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.

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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!

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.

Step 2: Quilt your block to your heart’s content.
Step 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!!!

Have fun with your Holiday Sewing!