Pleasingly Plump Patchwork Pillows and Chair Recovery

I haven't been getting quite as much knitting done lately as I'm working on my to-do list.  The to-do list was revised over the Christmas holidays, and was given both a new deadline and a bribe: If I get it all done by March 21st, I get to make a Relatively Frivolous Yarn Purchase.  Why Relatively?  I don't think I could make it Entirely Frivolous, and I don't know if I'll change my mind about what to make by March (right now I'm thinking some KidSilk Haze for Lacy Ribbons by Rosemary Hill), so I'm making it flexible.

A surprising amount of my daunting to-do list was sewing, which I can do, but procrastinate about a lot.  I love the results, but don't much enjoy the doing, so it's a mystery to me why my fabric stash is somewhat bigger than the yarn stash, and why I give myself so many sewing projects to do.  Mending, well, that's just family life, and it stacks up.  I charged through that over the holidays, and then was left to finish up some pillows that I'd decided to make for some strange reason.  These are my first attempts at patchwork, and they turned out reasonably well.  I finished the two below (one for each daughter) quite some time ago, but the one above was only just completed thanks to my wonderful mother and her excellent zipper installation abilities.

Another to-do involved re-covering the dining room chairs, which I just finished up today, and I am very pleased with the results: Before, In Which I Discover the Cover was Even Grubbier than I Thought, After.

 

I added some padding (they had approximately none before), resulting in much nicer chairs than before and another thing struck off the to-do list.

Now to re-organize the bookshelves.  Sigh.