Pillows for Christmas

Yesterday was an impromptu pillow sewing day!  I love having a day where I had nothing in mind to sew (or even if I was going to sew), and then an idea takes hold and you go with it!

Case in point:  Pillows for Christmas gifts!

One of my sisters recently lost one of her 'babies'.  Her cat Angus - he was 20+ years old and   as you can imagine, very much a part of her world.  If you have ever had a pet that has passed you can understand how difficult it is.  My son Taylor actually was the one who named this cat for her.  I believe it was a name of one of his boy toys - a mutant troll or some such thing!  He was 2 years old at the time. (time does fly)

I remembered seeing a cute cat quilt via Flickr and I quickly hunted down the pattern.  Six White Horses Blog has an adorable baby quilt and the pattern is a free Craftsy download.  

Whiskers Paper Pieced Quilt Block

Isn't it cute?!  Paper piecing is something that is pretty new to me.  Its one of the 'skills' I'm working on and going to master next year.

FMQ 'Angus'

I decided some free motion quilting could work...another skill to master next year!  Maybe it was the 'magic gloves' I used for the first time ever or the small project, but this FMQ seemed to flow better than ever for me.  I'm not saying its great, just felt better!  I FMQ her kitty's name...it may make her cry...

The other pillow I made was for my brother. My daughter started a Churn Dash quilt years ago.  She gifted the blocks to me and I ended up making a quilt for my brother.  He and I were just talking about this quilt too!  He loves it still! 

2008 Churn Dash

His pillow is not as impactful as the quilt!  I still had (and still have) left over blocks.  I hope he likes green!

Bold Geometric 

Another couple Christmas Gifts done.  And hopefully a couple of happy siblings too!

Do you ever have an impromptu sewing day?