National Parks Pillows - Project Quilting

Three National Parks pillows, 15" x 15" each, made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting Season 12, Challenge 3, Virtual Vacation

Recap for "Virtual Vacation":

Projects must be inspired by themes of vacation.

Last Fall I discovered the Riley Blake Designs "National Park" fabrics featuring illustrations of the National Parks by the Anderson Design Group. I've been a fan of this type of travel illustration for many years now so when I saw there was fabric with the images on it, I knew I had to buy it. We're also renovating an old attic bedroom into a yoga/dance studio so I also bought some prints from the Anderson Design Group to put up there once it's finished.

When I bought the fabric, I thought I'd use it to make a throw. At that time the plan was to put a small couch up there and where there's a couch or a comfy chair, there needs to be a throw. In fact, if this challenge had been in January, I probably would have made the throw. 

But in the last two weeks we decided instead of a couch we're probably going to have a bench. Throws aren't as useful on a bench. So I considered making a bench cushion but since we don't actually have the bench yet, I didn't know what size I would need. Then I thought about pillows. Even if we went back to the idea of a couch (or even a comfy chair) pillows would still work.

I let the fabric determine the size of the pillows. Four images across and three down was a good size. There are images on the back of the pillows although some of them are repeats. 

 I did some quilting between the images and added a small border fabric so I'd have room to sew them right sides together and turn inside out then stuff with batting scraps.

We've been to several of the National Parks (and it turns out we've been close to others but didn't know at the time). We have been to Ohio's only National Park, Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It is near Cleveland and was declared a National Park in 2000.

= = =

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Virtual Vacation page.