Birthday Pillows

So ever since, my cousin Julie, bought her new couches for her new home, she has said she didn't like the throw pillows that came with them. I agreed. They were okay, but not very modern or exciting. But she has lived with them for several months now and I didn't know if she still wanted to or was going to ever replace them. Well, as you read several posts ago, the craft bug had hit me again and I was already thinking of what to make and that they should be gifts. Well, Julie's birthday was coming up soon and what better way to hone more sewing skills than make covers for her existing pillows but in a more pleasing fabric? So that's what I decided, the only problem being I had no idea what decorating direction Julie had in mind for her living room. So I asked her. In a just wondering kind of way. She told me things for her kitchen and bedroom and the living room was "red and black with accents of yellow" to go with a still unframed, unhung print she has of this. Awesome. If she thought about it then she could have figured it out, well that I was getting her something for her house but not what and I was okay with that. I enlisted help of a very talented designer, Loralee, to help me pick out fabric. You know how in this post I said my weight loss goal one reward was for Lor to help pick out a fabric for skirt, well I lied. It was for the fabric for the pillows. Even though I technically didn't reach my goal she helped anyway. I also told a few more fibs to get Loralee more information, like when I called Julie and asked her to take pictures of her couches and email them to me because my friend Carrie was thinking of buying a red couch and I wanted to show her what Julie's looked like. Total lie. So once I had the fabric and notions, I was ready to sew. I was always worried that she wouldn't like them, that they didn't go with what she had in mind or that the covers wouldn't fit. I made a guess at their size, hoping the covers would at least be too big so I could take them in on my next visit. It was a big risk, but I knew even if she didn't like them she would appreciate the thought. Here's what they look like.

There are three of the plain black and white and then the fourth has the felt snow mum attached.


There was a free download for the pattern for the Snow Mum flower by Amy Butler and I just loved it and really wanted to make it so I thought it would be perfect for Julie's pillow.

I could have just done the four but I wanted to give that accent of yellow too. I had never appliqued anything before and if you saw it in person you would see all the flaws, but it still looks nice.

I sent them to Julie last week and she probably got them sooner but she never checks her mail so I wished her happy birthday and told her she should be getting a package. So she got her present on her birthday and emailed me to tell me she loved them, which I am so happy. So here is her before:


And after: