Monday, January 17, 2011

Tomorrow is the 100th Day and a Pillow

I knew there would be an obstacle in our path this morning but did not expect for it to turn into the hurtle that it has. The baby did not sleep well last night, a continuing trend since he first got sick 4 weeks ago. That left me with about 2 hours of solid sleep last night and so my sweet husband, who also got very little sleep, allowed me to sleep in a couple hours this morning. Since I didn't get up until almost 11 and the little obstacle became a mountain I didn't start school right away. I thought we'd start after lunch. Lunch came and went and the girls were playing together very nicely. I asked if they wanted to celebrate today or tomorrow. They both voted for tomorrow.

I made some fun things for Christmas this year and now that they've been given out I can post about them here. My favorite gift was to my mom and mother-in-law, a family tree pillow.


I made the whole thing from material I already had on hand. The front of the pillow is from a flour sack towel. I ironed it out and cut it into fourths. I was wanting to make one for each of my sister-in-laws but ran out of time - maybe next year girls! The back is just black cotton and the inside is polyfil. I drew out the trunk and leaves, one for each family member, and traced them onto the fabric which was backed with wonderunder.After I cut the pieces out I used fray check on all the edges just to be sure and then I ironed them onto the front. Next I used my sewing machine and stitched around them. Once the tree was complete I backstitched each initial onto the leaves, the center leaves are the mom and dad - outside leaves the children, and the year they were married onto the trunk. Right sides together I stitched around the entire pillow leaving a 2 inch opening at the bottom. I turned it right side out, stuffed it and sewed it shut. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. I only have a picture of my mother-in-laws for some reason, it is the one above. My mom's had 5 leaves. And the little bird in the top right corner represents the baby that my mother-in-law miscarried after my husband, her youngest, was born.



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2 comments:

Theresa said...

I LOVE that pillow!! What an awesome idea!!

Kelli @ WhimsiKel said...

So CLEVER! I've seen family tree wall prints but not pillows. I love it! Thanks for linking up on my throw pillow round-up!