Sunshine Pillow

Sometimes you know someone who can use a little sunshine in their life.

My close friend's mom is going through a difficult time, and since I was visiting, I wanted to bring something. No, not dessert or wine or a gift card or flowers. Why would I bring those when I had the time and vision (and fabric stash) to make her something much more special?

I discovered that her favorite color is yellow, so I raided my yellow fabric (not surprisingly, I don't have  many yellow scraps; it's not a color I normally work with). Luckily, I found several tone on tone and small print yellows, but also a discrepancy between cool and warm tones (pale, happy yellow vs. mustard). Paired with light gray, I was ready to sew some sunshine.

I decided to split up the tones and use the Winged Square block pattern (a traditional block with a tutorial by Amy of During Quiet Time). My friend and former guildmate Rachel of Let's Begin Sewing (@liketosew) once asked for these blocks in our guild bee, and while they take forever (all those little HSTs!) it's a block I became enamored with. It's also been on my mind since she just finished her bee quilt (it's sooooo beautiful! Sigh). I might even be working on ANOTHER fun project based on this block (#improvwingedsquare on Instagram).

I wanted the quilting to be simple (this is, after all, a comfy pillow), so I used my free motion foot and Aurifil white thread (#2024) to quilt a spiral from the middle. I simply followed the spiral around again to create a thin, outlined spiral in the end. The effect simply brought me joy, and it made the quilting a little more obvious.

It was a joyous occasion to come across a half yard of this pretty yellow and gray Joel Dewberry print from Aviary 2 several years ago. I love it because: 1. It contrasts from the front's light gray; 2. It's a lovely, large print - perfect for a pillow backing; 3. I can't remember where or when I bought it and I had no plans for it; 4. I used almost all of it for this project. Complete with my custom tags, which I use as much as possible (I'm not sure 1000 tags are going to last very long. Apparently I make a lot of things). I figured out how to enclose it in the envelope backing so that it shows only underneath.

I LOVE how the sun reflects off of it. It's such a happy, bright pillow; I can only hope it brings my friend's mom as much joy as it brought me to make it. I've decided to keep sewing sunshine whenever I can, because we can all use it. :)

Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday, TGIFF, Crazy Mom Quilts.