Every once in while I get the urge to sew and there’s no telling what I might create. I learned how to stitch when I was around seven years old and I still look forward to threading a needle when inspiration strikes. This year, a project I’ve wanted to do for a few years finally couldn’t stand sitting on my creative shelf any longer, so I made the time to get it done. In the 2008 issue of Holiday Crafts magazine (from the lovely people at Better Homes and Gardens), a pattern for a pear tree appliqué project was featured and my muse went crazy. It was a cute idea, but there were about a million things I wanted to change about the fabric and layout. All I needed was three years to work out all the details, (at least that’s what I tell myself to justify such ridiculous procrastination).
Now, I should point out that I rarely complete a project that follows the pattern perfectly. I always change, add, subtract, or combine some detail or another. Patterns are simply inspiration and I never let them create boundaries.
For my pear tree, I replaced all the fabric with wool felt to give it more rustic, folk art feel. My favorite type of wool felt is a 70/30 blend because it’s sturdy and comes in rich shades of color. I’m not a fan of floral prints, nor did I like the color scheme of the finished pattern project, so I replaced the colors with deeper reds, greens, and golds. The floral foo-foo ended up getting replaced with a woven wool plaid. As a result of the change in color scheme, I also had to rework all the thread choices as well. This sounds like a lot of work (and it is), but the result was worth all the trouble. While my finished piece has little resemblance to the inspiration, I love how it turned out:
One change I made to this project was the addition of leaves on the branches of the tree. It seemed only fitting seeing as I live in a place where there is no snow at Christmas and the trees remain green all year round. Plus, the leaves added some color and detail to a background that seemed a little bland. I pulled the leaf pattern from another shelved project and I’m thrilled the proportion turned out to be exactly right.
The outer border is another major change and I’m not sorry I did it! A few years ago, I found three yards of wool plaid fabric at a thrift store for $2. What a buy! The colors really compliment the pears and it packs a little punch of much needed blue. I also added corner pieces on the border that include more pears. This was done to break up the plaid and I think it ties the whole piece together. Inside each pear is a varnished wooden button straight from Northern Wisconsin. This little detail pays homage to my roots as the Northwoods hold a special place in my heart.
Each pear is hand stitched with an image and text relating to the Christmas carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” When I decided to make everything out of felt, I immediately hit a snag when I realized I couldn’t easily transfer the images from the pattern to the felt – it’s too thick! Thank goodness for my other little hobby of counted cross-stitch, where I learned a handy technique involving Waste Fabric. This fabric is a lot like aida cloth, but with less bulk. When layered over the top of any fabric, it’s easy to place a pattern wherever it needs to go and stitch right on the grid. Then, like magic it comes apart when the strings are pulled! Once the waste fabric is totally removed, the stitched pattern remains behind!
All the edges, (including around the outside border) are finished with a blanket stitch as opposed to the pattern sanctioned whip stitch. What can I say? I like the look of a blanket stitch!
With the Twelve Days of Christmas rapidly approaching, I can’t wait to hang my pear tree on the wall. To count down the days to December 25th, I’m going flip all the pears to the reverse and turn them over as each day passes. I see this as my personal spin on the always fun advent calendar.
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c.b. 2011
Wow, wow, WOW! It’s gorgeous!
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Thanks! 🙂 I think it’s going to be a fair project!
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Oh, I definitely like yours more! Congratulations! I’m always way too scared to mess around with patterns because I don’t trust myself to take stuff like thread-changing into account. Well done you for making it your own, and I just love the buttons you added to the pears too.
Thanks for the tip with the Waste Fabric, too! I just know that will come in useful.
Great post! Thanks for sharing such a great project : )
M.
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I think I mess with the patterns because there’s always a way to fix any problems that arise. If my idea doesn’t work, I can use the pattern itself as a back-up. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
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I like your mods a lot, especally the leaves that help the center to hold its own with the plaid and boost the nice christmassy feel. I am a fan of flowers but your plaid is a truly excellent (and better)choice, likewise the colour scheme you chose. I’ve never used waste fabric although I know what it is, so that was also useful info.
Great job!
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Thanks! 🙂
Almost everything I make has plaid in it – I can’t help it. 🙂 Plus, it does up the feel of Christmas a little more than the pattern.
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Oh, your’s is way better than the original. The leaves are a wonderful addition – they create a lot of motion in the piece. (BTW -I love it that you described the original floral print as “foo-foo.” I thought I was the only one who used that term. It was one of my disqualifiers when I used to interview people for a job in my classroom of adults with mental retardation. Couldn’t have anyone too foo-foo to get their hands dirty!)
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Thanks! 🙂
I inherited the phrase “foo-foo” from my great aunt. 🙂 Hardly anyone says it anymore, but I still like it.
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Your changes took a nice project and made it absolutely gorgeous and personal. LOVE IT.
Thank you so much for sharing your ideas.
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Thanks! 🙂 Crafts are supposed to be an artistic expression, so its important to me to make things that reflect who I am. Otherwise, what am I doing? Lol! 😀
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oh it’s absolutely beautiful. way to go. and who cares how long it took you to get around to making it!!!
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Thanks! 🙂
There are several shelved projects (more than I can count), but I always get around to them eventually. My muse usually needs time to play with an idea before jumping into the project.
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Around my house, I am the queen of unfinished projects….that eventually do get finished. it’s how creative energy works. Absolutely, love the hand stitching and your color choices, and the wool, and the advent calendar twist. Nice job!
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Thanks! 🙂
It’s one of those things that I knew I’d get to as soon as I found the time.
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I also like yours much better than the original. Every change you made…wool, blanket stitch, leaves, leaves, wooden button, etc…was the perfect blend. Waste Fabric is great…I’ve used it to cross stitch a design on to a sweatshirt…years ago before embroidery machines were around.
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Thanks!
I’ve never even tried an embroidery machine! I prefer doing as much as I can by hand – there’s something cathartic about sewing the old-fashioned way. 🙂
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Oh, this is beautiful. I love it!
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Thanks! 🙂
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I love the blue pot for the pear tree CB! Anything plaid is a good thing in my book. Ive been thinking about breaking out my sewing machine(still in box) and getting back to it. I want to start with simple quilts at first.
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Oooo, how exciting! 🙂 Quilts are always fun to make. The nice thing is they come in all different skills levels. A couple years ago I made a couch quilt in the space of a week and it was so much fun!
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It’s wonderful. I was thinking how people would pay to learn how to do what you did! Very sweet!
That is one of my favorite songs, by the way, and I never get to hear it enough.
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Thanks! 🙂
That song is one of my all-time favorites, too! I must have heard it on the station that plays Christmas songs all the time and maybe that’s what triggered my muse to finally make this project!
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So (sew!) cute!! You are very talented! I bet it was such fun working on this – you inspire me. 🙂 I love the northwoods touches – very close to my heart too. 😀
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Thanks! 🙂
Even though I’m not in the woods (at the moment), I still like to pretend there’s a forest outside my window.
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I like to do that, too 🙂
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Beautiful! 🙂 So intricately made 🙂
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Thanks! 🙂
I’ve never before attempted to stitch anything with so much detail and I loved the challenge. 🙂
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Wonderful! I love your interpretation of the pattern. It needs to go to the fair. Merry Christmas and enjoy the down time.
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Thanks! 🙂 Let’s hope there’s a blue ribbon on it come next October!
Merry Christmas! Hope you have a fantastic two weeks of freedom! 🙂
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