Pillows

 I wanted to add a little splash of red and turquoise to my living room, so I sewed up these two couch pillows.  For this rectangle pillow, I gathered some 1-1/2 inch strips of turquoise material and sewed them on the pillow front corner-to-corner.  For the flower, I twisted and coiled the fabric strips and hand-stitched them to the pillow front. I had a tendency to pull my hand stitches tight, and the fabric gathered, so I had to watch it and loosen the stitches a bit as I went.  After the front was finished, I sewed the back and front together, stuffed the pillow, and hand-stitched it closed. 

For the black polka dot pillow, I gathered both long sides of a 30-inch strip of red fabric and sewed two 1-inch strips (folded in half) of cream fabric to each edge of gathered red fabric.   I then sewed the black polka dot fabric to each edge (right sides together).  Once that was done, I coiled and stitched down the turquoise ric-rac and added the red button.