This was the pillow I made for my mom last Christmas. She and my dad have been thinking of places to retire, and if they decide to move out of Texas I wanted her to have a little keepsake of one of her favorite things about this state: the bluebonnet. There's nothing quite like driving down the highway and seeing these pretty little white-tipped heads bobbing to and fro in the sweet spring breeze every year. Then, of course, after the two weeks of spring the temperature cranks up like a gas oven and the red ants swarm all over everything and anything that is remotely pretty or green or alive withers up and turns brown until the two weeks of spring the following year.
Ah, Texas.
For this I cut a little square of off-white cotton (so that the pure white bonnet caps would show up better), and used three different shades of embroidery floss for the blue. In my reference picture the leaves seemed to be outlined in a light shade of green, but I'm not completely sure that I liked how it turned out in the finished product. I edged the square of cotton with hem tape, then topstitched it onto a simple blue pillowcase. I didn't take a reference of it at the time but the back of the pillowcase is split to be able to insert and remove the pillow itself, with the rough edges hemmed in the same silvery-blue hem tape.
And voila! Something warm, comfy and pretty. Perfect for a mom. And, best of all, something even the red ants can't get to.
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