Friday, November 28, 2014

Oh, Deer!

I'm at least the 5 millionth person to knock off this Anthropologie Blooming Reindeer but it's so cute I was willing to be unoriginal for the sake of being stylish:-)  This year I'm trying to dial my holiday decorating back a notch so it doesn't look like Rudolph puked up Christmas everywhere.

The construction was pretty straightforward...  if I hadn't needed to make 3 trips to Quilter's Way for things I kept forgetting I could have had this done in under 2 hours.  First, I Googled deer silhouettes and then picked the one I liked best.  I'm pretty lazy when it comes to the whole tracing and cutting thing so to streamline the process I put Steam a Seam 2 on the back of my Liberty fabric and then printed the silhouette on a full sheet label (I prefer the clear so you can fussy cut your image) which I then stuck to the right side of my Liberty fabric.  I carefully cut out the deer head, removed the label, and the ironed it on to my background.  There's a printable double sided fusible product called Print N Fuse that I'm going to try if I decide to make a bunch of these.  Even though Steam a Seam comes in sheets it does NOT go through the printer well...  trust me, I've tried!

At that point you don't actually have to sew it but I went with a button hole stitch around the applique.  I'm still in love with the 12wt. Aurifil and saw this as another perfect excuse to buy some more.  I used coordinating 50 wt. and fussed around a bit with the tension to get it perfect.  I love the extra dimension it adds!!!

I decided to get fancy and used this awesome zipper closure tutorial by S.O.T.A.K Handmade.  Since I was using an 18" pillow form I just sized everything up and then trimmed the back down to fit the front when I was finished.

Linking up to the fabulous Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.

Pillow Stats:
Finished quilt is 18" x 18"
Fabrics: June's Meadow by Liberty of London.  Steel Yarn Dyed Essex Linen by Robert Kaufman.
Thread: Aurifil in Red (2250) 12wt for top thread, 50wt in bobbin.

7 comments:

  1. Very clever! We have a deer hunting friend and I'm sure he would love something like this. Thanks for the good idea.

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  2. Perfect in your French General corner!

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  3. Maybe I'm living in a closet, but yours is the first I've seen, it's really pretty!

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  4. I know what you mean about decorating! Have been slowly trying to reverse the trend of cutesy elves and red nosed reindeers everywhere in my house. Love the stag...very winter stylish!

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  5. I love this - and the liberty is much cuter than the original - also love the label idea, hadn't thought of/heard of that!

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  6. Einfach nur schön ,die Farben gefallen mir besonders .
    Einen Hirsch habe ich auch schon appleziert .
    Fröhliche Weihnachten Karo

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