Our pretty piped pillow tutorial offers free downloadable patterns for a friendly elephant and a graceful giraffe. If you are clever with paper and pen, you can draw additional shapes and expand your zoo. For easiest appliquéing, keep curves large and smooth and avoid tiny points. These animal appliqué pillows are just one of eight projects in our new nursery series sponsored by our good friends at Michael Miller Fabrics, and are created using their new Color Story concept. We love the Citron and Gray 'Huevos' fabric we chose for the pillow backs and the elephant appliqué. Repeating circles that are chubby and sweet, like little soap bubbles.

A crib skirt has two main functions: 1) it looks cute as can be, and 2) when it hangs all the way to the floor, it creates a secret, under-bed storage space. For our sleek and modern baby boy nursery, we choose a crisp pleated skirt rather than ruffles. This helps with arguments down the road, such as when my son claims deep emotional scars from wearing his older sister's ruffled overalls (it was one small ruffle on the pocket and he was two... come on!). This crib skirt tutorial is just one of eight pieces in our new nursery series sponsored by our good friends at Michael Miller Fabrics, and is created using their new Color Story concept.