I have been thinking about re-doing the pillows in our living room for quite some time.  I was going to go at it alone, but then I realized moms know best... and help best.

So I started mentioning this great idea to my mom.  Then all the fabric came on sale for 60% off.  

And then the great pillow project was born.

Our whole house is done in blues, greens, and grays.  I guess you can say we were sick of apartment beige. 

I had pinned some fun ideas that I saw on Pinterest.  This is the link I used for the flower pillow.

I ended spending $50 total.  This bought all of the background material and 2 additional pillow forms.  The rest of the materials I had (old pillow forms that I removed the coverings from) or my mom had.  Luckily, my mom had wool that matched my colors perfectly.  And it turns out, if you wash wool it becomes felt-like in texture and style.  Otherwise, just find matching felt.  Easy-peasy.

One of the best parts of having a crafty mom is that you can throw out an idea and she helps you make it happen.  For example, I knew I wanted some with just the brown flower design on them.  She had the idea to add the extra stitching around the sides.  This added an extra pop and made them less homemade looking (at least in my opinion).  Also, for all of the pillows like the one below, I used the same off-white suede-ish fabric that the other pillows were made of.  That is because the pretty design fabric was $45 a yard and the off-white suede was $14 a yard.  BIG price difference.  (Of course, make sure you get this for at least 50% off the original price with either coupons or a sale.)

Finally, the circle idea kind of came off this pin.  But it didn't link to any instructions AND my mom thought we should do layered circles.  After the whole pillow was put together we decided we should have had smaller spacing between the rows.  But pretend I didn't say that and then maybe you wouldn't notice?  Regardless, I love how they turned out and it gave a living room a relatively cheap face lift!

In addition to the 5 pillows above, I also made 3 more plainer pillows for our bedroom.  Sorry, no pictures (never took any).  In all, if my mom and I worked straight through, this probably would have taken 4ish hours.  Including 'design time'.  We had friends over, had breaks for dinner and snacks, and I think it took me about 2 hours to actually start working efficiently.  Therefore, it took us 7 hours. :)  

It was so much fun and we decided we should have a monthly craft night.  

Oh, and a close up of the flower pillow just because.