Simplicity Pillow: Bloom Cherry Blossoms

Pillows are great and you can never have enough of them.  Swap them out according to season, room decor or even to match your mood.  There are many reasons why you can never have enough of them around.  Personally, I don't think I have enough pillows - actually barely any.  I usually admire the ones in the stores or in peoples' homes but I realized that my own home is lacking pillows.


That's why I'm dedicating my next few smaller projects to PILLOWS :).  I have a few ideas in mind - in this post I will share my first:  Simplicity Pillow.  Here's my first one (I made quite a few of these since I love that fabric):




As the name implies, it is simple.  Well I should say Simple and FABULOUS.  Because besides from being a simple pillow to make, you have to first find yourself a FABULOUS piece of fabric you absolutely adore.  Can't be too hard these days since there are so many great ones out there.  Here's my quick tutorial on how to create the Simplicity Pillow.

Materials:

• beautiful cotton print fabric - cut 16.5" x 17": Bloom Cherry blossoms by Studio E
• Solid coordinating fabric - cut 16.5" x 17": Amy Butler Solid Periwinkle
• Batting - cut 16.5" x 17": Natural Cotton
• Thread: One to match cotton print, one to match darker solid fabric

1. Composing the pillow top quilt: Layer the  cotton print, batting and solid together in that order.  Make sure the cotton print is right side up.

2. Going in one direction, mark quilt lines about 4 inches apart - leaving the extra fabric (since the length is either 6.5" or 7") on the outer strip.  For small projects I just 1/4" quilting tape.

3. Quilt on either side of the marked lines - about 1/4" apart.  If you are using the tape, make sure you don't quilt on the tape, it's a pain to remove.
4. Going the other direction, mark quilt top 4" apart - 90 degrees from the previously quilted lines and quilt the same in the same fashion.

5. Attaching a zipper:  For this pillow top I used an 'invisible' zipper.  Tutorial for attaching zippers are found HERE.  Attach the zipper along the shorter length of the pillow top and bottom.

6. After zipper is attachment to one side of the pillow, face right sides of the fabrics together and double sew 1/4" along the 3 other sides.
7. Carefully turn out all four corners and then the whole pillow right side out.

Enjoy :).  I'm going to make this pillow pattern with a few more fabrics that I think will go very nice with this simple design. 



I am sharing this pillow at these lovely linking parties. 



-Q

Tutorial: Attaching Zipper to Pillow

Adding a Zipper to a Pillow:



With a little bit of practice, attaching a zipper to a pillow could be a pretty fast process. I usually use 'invisible' zippers that are nicely tucked in once attached, so it's barely visible once the pillow is completed. Zippers keeps the pillow nicely enclosed without the worry of a flap or other enclosure types.

Here's my method for attachment a zipper to a pillow top:
Use this method after pillow top is completed (quilting etc).  The pillow bottom should be of the same dimensions.

1. Face pillow top and pillow bottom, right side together (wrong side facing out).  
2. Stitch long stitches (I use setting 5 on the sewing machine) with 1/3" seam allowance against one side 
3. Press open the seam

4. Lay the pressed seam open and move the pillow top and bottom to the left side
5. Pin down right side of the zipper and attach to the open right side seam made in the previous step and sew down as closely as possible to the zipper teeth.  If the zipper grip is in the way, go ahead and unzip to move it out of the way.  Double stitch zipper to make sure it's on extra tight :).

6. Move the pillow top and bottom to the right side of the open seam, and attach the left side of the zipper to the left side of the open seam.  Double sew as closely to the zipper teeth as possible.
7. Once zipper is securely sewn on both seams open up the pillow top and bottom and face right side up.  
8. Take a seam ripper and remove the stitches about an inch from each end where the zipper is.

9. Fold the pillow top and bottom back on top of each other with wrong sides together, and stitch back and forth on each end of the zipper.  This will secure each the ends of the zipper to the pillow top and bottom.

That's it :).  It may seem a little complicated - haha at least to me when I first tried this, but after a couple of trial and errors I finally got the hang out it...and so will you.  I add zippers to most of my pillows.  Makes for super easy cleaning and even with the roughest of play the pillow cover stays secure :).

-Q

Week 2 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas - Pillow!

If you know anything about me, you would know that Tradition is very important to me. A big component of tradition is having things in the family that we could remember for years - if not generations - to come. That's why I am so happy about the outcome of the Holiday Pillow.



This will definitely be a keeper in our family to come.

Each flower is embroidered with each of our family members' initial: J.A.Q.S.


A closeup of the initials. One for each one of us :). Haha does that mean no more kids :P???

The edge is framed with strips from the Moda 12 Days of Christmas Charm pack - each square cut in half (5" x 2.5") and sewn along each side of the pillow. As a batter of fact, all the color fabric, excluding the back, is from the Moda 12 Days of Christmas Charm pack.

A top view of the pillow frame.

The whole pillow top, minus the appliques are quilted with swirls to match the swirls of the frame Moda fabric:


The back of the quilt is kept simple by a single fabric from Bryant Park:


The appliques are raw-edged hand sewn own using blanket stitches.

Here is a closeup of the family tree trunk:

I decided not to use webbing on the tree trunk so it started to fray it a little around the corners - nothing to worry about but just enough to create a very nice rustic look to the tree trunk.

A closeup of a flower:

One larger circle and one smaller one make up this simple 'flower'.

I hope this pillow inspires you to start your next Holiday tradition or at least a fun little addition to your holiday decor. I know I had a lot of fun making it and it will be a treasured piece in our household for a very long time.


Thanks for visiting the 12 Weeks of Christmas - Week 2 :). Can't wait till the next project!

BTW - I am will also be creating a tutorial for this project.  Stay tuned :).

I am also linking this project up to this FUN and FAB Linking Parties.

Holiday Pillow - Minor Delay

A bit of distraction and the weekend passed by way too quickly - sadly I didn't get the correct lighting to day pictures of Week 2 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas - PILLOWS :).

But here's a glimpse of the finished project just to proof that I did get it completed :P


A not-so-great picture of the Holiday Pillow to come.

More to come tomorrow once I get the nicer pics in place...