HUGE Pillows for the Triplets

I know I haven't been posting a whole lot lately, but in my defense....I've been busy, busy, busy!  Ya know, the usual...shop hops (yes, more than one...and there's another one coming up next month!), planning projects, reading, traveling (we just got back from Memphis - more on that later this week), and trying to figure out how to make these HUGE pillows for my triplet nephews!

I've never made a pillow before, but after seeing so many cute tutorials online, I finally decided to jump in...BIG time!  Basically, they are baby-sized quilts with flaps attached for slipping in a pillow!  First I had to figure out what size to make the quilty top for a 26" pillow.  What did I decide?  Around 31-32" gave me enough border to stitch to make a bit of a flange all the way around.

Pittsburgh Steelers Football

The first one I tackled (hehe) was the Steelers pillow.  I decided to just strip piece this one (reminiscent of the diamonds in the logo shape).  DH said it looked to bright as the Steelers colors are more of the black and gold, so I added the black border and quilted it up with a spiral in heavy black cotton thread.  After all of the pillows were done, I added the appliqued football - boy, was that fun!

Minecraft Characters

Next, I made the Minecraft top, constantly texting back and forth with my nephew and sister-in-law to check color placement, etc. (I know nothing about Minecraft)!  This was a fun scrappy top to piece together taking inspiration (and making changes that my nephew suggested) from a quilt being sold by "alicecordell" on ebay (giving credit where credit is due).  This top was so graphic that I just decided to quilt it up with a close meander in a neutral Glide thread.

Miami Heat Basketball

Last up was the Heat Pillow.  This one I thought about for a long time.  I really wanted to try making these stack and slash blocks set back together with the thin strips between.  I thought it was a bit reminiscent of the basketball basket.  I am happy with that experiment!  I quilted this with the same thick black cotton thread as the football quilt, but this time with a flame pantograph...ya know, for Heat!  Then, I went back and created the basketball applique using a zigzag stitch for the lines (same for the football). 

These were such fun projects to work on that I really hope the boys love them!  I'm hoping they'll feel free to throw them around on the floor, lay on them to play video/board games, pillow fight and just really USE them!  I knew I wouldn't get them done in time for Christmas, but promised them early this year.  Yikes!  A little late, but the love is there!!!

Linking up to Sew Darn Crafty, BOMs Away, Scrap Basket Sunday, Let's Make Baby Quilts, and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?