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Pillows

These are double-sided pillows I made for my husband's study. I chose off-white, burgundy, navy, and gray to match the rug.
Each pillow features 2 different patterns. I was able to explore English Paper Piecing, Foundation Paper Piecing, strip piecing, 3-D, and other techniques I had never before tried.

Pillow 1

Pillow 2

Pillow 3

What do you do when you have just 24 hours to come up with a gift for a teenager you've only known for a few months? This is the pillow I made for my neighbor's 17th birthday (she had pet turtles). The pattern is Drunkard's Path, and the idea came from Anita Murphy's "Drunkard's Path: an easy no-pins technique". The turtles' heads and tails are made of folded pieces of fabric, sewn into the curves of the front and back legs, and give a 3rd dimension to an otherwise flat pillow.

The label on the back of this pillow is a teeny-weeny Drunkard's Path block, with the information stitched into the wings and skirt of the angel: For: Toni Dee | By: Carol B. | Happy Birthday 1997

What do you do when 9 months later the teenager invites you to a party that afternoon, then casually says, "By the way, it's my mother's birthday"? You dive into your stash once again! The pattern is Snail's Trail, and I have no idea where the original plan to use cats' tails came from. I'm sure I saw it somewhere and thought it was a darling pattern. So I drafted my own and set to work. I didn't get it completed by party time, but was able to wrap up the square with a promise of a finished pillow as soon as possible.

The mother, Nora, is my neighbor and good friend, which is the only reason I didn't squash her when she innocently asked, "Carolyn, could you take out the brown cat and put another gray one in instead?"

I'm not one to collect dog & cat fabrics, but thanks to an annual baseball-related square exchange on RCTQ, I had a few I could throw together to construct the back of this pillow. My "label" is the blue square, with the information subtly printed within the design (so subtly that Nora never noticed it until another friend pointed it out to her weeks later .)