6 Months = 4 Pillows

Sweet cheesus, I just might be the laziest, most procrastinating person in the world.  Way, way back in February I was trolling Design*Sponge and came across this tutorial on zippered throw pillows (the same tutorial I used to make the petbed/end table pillow).  It seemed easy enough and I thought it would be a perfect project to get cracking on my sewing and jazz up our lackluster throw pillows that came included with our sectional.  While they are softish and perfect for naps, they practically disappear on the couch and don't add much visual interest.  On top of that, Chewie has recently taken it upon himself to chew little holes in the corners of the pillows, so I guess he didn't like them much, either.

I convinced dragged John to Jo-Ann's and found some fun cotton fabrics to accent our orange walls, along with matching zippers and thread.  Back at home... it took me almost six months to finish the darn things.  I honestly don't remember when I actually started, but through some email investigation, it was mid-February when I asked John if he'd take me out to Jo-Ann's to hunt for fabric.  I started with the plain green-blue fabric and it was just a nightmare.  I can't cut a straight line to save my life and pretty much botched my first squares, but somehow managed to get them in a square shape.  Then I didn't understand the instructions on installing the zippers and did a whole bunch of the exact opposite things as I should have done.  Let's just say there was a bunch of seam ripping going on.  It was pretty dismal and distressing and an easy project to set aside until I had grown some courage.  In the meantime, we came up with a bunch of other things and my poor empty sacks sat alone along with the untouched floral fabric.

The two fabrics.  I forgot any "before" or "during" photos.  Also notice lifelike cat head pillow.

This also happened...

The innards of one of pillow forms.  It didn't deserve this.  :'(

My craziness drives John crazy and he instituted a "no new projects until Amanda finishes old projects" rule... which we sorta almost follow.  I realized I need to stay focused, too, or our house will be littered with empty pillow sacks and half-finished painting projects and sadness.  Like it is now, but I'm working on it!  So, a couple weekends ago I finally sat down and took care of these darn things.  You might remember I had a nice thing going upstairs in my Mom Den, but with our wicked heat wave, it's about 1,000 degrees on our second floor and I was afraid of being found all dessicated like the creepy dried up apple man my Grandma had in front of my sewing machine, pillow cases still unfinished... so I gathered up my stuff and moved down into the basement where I could sew and watch Candice Olson (the only downside being it gave Elliot more angles to jump up on the table and lay on my fabric, or dig on my fabric, or sit under the table and paw at my fabric...).

My current situation, complete with pet butts.

I read and re-read the instructions and stared at my fabric and examined my zippers and thought back to all my mistakes and moved forward.  Luckily, it went so much better the second time around.  I still struggled to cut square squares, even though I was using my new cutting board, my fancy rotary cutter, a level (for a straight edge), and! an actual square!  I don't know what my problem is.  By some miracle, I didn't mess them up too badly and I'd have to say, they came out pretty OK.

A pillow, six months in the making! 

A zipper!  Check out my mediocre skills!

So, that's that.  In six months, I finished four pillows.  Maybe five, if you count the pet bed hexapillow.  In the meantime, I've managed to amass fabric with the intentions of making a shower curtain for our upstairs slanty bathroom, a window covering for John's office, and more pillows for our main floor living room!  I guess I didn't do to well sticking to my "no new projects" rule, but my setbacks and struggles with these wretched pillows didn't seem to dampen my enthusiasm, either...