Creative urges come in big, gigantic, obsessive spurts these days. The same sort of 'drop whatever I'm doing and forget about dinner ' kind of urge that hit me with this pillow. The form is a h u g e ex-IKEA pillow we used in the kid's playroom, 30 inches square. A good TV watching, lounging pillow, only it wasn't nearly fluffy enough. So, the first thing I did was take every ounce of polyfil I had in the house and crammed it inside the pillow form. Much better.
Have you ever done this with your couch pillows, by the way? We had the droopiest, saggiest back cushions on our couch for years until I spent an afternoon stuffing 5 big bags of polyfil in them. The difference is nothing short of life changing.
Anyway, back to the pillow. I have been collecting wool sweaters of various colors and patterns for years (as many of us, I'm sure). I am stingy about using them, no idea why really. Now I'm thinking it was because I just didn't have the right project. I got this bee in my bonnet for patchwork woolens after finding MeS textiles via Rosa. I seriously want every pillow and blanket they make. I had already been feeling more and more that it is such a waste to keep these felted sweaters that I love tucked away for that project that never seems to materialize, so I jumped in and here is the result. Who cares if it will be soon so warm we won't want to go near the feel of wool??
My favorite square (originally my favorite sweater), a skier. I may do some embroidery at the corners of the squares, but more than likely I will leave it as it is.
*Edited to answer some questions that came up in the comments- All of the sweaters were felted before I cut them up, so there is no raveling of the edges. I quickly found some how-to instructions on felting here, if that helps at all. I used my sewing machine to stitch this pillow up, not a serger, and used the "stretch" stitch setting (you could probably get by with a regular stitch if you're careful, but the stretch stitch helped to keep all the pieces from stretching out and distorting. Careful cutting, pinning and lining up of the edges helps. I did not back the finished patchwork with anything. I briefly considered it, but the felted pieces are thick and a muslin back would have been too lightweight. Plus, it really doesn't need it. The back of the pillow has an envelope closure made with some secondhand brown hessian cloth I had. I was very reluctant to use it (because I really like it), but because I could basically use the entire piece intact on the pillow, with very little cutting down, I can reuse it and have a large piece if I ever want to. I have been known to take things apart many times to reuse them. Hope this helps.
I also had a big obsessive spurt of creative energy plan to finish a flock of felt birds in time for Easter, but then completely lost my mojo. The two I did finish, however, will be yours for the taking today (3/11) over here around 12 pm 1:00pm pacific time. I love the way these turned out, they are in pale colors of wool felt, trimmed out with Liberty of London cotton tana lawn.
