Pillows for Mother's Day

My mom is funny.  There are always things about people that you love about them even if those things are a teensy bit unusual - for example, my husband thinks a refrigerator shouldn't have any magnets or pictures showing (for the "clean" look). My mom thinks that, every 5 years or so, her walls get so dusty that she has to repaint them. Luckily, she loves to paint, and paint she did - her entire kitchen and family room are light gray now (it's really pretty!) instead of light blue.



Problem: All of the furniture and pillows didn't match. Mom just put slipcovers on the couch and chair - yay! But - my family uses a lot of pillows, and it would be way silly for them to just buy new ones. In comes the sewist: "Mom... would you like me to make you some pillow covers for Mother's Day?"

 One of my favorite pictures of us :)

I've been perfecting my pillow making lately, learning things like: when quilting a pillow, make sure the muslin behind the batting is much larger than the top (like when you sandwich a quilt), and if you are making an envelope back (in my opinion, the easiest way), make sure there's more than enough fabric to cover the pillow bulk. Therefore, I felt pretty confident that these would come out nicely.



Originally I thought I'd just center some of the BOM blocks from Gen X Quilter's Sisters' Ten BOM last year (my sister has her quilt and my mom loves it), but isn't it more fun to go "off the grid?" I love how the borders make a square. I had to keep reminded myself not to go too crazy with scrappy and such (this isn't *my* home anymore). Although it took a week of on-and-off sewing, I'm really proud of these buggers.



Check out the backs! I had to suck it up and embrace the "fabric is prettier when used" idea, since I don't have *that* much yardage in my stash. It helped that I'll be able to visit the pillows whenever I want. Those 8 Days A Week text prints from Windham are brand new to my stash, and so are the Lotta Jansdotter Sylvia and Simply Style in eggplant (they are just overwhelmingly amazing). Plus, the Lourdes Sanchez flowers are definitely an all-time favorite - I used a lot on my Flying Purple People Eater quilt. Luckily, there's still a *bit* left in my stash. :) You guys understand, right?

The room looks complete!

I quilted two of them using my FMQ foot, and two with my walking foot. I really enjoyed experimenting with different sized pebbles in the pillow above on the left.

At the time of gifting, they were already being used by a sick sister:

 I will get a picture with my mom in the coming week (with her new pillows!). Here's one of us today. We don't take enough pictures (quilter problem: my phone is full of pictures of fabric and WIPs).

 

 

I would definitely consider making a pillow set for someone as a gift in the future (like for a wedding). Did you make something for your mom this year? 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms! Have a fabulous day. :)

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story, Sew Cute Tuesday @ Blossom Heart Quilts,

Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation,

TGIFF @ My Quilt Infatuation,

Crazy Mom Quilts.