Saying 'I love you' with fabric

A few months ago my beloved boyfriend decided to surprise me with 200L of bean bag filling. "Can you believe you can just buy that online? It will be delivered at your place, because that is much easier than having it send to mine." So there I was, with this misshapen snowman in the middle of my living room.

Now, the official plan was that I would make a big square bag from some boring white fabric that he could paint with his scouting kids. They have to do something during those rainy autumn days. For my priceless efforts I could have the left over filling. I decided that ordinary bean bag shapes are dull and wouldn't it be much more fun to have a heart-shaped one?

After a few tries I drafted an acceptable heart shape and randomly filled it with straight lines. I decided round lines would be too much of a challenge as I don't have a lot of experience with this type of patchwork. Then it was just the task of selecting all pink and purple pieces of (left over) fabric from my collection, cutting them up, and stitching them together. 

  

My projects can take from an evening to a couple of years, completely unrelated to the amount of work they actually require. It has something to do with motivation. I was starting to wonder if this one would ever be finished (patchwork is a lot of work) but then Valentine's Day started to come near. What would be a better gift than a heart-shaped bean bag pillow? Nothing says 'I love you' like a handmade gift (or so I learn from all the DIY websites). Also nothing is a better relationship test than trying to get 200L of bean bag filling through a 15cm zipper opening without getting the stuff all over your apartment, during a 'boer zoekt vrouw' episode. We made it through the test and I'm very proud of the finished product.



Notice how the inserts from my jeans can also be found in the
bag. All pieces of fabric in the bag come with a related
(sometimes failed) other project.



 I never get to hang out on it that much, the beloved boyfriend decided it's his computer spot. (yes, ok, technically it was a gift to him) Time taught us that some fabrics are not meant to be in a bean bag and now the patchwork bean bag has a patch.

My blog started because Marta (from http://www.martaandthe.blogspot.com/) felt I should write about my projects. As there are a lot of them you can expect many more posts. But like with all other projects, it can take years...

Henriëtte

ps. Poor scouting kids are still waiting for their bean bag. I'm very sorry. But it's nice weather now so you can play outside. Better luck next autumn ;).