New Pillows

I am so happy to have these pillows finished!  I have had the fabric since last fall and just never did it.  We have painted and redecorated a bit in our living room and kitchen, so new fresh pillows are a nice way to brighten up the couch!

If you are new to quilting, pillows are wonderful projects to make to teach yourself new skills or try patterns and decide if you love it enough to make a whole quilt.  They are also great for a quick project and a feeling of accomplishment!  I have made lots and lots of pillows in my lifetime.  My family members have received many of them as gifts.  They are just good sewing practice.

I had 16" pillow forms to use, but most of the blocks that I wanted to try were 12", and that was smaller than what I wanted.  I spend a lot of time thinking about patterns and what I would like to make, and I also have some rulers and templates that I like to use.  I decided I would use some of my Creative Grids rulers that I love, and I also used a half hexagon template.

The fabric selection is inspired by that big stripe that you see.  It was a piece of fabric on clearance at Fabric.com.  It is actually a Vera Bradley print.  I have never seen her fabric sold anywhere, so that was a surprise!  I purchased the other coordinating prints at The Quilt Company, and I love how they all came together.  The two yellow/gold prints are a little too close, and if I did it over again I would probably select something with a little more contrast, but I am pleased with how they came together.

I'll begin with this star design.  I used 2-1/2" strips sewn together and cut triangles using my Creative Grids 60-degree Double Strip Ruler.  You can cut triangles and arrange them in many different ways.  It is SO FUN!!!  I could just cut out a bunch of different triangles and play around with them for hours.  When you use striped fabric it is EXTRA FUN!  I have used this ruler for several projects.  It is maybe my favorite.  I quilted this with my walking foot on my Janome machine and just followed the hexagon shape around and around.

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For this pillow, I used my Creative Grids 90-Degree Double Strip Ruler.  Santa gave this to me for Christmas, and this was the first project I made using it.  Again, I sewed two 2-1/2" strips together and cut quarter-square triangles with the ruler.  When you put four triangles together it makes an 8-1/2" square.  There are many design possibilities with this, and I can't wait to use it some more!  You can see with that green leaf fabric, stripes can all a lot of interest.  I quilted this simply with straight lines using my walking foot.

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Oh yeah - I used those Creative Grids Scrap Crazy templates again!  One square made up with the template set is 8" finished, so four of them were perfect for a 16" pillow.  To quilt it I used a decorative leaf stitch that my Janome will do using green thread on the seams.

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I really just made this up as I went, but I really like this pillow.  I think it might actually look better as a whole quilt.  Hmmm...  someday.  The center piece is actually made from arranging half hexagon pieces just so.  I learned this from a tutorial by the Missouri Star Quilt Co.  This template is a 10" half hexagon by Natalie Dawn for Missouri Star Quilt Co.  It works well with layer cake squares with very little waste.  It reminds me of the friendship braid patterns that are everywhere now.  On the sides I just fussy cut some of the striped Vera Bradley print and again quilted with straight stitches and a walking foot.

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I like making pillows with the envelope style back so that they can be easily taken off and washed.  I was running short on the brown fabric so I pieced some more stripe strips on the backs, and it really makes the back special, too.

I'm ready to take a rest on my couch with my new pillows and enjoy my lovely living room.  I got a Downton Abbey DVD waiting for me tonight after the kids go to bed.  Sounds like a perfect way to begin the weekend!  Thanks for stopping by :-)