Pillow Talk Swap 5 Reveal

I can finally reveal the pillow I made for my partner in this round of the Pillow Talk Swap! As luck would have it, my secret partner was the talented Darci of Stitches and Scissors. If you haven't had a chance to check out her blog you really should. Darci is super sweet and so talented and she also hosts the popular Spicing Up The Kitchen Swap on Flickr. She also has a great eye. Darci had me in the SavVy Seasons Swap last fall and made me a cute table runner that was perfect for my Thanksgiving table, a matching dish towel that has a permanent residence on the handle of my oven, and a super cute mug rug that lives on the desk in my office, in fact it travels from job to job with me. So the pressure was on to return the favor. In all honesty, I was actually thrilled that I could return the swap favor to Darci. Opportunities like this don't happen very often.

I had a good sense of Darci's likes since I have been loyally following her blog since I received her awesome package back in October. I knew that Darci loves scrappy and green (which is my favorite color too) and I started to stalk her to find out some of her favorite fabrics and designers. I really wanted to include some of her favorites or ISOs in what I was making for her. I also know that Darci has two gorgeous girls and is not afraid of a little whimsy.

I had a different plan for her pillow initially but then she posted a comment about the hexagon table runner I was making in another swap and I got an idea and ran with it. I knew that Darci also loves spiderwebs and string blocks so I gathered some of her favorite fabrics (Midwest Modern, It's a Hoot, Park Slope) and decided to make a hexagonal string pillow.

I wasn't sure if my idea was going to work at first but I drafted a paper template and thought I would give it a shot. But I also took a risk and left the center open so I could put an unbroken, whimsical hexie in the center. Much to my surprise it actually worked. I topstitched the center hexie on and used straight line quilting with variegated yellow cotton thread.

I kept the back simple using some Park Slope (one of her favorites) and made an envelope opening. She had also mentioned that she was wild about the It's a Hoot yellow dots, again in a different swap (how fortuitous) so I used that to finish off the back.

I rounded out the package with some large Park Slope scraps I had left over since it's one of her favorite lines. And she lucked out because that It's a Hoot Yellow Dots that she had on her ISO list was still in stock at the Urban Craft Center so I picked up half a yard for her. Then I threw in a 20" x 20" pillow form and some useful tools in her favorite color (green) to round out the package.

This was a tough one to part with for sure. I fell in love with this pillow and I hope that Darci feels the same! I really, really loved making this for her and it was a great feeling being about to return the swappy love.