Memorial Envelope Pillow & Button Jewelry

I machine pieced this envelope pillow on my Bernina 240.
I quilted this pillow on my Janome QMP-18 long arm.

Finished size: 16" x 16"

(click on photos to enlarge)

✫FINISHED PILLOW:✫

Recently I received a box of clothing from a widow whose husband passed away just over a year ago. She asked me to make memorial quilts for her two grown children. But I also wanted to make something for her to have from her husband's clothing, too. So referring to Melanie Ham's tutorial, I made her an envelope cover throw pillow.

Front piecing: It is created using 5 different fabrics of memorial shirts, plus a pair of blue jeans. Following Leland Avenue's block tutorial, "Hourglass at Sunset", I made the central block of the pillow front. Then I surrounded the block with 3.5" wide strips of more shirt fabric to make the pillow cover large enough.

Back: The backing is blue jean fabric from a pair of her husband's jean shorts.

Quilt Stitching: "Feathered Hearts" are quilted into each of the four quadrants of the pillow.
I used "Out of the Blue" (So Fine 50 #433) to stitch the quilting.

The pillow in its home, made just for that exact spot.

✫PROGRESS PHOTOS:✫

Construction-Front:

Before I began to cut the needed pieces to construct the pillow's central block, I pressed and heavily starched each shirt.

The jean shorts were the exact size I needed to make the back of the pillow envelope.

Quilting:

After attaching a layer of unbleached muslin to my Janome QMP18 long arm machine, I added a double layer of cotton batting, and then laid the pillow top onto the sandwich.

I divided the pillow top into four areas, and then setup my machine to stitch a "Feathered Hearts" block into each section.

The "Out of the Blue" (So Fine 50 #433) thread provided the perfect contrast to the shirt fabrics.

✫EXTRAS:✫

In addition to the envelope pillow, I also took the buttons from all of her husband's shirts, and made her some button earrings and a bracelet. Although some may find the jewelry a bit kitchy or quirky, she really loves them.