Under My Head

(affiliate links to my fabric designs)

Someone left a sweet little snowflake pillow on my porch right before Christmas. I used the snowflake designs on that tiny little pillow as crochet inspiration, and I shared the patterns each week via my Snowflake Mondays. I thought it would be fun to celebrate our sixth annual Make a Snowflake Day by recreating the little pillow with my crocheted snowflake interpretations on a Spoonflower fabric panel. I ordered the fabric on January 11. It didn't arrive in time for our Snowflake Ball on February 6, but it still became a fabulous pillow!

Here are my crocheted snowflake interpretations from the little pillow.

I photographed the white flakes on a piece of blue batik, then worked a little Photoshop magic to create the Spoonflower fabric panel. I had four repeats printed on yard of fleece. I chose fleece because I thought that would make the pillow really soft. Oh, was I right! I had ordered Spoonflower fleece once before, but I think they've upgraded because this batch is every bit as wonderful as the fleece I might buy in a fabric store.

I picked one of my Colorado 14er designs for the pillow backing, hoping the colors might go okay with the pillow front. Oh, am I ever pleased with the actual fabric!

I looked up down stuffing, and the price was so far out of my range, I decided I could use up some otherwise unusable quilt scraps inside the pillow. I decided to use up some of my batting remnants to line the pillow to pad the leftovers and make the pillow not quite so stiff. However, I didn't have enough large batting leftovers to make two linings. I have four big pieces, but I didn't want to cut into them because they are the perfect size for baby quilts. Oh, and I just learned I need to have another baby quilt finished by the end of March...

Last year when quilt batting was nowhere to be found, I bought an entire bolt of my favorite brand because I found one. I didn't even really scrutinize the price. I thought the bolt might be enough to finish all my WIPs, so I justified the expense. I truly did expect to finish seven or eight more quilts than I actually did last year! Yesterday I looked up how much a full bolt of batting would cost now, and it's $90 more than what I paid, so I consider this expense even more of a bargain now. I actually consider myself very lucky!!!

I had not cut into the stash yet. I measured and cut off a strip big enough to make three pillow linings. I didn't know if my cheap little sewing machine could handle two layers of fleece and six layers of batting, but I was about to find out.

The machine seaming wasn't the easiest I've ever completed, but it wasn't the most difficult, either. The thread broke only twice. It took longer to stuff the pillow than it did to sew all the way around it, except for the eight inch opening for stuffing.

I dug out all my quilt clippings from the past six or so years. I separated out some of the batting scraps because I can use that to stuff amigurumi.

And this is what I had left for pillow stuffing! Each of the sandwich-sized bags contains the clippings from two or three quilts! The big freezer bags have leftovers from T-shirt quilts and handcloth baby bibs.

I thought I might have enough clippings to finish a second pillow, too. But alas, all that's leftover now that the pillow is stuffed are the big bags. Just like that, all the little bags are gone! I really cleared out a bunch of storage space!!!

After stuffing, the pillow opening was hand-stiched closed with an upholstery needle in about 25 minutes. Now I lean on my newest pillow while I watch a movie, or I can lift it as a great arm workout. I can't believe how heavy it is! I guess I should weigh it to give that statement some proof...

Okay, so the pillow officially weighs 7 pounds. Not as heavy as it felt, but it is still a heavy pillow!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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