hello Living Color Pillow

This morning Aria got comfy on the couch with our new pillow and my Colorbrick quilt.  It was a very warm morning...  I didn't make them to match, per se, but Good Folks make good company.

I put the final stitches on my Living Color pillow last night, while watching "The Invention of Lying" (which was a bust IMO).  The "twisted trees" design is from The New Crewel.  Because getting to the fabric store is just too much trouble for this busy mom, I recycled an old pillow, ripping out its stuffing to fill this new one, and backed my design with some yellow decorator's weight fabric I had lying around.  Not sure if it was correct to do so, but I used one of those curved, semi-circular needles to hand stitch the bottom side closed.  A straight needle was causing a little ridge of fabric to form, but the circular needle made for a smooth finish.  So, I guess that's right?

I was very tempted to try an invisible zipper closure via Sew Katie Did's tutorial, but in the end I decided to hand stitch it closed.  And, you know, for what it's worth, I enjoy hand stitching so much that I'd probably just rip it open, remove stuffing, wash and restitch if necessary!  How's that for stubborn?

By the way, gots to give credit to my mama who suggested a mirrored quilting design on the natural Essex linen/cotton frame.  I do love quilting patterns on solids it seems.