Flowering Snowball Pillow – Complete

Well I did it.  I finished my pillow for round 9 of the Pillow Talk Swap.  You have all seen pictures of the progress but it is officially complete and may well end up in the hands of its new owner today.  I sent it off last week to my partner and I can’t wait to see when she gets it!

Are you ready to see the finished product?  It’s okay if you look at the picture a lot…I look at it ALL the time. lol  I won’t see it again, so these pictures are what I have to show for my work.  And I’ll admit, they make me pretty happy. Happy pictures.

I took lots of shots of the pillow and this one I just fell in love with.  I thought it looked like it belonged to the fairies out there in the garden (forgive my whimsy…I have a two year old who is going to be Tinker Bell for Halloween, so I have fairies on the brain!)

Again, the pattern is called a flowering snowball and I printed the pieces off of EQ…but you should be able to google it and find something.  It’s a traditional pattern with many iterations.  I used Flea Market Fancy and an assortment of Kona solids (and darn if I didn’t JUST realize that I can’t try to match up the Kona solids for everyone because I already sent it off.  Maybe my partner will be able to when she gets it!)

The pillow is fully lined, quilted and hand quilted.  It has a back flap covered zipper and a bound edge that is hand sewn. Phew!  It’s work to just write that out.  But to me, it’s not worth doing all that work on the front of the pillow, only to crap out on the construction details.   So I made sure it was all put together well.  It is 24″ square….which is BIG for a pillow.  But again, I didn’t want to try that pattern and not make it worth it…and that’s the size I needed to get the amount of the flowering snowball pattern that you see.

Hopefully in this picture you can see the quilting details that went into the front.  I machine stitched in white around every curve, making sure the pillow top was well in place.  Then I came back with embroidery floss in 10 different colors and added a bit of hand quilting.  There are two shades of each color to echo the two shades of solids in the pillow per color.  It’s all in the details.

Those are the logistics of the pillow and I hope you find them interesting, but I wanted to share with you WHY I made the pillow.  I am SO OFTEN asked “How can you give that away?!” when I make a swap item.  I’ll admit that the items I make to give away in swaps are some of my most treasured pieces.  I put my whole heart into each one and then send it on it’s way.

But I don’t even start out with the mentality that these items ever belong to me.  They belong to my partner from the moment I begin to come up with an idea that is hopefully perfect for that person.  Yes, they are all a part of me…I make them.  But they are not mine.  This pillow is no exception.  It would not exist if not for my partner.  SHE was the inspiration for it…her life, her style, her loves.  It is hers.

Really nothing makes me happier than creating something for someone that they will love.  My partner always has at least an idea of what it takes to make what I do for them.  They appreciate the fabrics and time involved.  And it is hopefully what they would make for themselves if they had the time and energy to tackle. Everyone deserves some extra special quilty love. And this is my little way of giving that, one person at a time.

Linking up to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival as well!