via phone. It IS a breach of her privacy.. and while the information is available online, she didn't sign up for phone calls from strangers as the result of sharing her beautiful home with others. Yes, I know you can.. but you shouldn't. It would be MUCH more appropriate to contact the magazine that printed the article. Let them contact the homeowner (and share your contact information if you'd like).

I completely understand the obsession .. hahah I have been there before. In fact, I check back on this thread because I too have been looking for something similar (and I LOVE the koi). I just think it is that step too far and while it is surely a compliment to her tastes, it is not respectful of her privacy.

that's my 2 cents.

Hi funkyart,
I'm not offended at all -I knew in my heart it was a breach, but those pillows are screaming out for me to find them!!! Thanks for posting back -you are the voice of sanity that I needed!
Lynn

If her address shows up too (like on anywho.com), why don't you drop her a short note on a card? That's not as "in your face" as a phone call and less likely to frighten her. :D You could put in your email address so she could contact you that way as well.

Excellent idea Allison! See why I love this place....
thankyou!

Excellent idea Allison! See why I love this place....
thankyou!

Hey.. just checking back. Any progress in locating the source of these pillows?

Hi, thanks for checking, but no... I haven't heard back...
Lynn