Pillows, Pillows and more Pillows

My brother (2nd out of 5) bought a house a little over a year ago, and, being a bachelor, moved in with the bare minimal and sat tight. When I was out there last Christmas, C gave me a tour of his house and in the course of the tour, mentioned that he needed to get some pillows for his couch. I mentioned that I could sew him some....and I really meant to. Fast forward about 13 months and here we are...somewhere between then and now: I got really, really sick, my husbands job changed, we made a decision to move from Indiana to Arizona and then, we MOVED to Arizona.....I bought the fabric a long time ago, back in Indiana...

This summer mom helped C paint all the rooms and the woodwork in his house...actually, mom did all the painting but C did help pick out the colors. I had mom send me the paint colors and, lucky me, most of the fabric I bought matched....

I was stumped for quite awhile......trying to figure out how to make some cool pillows that wouldn't be too "girly" but would be somewhat "artsy" and unique. And then inspiration hit.....I saw this pillow on Cluck, Cluck Sew and fell in love.
For as long as I can remember, C has loved elephants. With this in mind, I came across 2 tapestry pillows at a thrift store this summer and the tapestry had elephants woven in it

so I bought them both with the intention of taking them apart reusing them somehow for C's pillows. For one of his recent birthday presents, he asked mom to draw him a picture of a gnarly tree with an elephant head in it. I need to get a picture of it so you can see it....my mom is an incredibly talented artist. ANYWAY...one night when I couldn't sleep, I was laying in bed and suddenly this thought came to me...using Allison's tree pillow idea, which would tie in with mom's picture, and I could cut the leaves out of the elephant tapestry..tree and elephant theme....but subtle...Oh, I was soooo proud of myself.
Here is a picture (not the prettiest picture but the best I could do for now) of my elephant in the leaves pillow


and a shot of the other one I made:


I can hardly wait to finish a couple more and get them sent to C.....Oh, and you really need to check out : http://www.cluckclucksew.com/ It is one of my favorite blogs!!