Pillow parade

Suddenly I had the urge to make a few Christmas presents and with not a lot of time left, I knew it needed to be something I could make fairly quickly. I decided to go with quilted pillows - because what's better than a quilted pillow? - and I'd use a modified version of the Tic Tac Toe block from the quilting bee I've been doing this year, and signed up for again next year.

I made four different ones, fabric combos picked out to suit the recipient. I made a plus-sized version of the bee block so they'd be 15.5". If you want to make the same size, cut 5.5" and 3" squares.

Then I got quilting! I used a light blue thread on this pillow, which reminds me of sunshine and green grass, and the joy of cycling again when spring finally arrives. It's fitting I finished it on a day when we got our first real snow for this winter.

This one has two of my favourite fabrics - a great newsprint and the amazing saturated colours of Alison Glass. I fussycut the text fabric to capture some of the nice messages. Then I quilted with a favourite teal thread.

I pulled out my neon yellow thread for this Tula pillow. It goes so wonderfully with her bold colours.

The back is pretty too. I love this fabric that makes me think of all the great European cities with lovely sprawling parks. I usually finish my pillows with an envelope back because that's fast and I don't need a zipper, so if the mood strikes to make a pillow I can just dive in.

Then I lined all my pretty little pillows up in a row (to get this oddly fuzzy photo. I really need to get out my real camera more often).

I still have one more to finish, but I'm just about there.

And here it is, magically added later!