101 Handmade Days: Red White and Blue Quilted Pillow

You might have noticed that I’m slightly obsessed with pillows and pillow covers. There is a chance that it *might* be getting out of control… but I think that as long as I give them away, its a safe obsession right?? Please tell me I’m right 😉 Anyways… I made another pillow for my in-laws patio set! I shared this Red, White and Blue Pillow Cover that I made for them last week. Well, I’m adding to their pillow collection only this time, its not a pillow cover, its just a fun quilted pillow!

While its is Red, White and Blue, its not really limited to a particular holiday. The fun mix of different patterned fabric and a random pattern make it a fun quilted pillow suitable for everyday!

Want to make your own? Here’s what you need:

16 Half Square Triangle {HST} blocks, finished at 4.5 inches (HST block tutorial) in a mix of different colors and fabric patterns.
Sewing Machine
Batting
Polyfil
Thread
Quilting Ruler
Rotary Cutter

Instructions:

Start by making your HST blocks. You need at least 16, but I always make a few extra so that I have options when I’m doing my lay out.

Lay your finished HST’s in 4 rows of 4 to make a square. You might want to play around with the placement. I intentionally avoided a specific pattern (trying to force myself a little out of my quilting comfort zone). The only thing I tried to ensure what that the same fabric wasn’t directly next to itself.

Once you’ve settled on your layout, sew your HST’s together in strips of 4, followed by sewing your strips together to create the top of your quilted pillow.

Next, we quilt! Grab a piece of batting bigger than your top piece – Approximately 17 inches square should work just fine. I didn’t want to detract from the fabric on the front, so to quilt this piece I decided to “stitch the ditch”, that just means sewing straight lines down the seams where you joined the squares together.

Once you’ve quilted the top section, set it aside.

For the back piece, I grabbed a large square (roughly 17 inches square) of the red, white and blue herringbone fabric I’m in love with and another large piece of batting.

For this piece I did a little free motion stipple quilting. Basically a one lonnnnngggggg squiggley line all around the fabric piece.

Trim off the access batting from both pieces. The back piece will be a little bit larger than the front piece, but thats ok.

Now, we sew the two quilted pieces together to form the pillow! Line up at least one edge of the front piece with the back, batting side out so that the right sides of the fabric are together.

Sew a 1/2 inche seam all around the top square, leaving a 3-4 inch gap so that you can turn it right side out.

Trim the access fabric and clip your corners. Turn right side out.

Now comes the fun part! Well at least its the fun part for me 🙂 Stuff your pillow full of polyfil!

Once you’ve got your quilted pillow as stuffed with polyfil as you’d like, its time to stitch the hole closed. This is my preferred method to close these kinds of gaps. It’s practically invisible, not at all complicated and is the prefect way to finished off your project.

Once your quilted pillow is stuffed and closed, you’ll probably want to stack a large, heavy book on top of it for a while. This helps even out any lumps and bumps.

I’m really loving the way this quilted pillow turned out…. maybe I’ll keep it for myself after all!?!?!