Dear Internet, 
Did I mention my current obsession with pillows?! I think so. Here is the latest addition to my collection. Our couch needed some sprucing up, a combination of reasons really: bought from value city + 7 years old + light beige + a little dog who has claimed a section for her own + hundreds of kids who like to 'wrestle' [not at one time, that would seriously mess up the couch] = a tired, slightly dingy sofa. Oh yes, we have steam cleaned it and that helps [some]. Anyhow - what can bring a couch back to life better than a throw pillow?!
The center square is Wild Thyme by Carolyn Gavin and the border is a cotton linen. I am way in love with the Wild Thyme line. I didn't realize how in love until I found an eco*jot journal I bought a year ago with the same pattern on it! I layered the completed top with warm and natural batting and machine quilted a grid onto it. The process went fairly smoothly; it took a long time to tuck in all of the start and stop threads. [I just threaded the threads into a needle and pulled them through to the back]
Again with the piping. It takes a million years and a billion pins, but I think it looks really spiffy when it's all said and done!
short and simple: if you were ever going to enter a giveaway, this is the one you want to enter! Alexis Miller's Photography Tips is giving away a very gently used Nikon D80. Also, her blog is definitely worth a peek :]
Is it really March? No, it can't be - it was just January! My life in the spring is chaotic and overwhelming. Crafting and blogging are two of my sanity savers and it has been hard to get either of them into my schedule lately. [so, basically, I'm without sanity = crazy] I shared my block for the February swap with you here. I liked the challenge of being able to design my own tree and worked on several variations before deciding to send the one I did. I decided to turn the blocks that stayed with me into pillows [my current obsession :]
This is my first attempt at needle sketching - I drew the pattern onto white duck cloth, then stitched over it with black thread, twice. I like the sketchiness of it [my mil said it 'looks french' which is good :] I raided my scrap box for the leaves and the little patchwork border. This guy is available in my etsy shop.
This is like the primitive relative of tree #1.
The tree and the leaves are hand-stitched [I used a buttonhole stitch for the leaves]. Then I coffee stained the center panel. I already have a home in mind for this pillow.
Overall I really like how they turned out - I got to use my piping/cording foot and add my twill tape labels to them. They both have envelope style closures so that the pillow form can easily be removed.
