Remember when...

I used to quilt? Remember how I used to actually post? I feel like those days are getting few and far between. I haven't quilted since about June. It's not that I don't want to, it's that I have a super busy 18 month old. I feel like I need short projects because it may be awhile before I get back to them. I need projects I can finish in an afternoon.

Also, I'm to the place with quilting that I don't know what to do with the quilts I make. I've thought of making baby quilts (short and sweet and can easily be finished quickly). Do I really need a lot of baby quilts? I thought of selling them on etsy. Do people really pay that much for them though? Also, none of my quilts are perfect and I'd feel bad if people expected perfection and I had made a mistake... which is the rule and not the exception.

All that being said I have been working on several projects in the past month. Keep checking back this week as I will post them here. Most are craft things, but the biggest project that I've recently finished is not a craft item, but the longest and most important one.

Back in June my husband and I bought new couches for our family room. Our old ones were falling apart. I loved those couches when we bought them, but over the years my tastes have changed dramatically. I wanted something neutral that I could update through the years with colors and pillows. We went with boring beige. I'm in the process of making and buying pillows to brighten up the room.

Have you seen all the cute ruffly pillows out there? The ones that cost anywhere from $20-$60 each? Even when they are only made of felt? You have got to be kidding me! There is no way I can afford that. I need about 4 of them. Again, do people really pay those prices? So I did what I had to do. I made it myself.
This was my project yesterday afternoon. Notice the boring beige couch in the background. I plan to recover the pillows in the same boring beige fabric as the couch in a not so boring fabric soon. Anyway, this pillow cost about $4 for the felt at the most and the pillow insert cost maybe another $4. I'm not really sure since I had the felt from another project where I way overestimated the amount I needed. I bought the pillow insert a long time ago as well.

I found a similar pillow I loved for $45. I didn't have a pattern for this as I was just borrowing the basic idea, but here is my version. It took less than an hour to make. I'm not sure how long as I stopped to answer the phone, comfort a 7 year old who was worried about his French report today and stop my 4 year old from hugging my 18 month old too much (yes, that's a serious problem in our house.)

Anyway, check back over the next few days to see what else I've been working on!