Lodge Look Pillow

This weekend was my brother's birthday.  I have a wonderful brother.  He is a great man who is kind to all, family, friends, and strangers.  He is one of a kind.  He takes care of everybody.  So when my sister-in-law said she wanted to throw him a surprise birthday party, I thought it was a wonderful idea.  But what do you get a guy who has very few needs or and even fewer wants?  He loves to hunt, always has, and when he and his wife first married I made them Christmas stockings, one with a buck for him and one with a doe for her.  So when I started searching the Internet for something to give him I knew this would be perfect for him.  His living room is decorated in a lodge theme with some of his prized deer heads mounted and hanging for all to see.  I found my inspiration here.  This lovely lady  from Sew Homegrown was inspired by this pillow from Anthropology.

She had her husband draw a pattern and she made this beautiful pillow:

She has graciously shared the pattern on her blog so all of us to use.   There is also a wonderful step by step tutorial to guide you through the entire process.

It is amazing how changing the fabrics and colors gives you a totally different look.  I went to my local quilt store and chose two complementary fat quarters that went with the colors in my brothers living room.

I used a contrasting color for the back and added one of my labels.  I loved how it turned out.  Needless to say my brother was very happy with it.  His wife has requested the matching doe for her birthday.  I told her the doe would be so much easier because you would just cut the antlers off, the hardest part to sew.  Be sure and tell Jessica I sent you when you visit her blog.  Happy sewing

I am linking here:  The Shady Porch, 3 Mango Seeds

"Otis the Owl"

Meet Otis the Owl.  I made this in about one hour right before Christmas for Baby Girl.  Baby girl wanted a new comforter for her bed for Christmas.  She had several different ones picked out.  She liked the ones with peace signs, she liked the tie dyed ones, she liked the zebra print ones, and she liked the owl ones.  Well, little did she know that way back in the summer Mamaw had gotten her one and put it back for Christmas.  It was a peace sign one.  On Christmas morning we open gifts at our house before we go to Mamaw's.  So....she opened a tie dyed fleece blanket and then she got the zebra print "Otis the Owl".  She was so disapointed.  When she arrived at Mamaw's there was only one small present under the tree for her, not nearly big enough to have a comforter in it.  Little did she know that Mamaw had tucked it away in the back room to surprise her, and boy was she surprised.

To make Otis I used a pattern I found here.  I used a chenille bedspread that was no longer servicable to make the back.  I basically used the pattern and put the pillow together the way I wanted.  Thereare some things I will tweak when I make Otis again.