{lou bee} wrap up

we finished our gift giving this spring. sticking with the theme of pillows, i have two more to share.

inspiration was easy to find after perusing kristy's pinterest board and finding this fabric bundle of sarah watson's Dem Bones. i drafted a paper pieced skull pattern imitating the fabric that is on the back {and not actually shown here}. 

lynne's pinterest board revealed her love of the plus pattern. combined with her known love for solids, this pillow came together in another low volume project. 

i'm so pleased with the way all of these pillows turned out, specific to each of these special ladies. i'm looking forward to another year, another round!

{lou}bee pillows

for our {lou}bee swap in november i had cara. i was inspired by these rocky mountian puzzle blocks, and thought they would be perfect for my munki loving friend. it was fun to pick out fabrics for this pillow. i actually used a necklace i knew cara loved for the color inspiration. i had the back dot picked out and while we were on a retreat heard her say it might be her favorite fabric ever. win for me! 

18"pillow

fabric: DS katie jump rope, chicopee, flea market fancy; heather ross munki; comma pin dot

her girls are star wars fans {as well as my boys}, which makes for a great excuse to get a bit of star wars fabrics in the collection. this pouch is a pattern in patchwork please. i really like the shape of it, although the lining is hand stitched in, which takes a while. i'm pleased with their turnout.

for dec {which turned into january} i had jessica. jessica is a cat lover. it was a great chance to try elizabeth's cat block tutorial. they were super easy and fun to put together.

this little cat bag/thread catcher was also in patchwork please.

18"pillow

fabric: julianna horner & DS for joanns, uptown by erin michaels, amy butler, kona snow, linen

busy bee

this round for our {lou}bee we are doing a secret sister swap {sss}. basically, it's christmas every month. we have a secret sister we're thinking of and creating for, and another is doing the same for us. then we go to some public place to exchange and make emotional messes out of each other. it's FANTASTIC! i don't know about you, but when you love to create, it's almost even MORE fun to create for people you love and then even MORE MORE great to create for people who appreciate the art of creating {whew!}. that's how much fun this is.
i've decided to stick with pillows {i hope that's good for the girls who have yet to get theirs}. what i love about these are the fact they are basically mini quilts. it's been fun to try some new things.
month #1 for JuliAnn

{20" pillow}

completely inspired by the AMH prism quilt/pillow. i ADORE these fabrics and pattern. AMH is a color genius. seriously.{hopefully soon} you will see a full quilt inspired by this.

i was making some of these little guys for my little boys and thought i'd send some along for her boy. 

month #2 for MaryClaire

another AMH free pattern, the feather pattern. done in the lovely chicopee. i love everything about this pillow.

{18" pillow}

month #3 for Jamie

                                                     

{picture borrowed from Jamie}{my pillow is on the left}{18" pillow}

this pillow was fun for me. i love these fabrics {tula pink}, though not as much as jamie, i just have a really hard time using them in things i'm creating for myself. it was fun to be thinking of jamie's love for these as i used them. this was also my first time piecing hexagons by machine. ooooo...i'm so glad i tried this. it makes the thought of a hexagon quilt a little further in my reach of possible. i am obviously a dork, though, and completely forgot that juliann had ALSO made her a tula hexagon pillow. nothing new under the sun. 

i'm using this pillow tutorial and will probably do a separate pinterest-y post with more links.

{wrap up}

as the tides have already turned for the new year i need to do a bit of catch up for 2012.
we did a small Christmas swap with the {lou}bee ladies. i had some labels on fabric printed from spoonflower with our {lou}bee logo. i decided to embroider an ornament. i LOVED doing it and LOVED the finished product. this is on my list to make for myself.

 excuse the last-minute iphone picture

my family decided to switch to a secret santa swap among the adults. i picked my little sis in japan {who i made these placemats and napkins for}. i thought i would stick with some homemade love and branched out into my first foray of pillow making. these are 18" pillows. i got the down forms from pottery barn.

 i think they turned out pretty great.

hopefully i'll have a couple quilts finished up soon to share and a bee block or two. happy new year!