Just when I thought I had decided

I have a bit of a break from going into the city for work this week because of school exam schedules and early release.  So I'm puttering around the house doing all sorts of things.  Today I decided to reduce my stash of fabric by actually making something.  I mentioned to DH a while back that I should make pillows for the couch because it might detract from the dingy old couch - it is over 17 years old but it is still sturdy and it is a sofa bed.  I'm not quite ready to try my hand at recovering the couch, but colourful pillows I can handle.

So today I pulled together a pile of fabric that seemed to go with the living room and started a pillow.  I decided to use some green velvet from old curtains as the base for the front and also the back of the pillows.  So after some playing around I came up with this.

With the help of DD the elder, we decided that the greenish pieces in the middle of the top and bottom would help tie things to the back fabric.  But then I decided that I really liked the side pieces and tried it with all four center squares the same, but with a brown back.

I really like this one!  I like the original as well, but I love the burgundy and gold batik fabric so much that I think I'll stick with the second colourway.  Of course that means I've totally covered the green velvet, but maybe it will survive in the second pillow.

The ginkgo leaf piece in the center is a mystery to me.  I purchased a huge stack of fabric squares at my EGA guild silent auction last year so DD the younger had some interesting things to quilt with.  Well, since that hasn't happened yet, I went through the stack and found the gold leaves.  So I can't tell you anything about how it was made.  But it is really nice.