Pillow Set for the Lovebirds

This is my latest set of quilted scrappy throw pillows. I made these as a gift for my friends Catherine and Kevin, who just took the big moving-in-together step. I have not yet been to their new love nest, but was told their livingroom had not-quite schoolbus yellow walls and a couch the color of chocolate. So this is what I came up with:

this view shows the envelope closure on the back - the quilted
covers can be easily removed from the pillow forms for washing.

Maybe even more than for other occasions, I love the idea of pieced items for couples. After all, we are celebrating that these two people, with different histories, memories, abilities and talents, come together and their union produces something greater than just the sum of their parts.*

Happy Shacking Up, Catherine & Kevin!
May the two of you have a long,
happy, and colorful life together!

* hehe. parts.

Mom's Hug Quilt

How great it feels to finish a UFO!* This quilt has been "in progress" for a few years... one of those projects you start and then get distracted from, or other projects have to take precedence over and the next thing you know it's shooting you dirty looks from its Tupperware storage in the basement every time you go down to put laundry in, and you feel guilty even glancing in its direction. (I'm not the only one, right?)Technically, I started this quilt when my son Jake (now 12) was just a baby. I must have seen a photo somewhere of a quilt someone had done all from flannels and terrycloth. I decided that instead of donating my old winter pjs or bathrobes to Goodwill (which I do with lots of stuff!), I would hang on to them and use them in a quilt. I cut them up and started piecing them in a modified four-patch that formed this groovy diagonal pattern. I got more than halfway through the quilt top and then my daughter came home from China, and my husband and I divorced, I got a new job and went back to school.. and gosh, things just got busy. But wouldn't it be cool, I thought, long about November of this year, if I could finish this thing up and give it to Jake for a Christmas gift? So whenever I had a few spare minutes and the boy was otherwise occupied I stitched away on this one and lo and behold at 6pm on Christmas Eve it was finished.

Last inch of binding sewn at 6pm Christmas Eve. Phew!

So within this quilt are nights of rocking my boy to sleep, reading him stories, cuddling up and watching movies together. There are lots of hugs in this quilt. When he opened the box on Christmas morning and held the quilt up I told him that no matter where he went or where I was, this quilt was my way of making sure he could always have a hug from mom. Jake's a sentimental boy, and totally "got it." Maybe he even got a little teary, but don't tell him I told you.

Our Buddha-cat Tucker, diggin' on the new quilt

detail, Mom's Hug Quilt

Don't worry, Santa made sure my son also got electronic gee-gaws and computer gadgets and other manly things. I'm not turning him into a complete sissy-boy.

*(Un-Finished Object)

new year, new (tree of) life

Well, better late than never! I just finished this set of quilted “Tree of Life” pillows as a wedding gift for my sister and her new husband, who actually got married last summer (!yes! i'm a little behind!). I started them several months ago, and then my sewing machine got all wonky and I had to put it aside for a while. I even borrowed another sister’s sewing machine, to which I promptly gave bad juju; hers started wonking up also. Feh!

Today I got my sewing machine out, twiddled with the knobs a bit and Voila! It works. I don’t know how or why and hardly care. But the Tree of Life pillows are done for New Year’s, which is fitting since in many cultures the Tree of Life motif is associated with new year celebrations. In Russia and in Turkey, for example, when Christmas trees were banned due to their religious affiliations, people loopholed the beloved custom into their culture by calling them New Year’s trees. In Vietnam, where the new year is rung in in the spring, the New Year tree or cây nêu is planted as part of the festivities. Or so says Wikipedia. Which totally means it must be true. ;-)

Probably the best-known of the Tree of Life symbologies is the Celtic version. The ancient Celts believed all living things were spiritual, mystical beings, not simply “natural resources” to be used for our own profit. In particular, the Celts believed trees were a source of great wisdom and that aligning oneself with the trees would allow you to walk between worlds -- the upper and lower worlds, that is. Trees, they believed, brought blessings from the gods. The imagery of the Tree of Life is often depicted as intertwined with its surroundings; and indeed the tree is perhaps the best symbol of this interconnectedness of all things; the roots reach far down into the earth for sustenance, and bring it up into “this world” to provide sustenance to other beings – oxygen for us to breathe, leaves and fruit for us and other beings. The leaves returning to the earth provide sustenance once again. With the image of the tree we are reminded of our own mortality, and interconnectedness with others.

With this, I wish you a very happy married life together, Brenda and Jeff. May your years together be happy and fruitful, may you always remember your interconnectedness with each other and your families.

May you grow together, always.

__________________________________

ps. another set of "Tree of Life" pillows is available in my Etsy shop: click here!