Four Patch Pillow Tutorial

Hello there!! I'm KarrieLyne from Freckled Whimsy and I'm here to bring you a pillow tutorial! Thank you so much Madame Samm for inviting me to guest blog here on Stash Manicure!! 

This pillow actually came about because I was asked to make an "angel pillow" for a pillow swap and of course I couldn't say no! I had a lot of requests for a tutorial on this so I am really excited to bring it to you here! 

The great thing about this pillow is that it is simple to put together but also because you can use your scraps! We all need to use those up, right? For my pillow, I had some scraps left from Patty Young's Sanctuary line so I went with that, but feel free to mix up the lines and just use what you have on hand. You can't go wrong. :)

Materials:

Scraps - enough to cut 64 squares that are 2.5" square. 

1 yard of background fabric to use for sashing and back of pillow

1 piece of light muslin 23" x 23"

1 piece of quilt batting 23" x 23"

thread to piece and quilt your pillow top

Cutting: 

From your stash, cut 64 squares measuring 2.5" x 2.5".

From your background fabric cut 3 strips measuring 1.5" x width of fabric

     *sub-cut 12 pieces measuring 1.5" x 4.5"

     *sub-cut 3 pieces measuring 1.5" x 19.5"

From your background fabric cut 2 strips measuring 1" x width of fabric

     *sub-cut 2 pieces measuring 1" x 19.5"

     *sub-cut 2 pieces measuring 1" x 20.5"

From the background fabric, cut two pieces measuring 20.5" x 16.5" for the pillow back

Sewing: 

You need to start by making 16 four-patch blocks. You can make these as random as you want or you can lay them out first before you start sewing. It's up to you. 

To make the four-patch, start by laying out 4 squares:

 

Flip the right pieces over to the left pieces so that right sides are together:

  Sew 1/4" seam:

To make this go faster, you can pair up (right sides together) 32 squares and chain sew them together.

Pair up these two-patches and press them in opposite directions so the seams will nest. 

Carefully match the seams together and sew 2 two-patches together. Press to one side. 

Choose 12 of your four-patches and sew a background piece measuring 1.5" x 4.5" to the right side of each of the 12. Press to the background fabric. 

Lay out your pieces as such...so that the 4-patches that do not have  a background piece attached are all along the right side. 

Sew into rows.  Press to the background fabric. 

Now sew a background piece measuring 1.5" x 19.5" to the bottoms of rows 1, 2, & 3.  

Press to the background fabric. 

Sew these 4 rows together. Take care to match up your sashing pieces. Press to background fabric. 

Your piece should now measure 19.5" x 19.5". 

To square it up to 20.5" add your 1" strips to all 4 sides, starting with the 19.5" strips adding them to the left and right side. Then add the 20.5" pieces to the top and bottom.  Press to the background fabric. 

Your next step will be to quilt it, just like you would a quilt. I use warm and natural batting and for the back (since you won't see it) I use a light muslin. This makes the quilting part easier.

Layer your pieces just as you would a quilt: Backing face down, batting, pillow top face up. Pin baste if you like and quilt.  

For mine, I used painters tape to create a grid.

Place a piece of tape corner to corner and sew along that line. 

Remove tape and replace along the other diagonal, corner to corner. Sew along that line. 

Now you have guides to sew "v's" into your pillow top. Just sew along these lines equal distances apart. I use a 1/2" spacing .

Now trim your pillow top to 20.5" squared.

For the back of the pillow cut two pieces measuring 20.5" x 16.5".

Along the 20.5" side, fold over the edge 1/2"  wrong sides together and press. Fold over again on itself, press again, and sew 1/8" from the first folded edge. 

Place these pieces right sides together with your pillow top and with the folded edges facing in towards the middle. Pin in place. 

Sew 1/4" around all the edges making sure to back stitch once or even twice over the spots where you have the folded edges. These will be high stress points when taking the pillow out and putting it in so you want it to be secure. 

Now just turn your pillow cover right side out and stuff it with a 20" pillow form and enjoy!!! 

 

If you make one of these pillows from my tutorial, I'd love to see it! Please feel free to add it to my Flickr pool HERE so I can ohhhhh and ahaaaa over them all! :)

Also, if you'd like this in a PDF to print or save for later, click HERE to download it!

Much Love!!!

 Editors note. I left a message for KarrieLyne that her Pdf file is not linking, you can try it now..she just had to add to PUBLIC
status ...as we are her peeps...thanks KarrieLyne