Side Project

It has been a number of years since my Dad passed away. It was 2011 to be accurate.  Mom has held onto a lot of his clothes but is now ready to let more of them go.  One day while I was visiting, I noticed a large pillow in a chair that looked a bit shabby and discolored.  So three of his shirts were gathered to make a pillow front for the pillow.   Ahem, then they laid in a stack in my house for a few days  weeks.  Tuesday morning, I decided to stay in my PJs and sew a bit.  The shirts had been there long enough.  Four squares -each 12" by 12" - were cut from them and starched.  The cotton/poly squares were interfaced also.  Then they were sewn into a large four patch, nothing fancy, just a four patch.  I layered it with batting and straight line quilted the front for the pillow.

Then I used some upholstery/home dec fabric from my stash to make the back. I did the envelope method....and messed it up.  I ripped it apart and did it again.  I didn't realize what happened

The fabrics on the halves matched almost perfectly.  I can see the overlap, but I promise -that matching was just one of those small miracles that sometimes happen. I take no credit for that.
I see that the busyness of the fabric helps that illusion a bit also.

There are more shirts in the dryer that will cover the matching pillow - although it won't match when it is covered. The question now is "What will I back it with?"

While this post was sitting as a "draft"  I went right on and made the other cover.  The front:

The upper right corner uses the yoke of the shirt back turned sideways; while the lower right blue is part of the front and part of the back with a seam in the middle.
For the back, I used parts of two more shirts that were destined to be rags.

While the two pillows have enough in common to "go together" - they don't "match" per se. I like that better than "matchy/matchy." 

The other nice thing about these are that they will be used and will also serve as "comfortable memories" for Mom as well as my brother and me.

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