Paris

I designed and stitched this ring-bearer's pillow for someone--Hi, Pam!--I knew in junior high and high school and reconnected with on facebook. She was engaged (and is now married) to a man with the last name "Paris," hence the saying she came up with. The border I adapted from a pattern I bought at some point and had lying around. (When I locate the pattern, I'll update the post to give the designer full credit.)  I believe I stitched the front on 28-count evenweave, but it might be 32-. The green ribbon in the lower right corner is for attaching the rings; I made the ribbon easy to remove so that after the wedding the marrieds could have a regular ol' pillow. 

 

The fabric is possibly the most exciting design element. One day last summer when my mom was visiting, we took the ferry to Vashon Island, which is in the Puget Sound. In the small town center is the most amazing quilting store--the Island Quilter--with more fabric than I have ever seen in one place (outside of those stores in NYC that have floor-to-ceiling fabric and very narrow pathways through which to walk). It took me about an hour to find the right pattern, but I'm really happy with what I chose. It hits all the right notes: my friend loves the beach, and this fabric is vaguely Hawaiian; the colors repeat those I used on the pillow front; and green is predominant, a nice repetition of the colors of the bridesmaids' dresses. 

Since she was visiting, my mom was kind enough to straight-stitch the pillow. She's a far more experienced sewer than I am, and since this was for someone's wedding I didn't want to risk having the design off-center. I stuffed the pillow and did the hand-stitching to close it up (you can see that bit in the photo below--it contrasts sharply with my mom's clean lines), and voilà! a pillow.