Tiny Accent Pillow

I've been teaching myself to embroider. My grandmother gave me a gift certificate to buy books for Christmas and I spent it on embroidery books: "The New Crewel" by Katherine Shaughnessy and "Colorful Stitchery" by Kristen Nicholas. Not until Spring Break did I take the time to try out a project.

The design on this little pillow came almost straight out of "The New Crewel." Instead of transferring the image, I drew it free-hand on my fabric with pencil. In the process I altered it a bit.

I decided to start small, but I didn't realize how small until I plopped the finished product on my couch. It is comically small:
But I'm glad I took a tiny little embroidery project from beginning to end. I learned a lot about satin stitch and I got to practice my slip stitch to make a neat little closure on the pillow:
Maybe I'll try a "life size" pillow next time. No more working in miniature.

note: the inspiration for this embroidery came from The New Crewel, by Katherine Shaughnessy