Feathered Friends exchange sent and received

Goldie was my partner for the Feathered Friends exchange on the SBEBB. I stitched For the Birds by Drawn Thread for her. I saw that she had a few Drawn Thread pieces in her stitching album, so I figured this was a safe bet. And I love Drawn Thread, so I was excited about stitching this piece. I also gave her the chart for Three Friends, which incidentally has birds! The three floss skeins in the picture below are ones called for in the chart too. Remember my bird pins made of polymer clay? I included the cardinal set in her exchange, plus some Burt's Bees products and some chocolate Altoids. I'm glad I bought all this before Matt got laid off!

Now let me complain a bit about making the pillow. This is the first one I've sewn myself. Mom gave me advice, but I did it all myself. It's basically two front/backs sewn together with a top stitch on the sewing machine to enclose the pillow. I learned that I really need to use a pillow form if I'm going to try to top stitch the thing closed. So I made a pillow out of batting and stuffing. I had to do the top stitching twice because I just couldn't stuff it enough without doing the pillow form. I also learned that chalk pens don't come out easily, and that unwashed fabric will bleed (learned when I took a wet towel to try to get the chalk out). I think it turned out pretty well for all that.