A Sweet Quilted Pillow

I am no quilter and I certainly don't pretend to be one.  I have made a few quilts in my time but nothing overly spectacular.  I'm not one for fussy or complicated, simply because I lack the time and the patience to make those beautiful quilts with all the intricate patterns.  I won't even take the time to learn how to stitch and cut a fat quarter despite the fact I've been told it is dead easy to do.  Someday when I have more time and fewer responsibilities who knows, I may expand my horizons a bit.

I don't have any fancy mattes, cutters or templates.  No quilting books either.  But I can cut a few squares, or several, and stitch them together.  No problem.  So for now I keep it simple. 

I used a piece of scrap paper to cut my pattern.  I cut a square measuring 4 1/4" X 4 1/4".  Then I picked out the fabric from my stash, which is always the longest part of the process for me.  It takes me forever to make a decision on what fabric or fabrics to use for any project.  Perhaps that is another reason I don't quilt much.

I chose two complimentary fabrics in blues and yellows for the pillow front that I planned to quilt and a piece to make the back of the pillow that would work well with the fabrics I used on the front.  I cut 8 squares of the blue fabric and 8 squares of the yellow floral fabric using my pattern.  Then I laid them out alternating each one. 

I sewed the squares together in rows and pressed my seams flat, then I sewed my rows together and pressed those seams flat as well.  I then cut a piece of the yellow fabric to match the size of the pillow front.

I kept with the theme by piecing scraps of batting I had leftover from previous projects.  I stitched them with a nice wide zigzag stitch and had just pieces for both the front and back of the pillow.

After pinning the batting to both the front and back pillow pieces I quilted the top.  I did a stitch in the ditch on all the seams and then diagonally across all the squares.  I pinned the front to the back and stitched all the way around leaving a 4 inch opening.  I trimmed the edges and corners before turning it right side out.  I stuffed it well with plenty of polyfil.  Once that was done I was ready to press it again and finish the pillow.

I don't skimp on the stuffing.  Once I had enough stuffed inside I whip stitched the opening closed and plumped it up.

It was a fun little project and took about three hours from start to finish, including making the pattern and choosing the fabrics I used.  I thought about adding trim around the edge but in this case I thought it looked nice just as it was.  Maybe the next one I make I'll do a little trim or ruffle.

Have some fabric scraps to use up?  Maybe a little quilted pillow could be on your project list sometime soon.