Christmas Pillow Tops Have Begun

I have decided that this year, everyone will get knitted pillow tops, with homemade pillows made from cotton prints that will be able to be either stuffed into the pillow tops, or left out.  This will provide two looks for one pillow.  The pillow tops will have the first initial for each person.  I will vary the look of the pillows by using different stitch patterns for the borders and different color schemes.  I will need to make twenty pillows, so I want to vary the look for my own benefit of not being bored doing the same thing over and over again.  I finished the first pillow top just as my pattern called for.  However, I feel it is bigger than I would like the pillows to be, so I am down sizing the rest.  I finished Portia's first, so she will have a bigger pillow than everyone else, but that is okay.  I'm not going to make twenty-one pillows just so hers will be the same size. I have started the second pillow for Ellis, and it is more than half finished.  I am doing a lot of math trying to get this first down sized pillow with the right stitch count to accomplish what I want the pillow to look like, and to be able to still use the alphabet charts that came with the original pattern.  I don't want to go into changing the letters.  The work has already been done, so I don't see any advantage to changing that.  Here is the first pillow top.  I will work on the actual pillows at a later time when I feel like doing some machine sewing.  I need to finish the top of each pillow before I can do the pillow to be sure it will fit in the top.

For now, I used my couch pillow, which was just the same size as Portia's pillow top.

This shows how the back of the pillow laps over in the middle so the pillow can be put in and out of the top.

I used a seed stitch for the border of this pillow top and I only used the alternate color for the letter.  I am doing a basket stitch for Ellis."  I also plan to use a cable stitch, garter, and berry stitch.  I'm not sure if I will try anything else.  I will have to see as I go along. I am doing Ellis' back and front center in the main color, and I am using the alternate color on the front for the borders and for the letter.   I will complete one family at a time, so I am nearly half done with the first family.

I will also need to do some other projects.  I just found out that our new baby will be a girl, so I want to get some things started for her.  She is due in August, so I will have to think about what to make for a summer baby.  She will be our first summer baby.  Hurray! Finally a baby born near my birthday.  Almost everyone else are spring, or very early summer (June) babies, except for Ellis, who was a fall baby in October.