holiday pillows for Michael Miller Fabrics

One of my goals for the past few years has been to have my work included in a booth at Quilt Market (a bi-annual trade show for quilt shops). Last fall, I was able to accomplish that goal (yay!) when I was asked by Michael Miller Fabrics to create two pillows for their fall Quilt Market booth, using fabrics from their holiday Glitz collection.

Since the objective was to showcase the green, gold, red, and white prints, I wanted to stick with clean, simple designs that referenced the holidays, but weren't over the top. For the first pillow, I envisioned creating a minimal wreath design. I first thought of sewing one of the rings from Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl Quilt, but I wanted something that had a bit more space in the borders. Not long after, I found Svetlana of Sotak Handmade's quilted pillow design---featuring a patchwork ring---and thought it would be lovely in this context.

The resulting pillow cover wound up being so pretty and simple, and a subtle nod to the holidays.

Photo by Michael Miller Fabrics

For the second pillow, I created a design inspired by overlapping cranberry garlands. I made each garland by fusing small red circles to the patchwork pillow top, and then stitching a line through each "strand."

In addition to making the pillow, I also wrote up a free tutorial for it, which is now available on Michael Miller's web site, if you would like to make your own. 

Each of the pillow backs featured more of the Glitz prints and hidden zippers (I used Svetlana's tutorial---my favorite method!), for a fun, festive finish.

P.S. Looking for this month's link-up for the Modern Sampler Quilt Along? It will be posted later this week, so stay tuned!