The Lula Pillowcase - Confronting Tacky in Crochet

I finally finished my EtsyFAST May challenge - flowers - and posted it today, the Lula Pillowcase. Since I already make several items that qualify as flowers (see my crochet pins, Pink Icing Flower pins, Grayscale flowers pins, etc.), I wanted to make something really special. My grandmother loved pink roses and bright colors. Her house was full of bright pinks and greens and she liked to wear bold floral patterns. She was a very talented home sewer and very creative. 

Crochet always has the potential of being tacky; not slightly tacky or kinda tacky, but really kitschy tacky awful wonderful. Rather than skirt around the issue with this project, I wanted to really go for it and make it as full and loud and textured as possible. I guess I still have some natural restraint. There are no tassels or fringe! It was an exhausting exercise and took over a month to complete, but the finished product makes me smile and reminds me of the feeling of being at my grandma's.

Here's the pillowcase in progress. Arranging them was fun; sewing them on was a total pain. Below you can see the pillowcase peaking out from my booth-in-a-bag, see my post on Beer-B-Q Success! for more images of the pillow in action (on a table).