When Nancy’s daughter Nichole reached out to me not long after Nancy’s unexpected death, it was not an easy time. Nancy was a vibrant spirit and was beloved by her entire family. Nichole wanted to make sure that many family members would receive a little part of her mom, so we decided a group of twelve memorial pillows would be the best vehicle to achieve her wish. Not to mention that Nancy had a special affinity for decorative pillows. Nichole’s Dad often joked there was never anyplace to sit because of them!

Nichole sent a beautiful array of Nancy’s garments with lots of colors and patterns for me to choose from. Since the color groupings fell into three natural collections, I decided to make four pillows per color grouping with each of the four pillow designs repeating in each grouping. The first grouping included lovely brown and pink tones with cream and black accents.

This was the beginning of laying out the strips for an “X” pattern.

And here are three finished pillows from the first group.

I love the variations that are possible with all of these patterns.

This pieced diamond pattern was a great way to include many different fabrics in a single pillow. The borders and backs are all solid linen.

The second color grouping contained a majority of blacks, grays, and creams for a more muted feeling.

Here are the diamonds going together.

I decided it needed just a bit of color, so I included red accents.

The last color group contained many beautiful blue hues.

And some light greens and a great paisley-esque print.

Two of the tops had a graphic element that Nichole requested be included because it named a place that was important to Nancy. I designed a special pattern to allow for the size and shape of those pieces.

Here is the “X” pattern again in the blue color story, followed by the diamonds.

Each of these twelve pillows were completely unique unto themselves and were graciously distributed to her family by Nichole.