I must love my brother

So, two years ago, my brother asked me to make him a pirate's outfit for Halloween. I am sad to say I directed him to a Halloween costume site since I didn't get round to making him a pirate shirt and the rest of the accoutrement for the costume. I did buy him an eye patch, though. And almost got a soft toy parrot as well.

He does not live in the same city as me and so we often chat via Facebook or Skype. One day, he asked me if I would make him some funky cushion covers. He directed me to this picture below. Dig Dug pillows he called them. I do not recall playing this game as a child. Space Invaders, yes. Frogger, yes. But not Dig Dug.
I spent hours trying to figure out the best way to do it. But it kinda fell to the wayside.




He came back and asked if I was going to make him Pacman pillows instead. He sent me this picture instead. The ghosts from Pacman I could identify with. So. after some hemming and hawing, it game me an excuse to increase my quilting stash.




















Last weekend, I got to work, trying to figure out how to get this done. Here is evidence I was working on it.


Oy vey!! There are over 200 squares. In order to make a decent sized pillow, each square would need to be about 1 inch. That was a lot of cutting,and sewing. I was going to make him at least 3 pillows. It seems like a very painstaking thing to do.
So, because this weekend, I was snowed in (at least 10 inches of snow over 2 days), I started working on the cushion cover.



Counting squares isn't fun. That was why I gave up on cross stitch. I was too impatient. After two hours, it wasn't even half done.
Oy! Oy! Oy! Still, after over two hours, I kinda got the hang of it and persisted. I am happy to say, it is completed, The jury is still out on whether I am going to complete two more pillow covers...... I know I have a healthy masochistic streak but that seems like a whole lot of work. The orange in the completed cushion cover isn't as bright as I do not have a flash on the Blackberry I took the picture with.The orange is a lot more intense.



I was poking around someone's blog yesterday and she had done a disappearing nine patch which she deconstructed and added plain borders around. I like what she did and I think I am going to do the same with my first quilt top. I still shudder at the thought of unpicking everything but I think for the long run, I will be happier with that decision. Plus, I do think the borders will make the quilt bigger and also improve the way it looks.