Tutorial – Leftovers Pillow

This post was originally a guest post over at Quilter in the Gap as part of the 3rd quarter wrap up for the Finish-A-Long. I thought it might be good to re-post it now as the days left until Christmas are quickly dwindling. This tutorial will show you how to breathe new life into a leftover quilt block.

_______________________________________________________________________

Today I have a fun pillow tutorial for you. I am calling it the “Leftovers Pillow”. I thought this project couldn’t be more perfect for the Finish-A-Long, this project, with the exception of the pillow form, was made entirely from leftovers from projects I’ve made this quarter!

Feathered Star Leftovers Pillow

For this tutorial I will not be giving you measurements, aside from seam allowances, because I want you to know that you can make this pillow with ANY SIZE block!

Supplies:

  • Leftover Quilt Block
  • Leftover Strips for block border
  • Leftover batting from previous quilt (at least 2.5” larger than block on all sides)
  • Leftover Muslin from quilt backing
  • Leftover Scrap for Zipper – 2” x 4”
  • Zipper – leftover from a purse project that ended up not needing a zipper
  • Pillow form – size will depend on your finished quilt block (my block was 15.5” x 15.5” – I added a 1.5” border all the way around to finish the block out at 17.5” – I bought a 18” pillow form so my pillow would be extra full and squishy.)

Let’s Get Sewing!

Step 1: Baste your quilt block – this project is so small that I decided to pin baste my block. Leftovers Pillow Basted

Step 2: Quilt your block to your heart’s content.
Quilted Leftovers PillowStep 3: Add your borders – I added mine to the block after I finished the quilting

Step 4: Prepare Zipper

Step 5: Prep Backing fabric – mine was significantly larger than my quilted piece. I cut it to be as wide as the block – in my case 17.5” wide and then I cut it in half, not worrying about the length yet, you will trim the whole backing down to size after you have installed the zipper.

Step 6: Trim backing down to same size as quilt block – make sure you OPEN the zipper!!!

Step 7: Pin and all the way around and sew using ¼” seam, trim corners

Step 8: Turn Through the zipper and use something to push out the corners – I used my purple thang, but almost anything will work!

Step 9: Insert the pillow form, zip and enjoy!!!

Feathered Star Leftovers Pillow

Have fun with your Holiday Sewing!

About Melissa Dunworth

Owner/Operator
This entry was posted in tutorial. Bookmark the permalink.

10 Responses to Tutorial – Leftovers Pillow

  1. Vicki says:

    I love this pillow! It’s one of my favorites!

  2. Lyanna L. says:

    Love the pillow – what a fun idea! =)

  3. Sondra says:

    I remember this pillow and LOVE IT!

  4. Sondra says:

    OPPS! meant to also say it is such a sweet design, love the colors, etc.

  5. Beth says:

    Great pillow! I really like the quilting!

  6. Snoodles says:

    Gorgeous pillow, girl! You sure can rock some left-overs! 🙂

  7. Lisa L. says:

    I love this pillow! Totally doing it with some spare blocks! 🙂

  8. This is gorgeous! I call my leftover’s ‘Orphan Blocks’ and I like to make owls and elephants from them 🙂 May have to make a pillow or two now 😉

  9. Sharon says:

    This is so pretty with the white and pastels! Great pillow

  10. Susan says:

    Good time to repost, indeed! Those people we forgot to put on the list are now covered. =)

Comments are closed.