I have had a really good time lately getting some of the craft ideas completed that have long been in the making. 

My chair in our house is a big, purple chair that I just love.  I had been using 2 small throw pillows for the back of it, but they just weren't as comfortable as they could be.  What I did was take the two pillows and along with some additional fabric cut them into patchwork pieces and made one big pillow. 

I bought a pillow form from the fabric store and decided how big the pillow cover would need to be.  I used muslin for the cover, and laid out the cut up pieces of fabric over the muslin in a random way.  After pinning all of the pieces securely in place, I stitched them in place with various stitches using brown and purple threads to give it a quilted appearance. 

I then made a pillow of the two sides and finished the pillow.

I have also been brewing a bottle of vanilla.  I have treated this as I would any tincture and placed 5 vanilla beans in a fifth of some good vodka, for a change from the cheap stuff, to steep.

It has only been about 3 weeks, but it definitely has a vanilla smell and color.  You need to let it sit for about 3-4 months to get the full effect.  I plan on pouring the vanilla into smaller bottles for regular use; then you replace the vodka you have taken out with fresh.  The beans should never need replacing.

I opted to use a pretty bottle, but any glass bottle or even the vodka bottle should do.  I left two of the beans long and split them lengthwise and chopped the other three into inch-long pieces.  You can see the bits of vanilla bean floating in the vodka....