Hour Glass Pillow (plus tutorial)

This is all about firsts this year!  This is my first pillow ever and it turned out beautifully!  I really love this Robert Kaufman fabric line that I have been making a quilt with for the past 10 months (did I really say that).  It was a great way to use up lots of scraps on this fun pillow.

This hourglass pillow is made to fit a 16" pillow.  I cut 26, 4 1/2"  blocks, 13 are Robert Kaufman print and 13 are Kona cotton solid white.  If I were to make this again, I would have cut my original square blocks 1/2" smaller, making the pillow and blocks smaller.  

All seams are 1/4" seam allowance.

1.  Cut your blocks

2.  Put a print and a solid facing each other.  With a disappearing ink pen, draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner.

3.  Sew 1/4" seam on the left side of the marked line, and then turn it around and sew 1/4" on the opposite side of the marked line.

4.  Cut from corner to corner along the marked line through the middle of the two lines you just stitched.

5.  Cut from corner to corner of the opposite corners.  

This will give you 4 triangular blocks

6.  Press them open with the seam towards the colored (or darker) fabric.

7.  Lay your pieces together placing the blocks correctly and then sew these together to form the blocks

8.  Press flat and use starch to stiffin up the blocks.

Repeat until all blocks are sewn and pressed.

9. Lay all your blocks out to the desired pattern.  Sew them all together!

10.  I made a quilted top on my pillow, so next I placed the pieced top on a layer of batting and backing.  Baste them together and quilt with the desired pattern.

I quilted in all straight lines and so I used my walking foot.  This helps the machine feed both the top and bottom layers evenly through the feed dogs.  I highly recommend you use a walking foot when machine quilting (in straight lines).

I also highly recommend you used aurofil thread.  It speaks for itself in quality.

Here my top is after the quilting.

11. (No picture) cut the back material 6 inches longer than the top piece.  This will allow overlap and rolled seam.  Cut the fabric in half where you would like the pillow to slide in.  On line where you cut, iron 1/2" seam down, roll and iron another 1/2" seam down.  Top stitch this seam.  Repeat with second piece of back fabric.  Inside out, lay the back fabrics on top of quilted top.  Make sure the top stitched seams are overlapping by at least 2".  Cut off excess fabric and stitch around the pillowcase.  

Insert your pillow and you have a fun pillow!

I linked to:

http://www.blossomheartquilts.com

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Patchwork Times Design Wall

Buggy barn stars on the board

I have never made a buggy barn quilt before.  I'm not sure what has always attracted me to them, whether it is that they have such clean cut lines or such fun designs.  All I do know is that I have been wanting to make one for sometime and I finally bit the dust and began.  My first buggy barn quilt will be from the star crossing book.  I began with it because it seemed to be easier for a beginner.

My fabric choice is from the floral gathering Moda line.

There will be 12 stars blocks with double sashing, the gold around the star blocks and then bright colors between the blocks.  

The original star blocks are 12 1/2" and with the 2 1/2" sashing, the blocks are cut to be 16 1/4".  They should be 16 1/2" but due to me being an 1/8" off here or there they will be a 1/4" smaller.  No big deal!

This fabric line draws me in.  It's not a favorite, but I do love this line.  Moda really knows how to create beautiful color combinations.

These fabrics will be the outside border, binding and backing.  The green fabric will be the backing.  I'm not quite sure whether the red or tan should be the binding or sashing.  Any input?  My guess is red for border, because it borders the gold  and will have more contrast.

I've been looking at another buggy barn quilt, with the flowers.  Has anyone tried these, I really think my daughter would like one of these quilts.

I'm linking to Sew Much Ado