Patchwork Pillows & Playtime

I was tossing in a load of laundry today and realized I was like the cobbler with holes in his shoes. The toss pillows I made for our family room have long since lost their "luster".
Actually I don't even remember how long ago I made them but new ones are definitely overdue. Today I went into my "room of many fabrics" and started pulling out some possibilities.
Speaking of the "room with many fabrics, we had a small party New Years day and one of our guests had used the ladies room upstairs and when she came down she grabbed me by the arm and was beaming as she said breathlessly "you have got to show my boyfriend your fabric, he thinks I am the only one with a room of fabric" We had quite a chuckle over that one. Actually, last year, I have been working on whittling down my cache of fabric and will continue to do so in 2009 and so I plan to make the pillows from fabric on hand.


I began a few sketches this afternoon. I want to make something kind of quirky and more colorful this time around, as the old ones are, well, boring. I liked them when I made them, of course we've been looking at them for a long time too.
Here's what I have pulled off the shelves so far. We'll see which ones end up in the new pillows.
I won't be making these until mid January when I and 7 friends hit the road for our semi-annual quilt retreat. Ah yes, 4 nights and 5 days of quilting playtime & mayhem, no cooking, no dishes, no laundry, no dusting, no errands, no interruptions, are you getting the picture? We started doing this about 8 years ago and we start getting giddy when retreat draws near. We start making lists of all we need to pack, we decide on our projects and always bring too many, we start laying in supplies of chocolate and make our lists for quilt shop stops on the way. I try to plan a project that isn't business related but when I have a deadline then it comes with me, usually I have a little of both business and personal projects that bring so this time I will be making my new pillows and perhaps finishing a UFO or two and who knows what else I'll pack into the car.
I love getting to work side by side with my group of friends and to see all of the fabulous creations that blossom as the days go by, not to mention the especially good belly laughs that spread like a contagion around the room as we stitch and chatter, certainly food for the soul.