Gift that keeps blooming

We were set to visit a dear friend in the hospital yesterday, but didn't want to go empty handed. We'd heard that she already had "too many" flowers in her room, and is on a controlled diet, so food treats weren't an option. Due to her injuries, we didn't want to take her anything to manipulate, just something pretty. And bright. And cheery.

I have been playing around with my stack of solids for some time, trying to figure out a good motif that could be either repeated or enlarged to fill a throw blanket size. A few days ago, Cecily and I spotted a pattern of "French Roses" while shopping, and she wisely purchased said pattern.

Alas, I had fewer than three hours to whip up this little project, so I drew the flower freehand, used a little Wonder Under to fuse the flower and leaves on (swearing a little since I originally meant the leaves to go UNDER the flower and forgot until it was too late), and appliquéd the flower and leaves on with a (mostly) straight stitch. It was all going well with the thread matching until I got to the leaves! How do I not own leaf green?! Luckily my ancestors came to the rescue yet again and I found some in my stash of inherited serger thread! I was able to finish the back to make a pillow cover out of it, and presto: pillow completed before naptime was over!

Because of our friend's injuries, we didn't want to give her an elaborately wrapped gift, so I just tied some rick-rack around it. My husband said we should tuck my business card in, and I was tickled that the card matched so perfectly!

It's the little things, right?