A Pair of Pillows

A few months ago when I found myself with more guests in the house than pillows for them, I dug a pair of Euro shams that I completely forgot about out of the storage closet. Ever since then, they've sat on my couch in the basement looking forlorn and starkly white. I lost the pillowcases (or threw them out, more likely) years ago, but who needs store bought pillowcases when you can make your own custom quilted pillow covers?

I'm not usually one to go for complicated piecing, so I chose 2 super-easy-to-piece patterns: four-patch and log cabin.

For the 4-patch pillow, I wanted to play with contrasting thread so I drew a circle and filled the center with pebbles in a yellow thread, and filled the rest of the space with paisleys in a blue/silver variegated thread. This is my first time using variegated thread, and wow, it's so much fun!

For the log cabin, I treated it as a mini medallion quilt, quilting each band with a different design. I had so much fun deciding on and practicing a design for each band, and all in all this came together quite successfully.

I did the back of the pillow envelope-style as I have a fear of zippers. I'll conquer them one day, but for now, envelope will do. Now, onto all the pillows in my house that already have store bought casing. That just won't do anymore.