Cyndi Fouquette lives her summers between her backyard garden and her home studio. In the garden, hearty vegetables grow hale on green stems and wandering vines: tomatoes, peppers, squash, and pumpkins. And inside the studio, the colors are just as bountiful. On any given day, as Cyndi creates custom furniture slip-covers and pillows, you’ll see swaths of greens and golds, blues and browns, and the whole spectrum of white: eggshell, cream, ivory, and vanilla.

“When I was much younger I was very poor, but I wanted a pretty house,” Cyndi remembers with a laugh. “I started picking up furniture for cheap at garage sales—mostly to practice on. I started with simple slip-covers and slowly created more detailing, until my hobby grew into a business.” Cyndi settled into her Hutchinson home some 20 years ago and began taking custom orders. First she made cushions for campers and then more ambitious projects: couches, loveseats, dining room chairs. Cyndi’s Re-Creations was born.

Now, Cyndi’s slip-covers are quite intricate, utilizing button-work, piping to blend in with or accent the primary cloth, and ruffles or fitted hems. Each custom piece is designed to best showcase the piece’s frame. “Slip covers are less expensive than reupholstering, so it’s an attractive option for people,” Cyndi says. Clients send Cyndi pictures and the dimensions of their furniture, consult on the best type of fabric for the project, and deliver the furniture to Cyndi’s studio where a custom cover takes place under her needle.

“No sewing project is complete without scraps,” she says, and canvas scraps from her slip-covers produced a new project with her daughter, Autumn, a watercolor artist. “I make pillows from canvas cloth and Autumn’s original watercolors of lakes near Alexandria adorn the front.” With a heat-transfer process, Autumn’s paintings of Carlos, Le Homme Dieu, Minnewaska, and Darling are added to the front of Cyndi’s comfy pillows. The pillows also feature fish, birds, and flowers native to Minnesota.

Cyndi’s work can be found on Facebook and through her website, Cyndi’s Re-Creations. Her Minnesota-themed pillows are also available at Yesterday’s in Alexandria.