Hi pillowma, It would be fun to come to your house and look at all the interesting furniture, so many neat chairs too. I love all your pillows but the girl with mandoline is my favorite.

Thanks jterrilynn,

I posted this on another thread, 'my pillow lamp'
I call it 'the secret'...I wanted to show a close-up of the red elephant material, the saddle on the elephant is the color of the antique satin on the drapes.
I love the girl with the mandoline as well, and made an
enlargement of it, I'll try and post it later.

{{!gwi}}

here's the best I could do -- with
enlarging the girl with the mandoline.

{{!gwi}}

pillowmama: I so enjoy seeing your latest projects. Your creativity is amazing and your home is one of the most welcoming and unique I've ever seen. It is a testament to your vision and creativity and a perfect example of decorating with things that you love rather than following trends. You have achieved that balance of layering without looking cluttered.

Please tell me more about your pillows. Did you make them yourself out of needlepoint samplers? Do tell.

I most enjoy seeing how you decorate with the Hummels and have a couple of them on most of your tablescapes instead of tucked away in a curio cabinet. I have two from my German grandma plus one more I bought a few years ago. I would enjoy one day having more of a collection like yours.

Thank you Val, you're very sweet.
I buy the tapestries and needlepoints on ebay
and then make pillows. I bought six neeplepoints
and one tapestry recently and made pillows from them.
I'm working on my last pillow that is two hummels,
a boy and girl. I am putting them together on the same
pillow. I guess you could say that I decorate around my pillows.:)

I wonder if there are any other hummel collectors on this forum, I try to showcase a couple in each room. I also
try not to overdo a good thing with too many Hummels.
We actually made the two living room curios to 'tuck
away' all the Hummels.

I had to laugh at my big smile looking at your beautiful pillows. Your decor is so Victorian, so eclectic, and so interesting I examined each photo by enlarging my screen!

In the 7th photo down, I absolutely love the flows of the drapes you've got over your elephant fabric. How did you do that? It goes so well with the tassle detail on your chair! :)

How fun. People who worry about eclectic, casual, and arranged should take a lesson in a single phrase of yours: "They make me happy."

You're fabulous.

Thank you CEFreeman, I just couldn't get good shots of the
window treatments. It's difficult shooting into the bright window. I'll give it another try this weekend with hubby's
help, he's better at taking photo's than I am.

I love jabots, but I like them to look casual, rather than
formal...jabots are easy to make, the festoons take a little finessing. We cut a pattern from scrap material, and then pleated it up and tacked it to a board to see if we liked it before we cut the real material. Of course I threw
out the pattern, so next time we make the festoons we'll
be re-inventing the wheel again!
Here is a close-up of the living room treatment...it is eleven feet wide, so we made five festoons, and four small jabots in between the festoons. On the dining room door that is six foot wide, we made three festoons and two small jabots in between the festoons.

When I bought this bronze fabric, I bought 14 yards,
that was all my fabric guys had, so we were lucky to
get out the drapes for the living room. All the jabots
are self lined, the festoons and drapes are lined with
a cream colored lining.

Hi, your all the pillows are nice but girl with the mandoline one is very very beautiful....

Thank you Ana. :)
CEFreeman, I found a pic of the festoon pattern we made.
Hubby clamped a piece of wood to the door frame.
We cut a sample piece of fabric and measured it out to
the size we needed. The ends are cut out (behind the tacks)
so that it is not bulky when it's made.
after finessing the shape, we take it down (using it for a pattern) and cut the fabric and lining.
After sewing the liner to the festoon, again it is tacked up on the wood, then the pleats are hand sewn in...the tacks are then removed and it's ready to hang.