A Farewell to Isamu

Isamu is a Japanese exchange student who has lived with my son Marty and his family for this school year.  I decided, since he will not be with us for Christmas this year, that I wanted to make for him what I am making for everyone else in the family and give it to him as a farewell present.  I have printed shots of Isamu with Marty's family and with all my grandchildren.  I also wanted one with the whole Vieira family, but since we did not get one this year at Christmas because not everyone was here, I didn't have a current picture to put on his pillow.  I have a fun photo shop program that allows me to cut parts of a picture and insert it into another picture.  So, I found a good shot of Isamu in another picture taken on Christmas Eve.  I cut a bust of him from that picture and pasted it into our Vieira family picture that was taken in 2012. There was a very convenient gap in the family picture right next to Marty where no one was standing.  I was able to paste the bust of Isamu into that spot and it looks like he was there all along.  I had another shot when we were opening gifts on Christmas where Isamu, Marty, Dot, and Ezra were in the picture.  I wanted to put Kim and Lucy into the picture, too, so I cut them from other pictures and pasted them into that picture.  I think they look pretty much like they were in the shot to begin with. It is so fun to play around with photos this way.  After I decided on which pictures to use and adjusted the pictures to be the way I wanted them to be, I printed them onto iron on ink jet printer paper.  I also used Print Shop to make a printed message for the back of the pillow.  I transferred the pictures and message onto plain white cotton material.  I put a border around the front and back to make the pillow look like a framed picture. I have five pictures of Isamu with our families on the front of the pillow and on the back I have the printed message that says: Isamu...We love you! The Vieira Family  2013-2014.

Back of Isamu's pillow.

Front of Isamu's pillow. Can you find Isamu in the center family picture? He is wearing a red shirt and standing right under the picture that is on the wall. The picture on the bottom right has the inserted pictures of Kim (blue head band on the left) and Lucy (standing on the right). The two pictures on the top are Isamu with Marty's family and the other one on the bottom is Isamu with all of the grandchildren. I managed to get that shot without any editing.  Everyone was in the picture already.

Front of Isamu's knitted pillow cover.

Back of Isamu's knitted pillow cover.

I wanted to show a close-up of the diagonal design in the back of Isamu's pillow.

I have also finished Tony's pillow and cover just before I did Isamu's, so I want to show it now, too. I have two other covers and another five pillows finished, but I will show them when I have another complete family set finished.  I still have two covers to complete before I show them.

Front of Tony's cover.  Made to match our furniture.

Back of Tony's cover.

Close-up of the cable pattern in the back of Tony's cover.

Front of Tony's pillow.

Back of Tony's pillow.

This means that I now have completed eight covers, with twelve more to go.  I still need to sew ten more pillows.  They have all been cut, so I just need to sew on the piping, sew the sides, insert the pre-made pillows, and hand stitch the pillow shut.  It goes pretty fast when I am sewing the pillows together.  The covers are what takes the most time. I can complete one in a week if I knit quite a bit each day.  Since I am making the same basic pattern, I am trying to make it more fun by varying the stitch pattern for the backs and the borders of the fronts.  I'm trying to make sure that each cover is unique in its own way.