A few months ago my lovely neighbor, Marie, had an idea! I call her the Cookie Lady. She makes the most wonderful decorated sugar cookies on the planet. I’m the Quilting Lady and taught her how to collage quilt. Just because. We like to say we are the most creative people in our cul-de-sac.

She had a very specific design in mind for a pillow. Her son attends The University of Alabama. This fall he will be a sophomore. In between her very busy schedule making cookies (seriously, her house smells so amazing) and my schedule (quilting, traveling, and marketing my book), we managed to get together and create a one-of-a-kind University of Alabama pillow!

Thankfully, I remembered having an elephant template (what are the chances of that?) for a future quilt. Marie and I traveled to our local quilt store where she picked out a crimson grunge for the elephant and pillow piping, and houndstooth for the pillow background and backing. Marie also wanted something different for the elephant’s ear. Her son is a golfer and we found a “packed” golf ball novelty that was perfect!

Back at my house, we fused the back of a piece of crimson grunge and a small piece of golf ball fabric with Misty Fuse. It’s lighter than Steam-A-Seam 2 Lite which is my go-to for collage. I wanted something to hold the pieces to the houndstooth fabric. There are only three pieces to the elephant: ears, body/face and tail. After fusing, we traced the outlines and cut out the pieces and fused to the pillow top. I used a blanket stitch to machine applique the edges.

Next, we took the pillow front and back and piping fabric to A Needle and Thread. It is a sewing lounge, and so much more, in Old Town Spring. There was no way I was going to tackle piping on the pillow. I love how the pillow turned out. Erica is amazing!

Sometimes a great idea turns into a magical pillow! I think we did Big Al proud!