A couple years ago I made a pillow cover out of a pretty purple plaid men's button-up shirt. Unfortunately, I'd made it just a little too small, so the buttons of the shirt that became the closure at the back of the pillow never stayed buttoned. It frustrated me to no end. Finally, I decided to just make a new one using a large English paper pieced hexagon I made a while back. The hexagon, which was the test piece for a design idea, didn't come out right either and wouldn't lay completely flat. A pillow was the perfect way to use it since a pillow is curved and would fill out the wrinkles. After appliqueing the hexagon to a 20" square of kona cotton matched to the flowers within the circle shapes, I quilted straight lines parallel to the sides of the hexagon. As I was quilting, I had the idea to leave a gap after four lines of stitching on each side to add a bit of interest. I'm glad I did. The gap breaks up the stitching, giving the eye something to be drawn to. In the pictures I paired my new pillow with the quilt I won as part of the Wisecraft Handmade book release prize I won with my bunting banner a couple years ago. They look so good together!
Overall, I'm pleased with the way it turned out. You can still see the wrinkles caused by the un-flat-ness of the hexagon, but it's much better than it would have been if I'd put it on a quilt or something. I turned a learning experience from my design into a pillow. Now I just have to perfect the design and turn it into a pattern.
