Life is short You're Capable hand embroidered on decorative pillow with tassels in the corners of the pillow and loose ribbon and thread spool next to it

I made a thing! The original plan was for this to be a pincushion but I like it too much to stick pins in it, so it's a decorative little pillow. I like just having it around, a nice reminder and message to myself.

I designed this embroidery pattern as a companion to my You're Capable cushion/mini quilt pattern, which was inspired by Gwen Stefani lyrics and created to give empowerment.

Life is short You're Capable embroidered on dot fabric with needle and thread still there and needle resting on a stork needle minder

It was a quick stitch, using couching with double strands and a single stand, and 3 strands for the back stitch with Aurifloss in # ???. It was complete chance that the dot of the fabric fit perfectly in the tail end of the Y but it does make me smile. 

The fabric is Double Dots, Black & White by Cotton + Steel 2017. I fused Shape Flex SF101 to the back of the fabric before stitching. It is easily my favourite interfacing, it gives stability without stiffness and it fuses so nicely. I find myself using it often with different projects and it's perfect for this kind of thing.

I am lacking in trimmings stash and though I do love pom poms, I wanted to try something a bit different and used a THIN ribbon for edging. I had to carefully baste it in place because there was a risk of loosing it completely in the seam allowance, thankfully though it worked out and I love the extra pop of pink on the edges.

close up detail of corner tassel made of metallic and standard embroidery floss and also showing ribbon edge detail on the pillow

Then I added handmade tassels because why not add corner pizzazz too?!

Life is short You're Capable embroidered on decorative pillow with tassels in the corners of the pillow

Since I'm on a kick of using my hoarded stash fabrics, I couldn't resist using the fabulous telephone print on the back - ok, this officially makes it double sided!! 
Telephones, Trinket by Melody Miller.

The back of the pillow with repeat 60s rotary telephone print fabric and corner tassels

It's pretty and squishy and I will certainly be using ribbon this way again because it was fun to sew.

If you'd like to stitch this message, you'll find the embroidery template as part of the You're Capable pattern available in my shop!


close up of Life is short You're Capable embroidery and thin ribbon shown in the background