Fall Pillows

We just moved to Florida from Maryland and, in the process of packing, decided to purge a lot of stuff. Old furniture that wasn't worth moving, clothes we hadn't worn in ages, and some holiday decorations. When I went to find my fall decorations this week (after all, Starbucks has pumpkin spice lattés, football is back, and it's in the balmy low 90s here), I couldn't find them. Sad day.

So, I decided to make some pillows. I've always thought the traditional maple leaf pattern is kind of kitschy and yuck, but after seeing my friend Kelly post some quilt pictures on facebook with a more modern take on maples, I knew I should give it a shot.

I love the first pillow in kona cotton orange and yellow. My sort-of sashiko quilting was a booger to try to do but I love it, wonky and all.

I learned a valuable lesson with the second maple leaf: contrasting thread! The quilting was next to impossible to do on the maple leaf because I literally couldn't see it. The sashiko is pretty on most of the red, but you have to look way too closely to see that.

And the last pillow so far. I saw a pattern of 9 blocks sewn into a cube, then cut into quarters. The quarters are then rearranged and sewn together. Which makes a fun, random design. This one's for a friend who likes Halloween :-)