Quick stats:
- Total submissions: 58
- Total countries: 9
- Total provinces: 4
- Total states: 21
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A Pillow Fit For A Queen By: A.J. Dub, California, USA A gift made for a teacher whose nickname in the district is the Queen Bee. She mentored my daughter to second place in the county spelling bee last year and is a standout teacher. I wanted to make her something special and unique. I created it from scraps. She loved it. Quilt size: width: 18" height: 18" |
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Antonia’s Butterflies By: Steffi, Germany I made this pillow as a Christmas gift for my little niece and goddaughter Antonia who is three years old. Her room is painted and decorated in yellow and orange, so I made her the matching butterflies. Machine pieced and hand quilted using perle cotton thread and big stitch quilting. Quilt size: width: 16" height: 16" |
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Aqua and Pink Rag Quilted Pillow By: FloSews, California, USA I made this rag quilted pillow to match a rag quilt. It was the first time I added eyelet lace to the perimeter of the pillow (and the quilt). The pillow has a minky soft spot right in the middle. Quilt size: width: 14″" height: 14″" |
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Batik String Pillow By: Carolyn Braun, New Jersey, USA I made this pillow for a Project Quilting challenge inspired by the art of Anne Young. I used many of my batik strings that I had been saving for just the right project. It is machine quilted with random squiggles across the strings. This pillow is a bright addition to the room. Quilt size: width: 28" height: 20" |
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Bug’s Pillow By: Rita McCart, Missouri, USA I made my youngest daughter this quilt for her 21 birthday ((3/25/13). I decided to make her matching pillows for your contest. Hope you like it. It is a strip block on one side and a disappering 9 block on the other, same fabric on both sides. This is my first attempt at strip quilting. Quilt size: width: 14" height: 16" |
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Butterfly Garden Cushions By: Christine M, Australia I made this pair of cushions as “something pretty for me”. I have taken blocks of the Butterfly Garden quilt designed by Leanne Beasley. It was a great way to use some of those pretty floral scraps. Quilt size: width: 14" height: 14" |
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Butterfly Pillows By: Avis, United Kingdom I made these pillows as one of the 12 gifts of Christmas for the girlfriend of a client. Like the Monarch butterflies, she had also migrated to USA. That’s why he wanted a butterfly theme. Her name “Mayra” is hand embroidered and the “Quilt as you go” method was used for the patchwork. How romantic! Quilt size: width: 16" height: 16" |
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Cat Pillow By: Diane U., Ontario, Canada My Auntie loved cats; so when I first started quilting; I made this pillow for her; it sat on her bed and she always said she loved it. Quilt size: width: 14" height: 14" |
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Children at Play By: MissEnota, Minnesota, USA A quilted pillow cover inspired by the blue Sarah Jane Studios’ “Children at Play” backing fabric. I made this for my mother’s birthday this year; it’s my first experience installing a zipper. It also has piping, free-motion quilting, and variegated thread quilting which was really fun to do! Quilt size: width: 20" height: 20" |
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Christmas pillow By: Debra Reinert, Pennsylvania, USA This is a folded fabric technique that is rather poplar though I do not know the name. Made using Christmas fabrics and finished round with decorators cord as a “piping”. Quilt size: width: 12" height: 12" |
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Crazy for P.E.O. By: LouAnne Sassone, California, USA Made for my daughter’s P.E.O. chapter auction in Nov. 2012. Fabrics are all tie fabrics and the daisies are a P.E.O. symbol. Quilt size: width: 16" height: 12" |
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Elissa’s Pillow By: Debbie Grasley, Minnesota, USA My neighbor Elissa wanted me to make her a pillow, but she wanted to design it at the age of 8. I said ok, just draw me a picture of what you have in mind and I will see what I can do. This is the finished pillow. She loves it! Quilt size: width: 12" height: 12" |
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Enchantment By: Lorna McMahon, Ontario, Canada I love the pinwheel block, but wanted to give it a fresh, modern setting. So I designed a quilt that would incorporate three different block sizes, sewn into panels, instead of the traditional rows. Two coordinating pillows make it a lovely set! Quilt size: width: 20" height: 20" |
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EPP pillow By: Rachel, New Jersey, USA A friend of mine encouraged me to try English Paper Piecing as part of her ‘Sewing Confrontations’ series. This was the result of my first attempt at EPP. Quilt size: width: 14" height: 14" |
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Escape from the Quilt Police pillow By: Donna, North Carolina, USA I have started trying some modern quilting techniques using negative space. I got inspired by an article in American Quilter magazine, Sept. 2012. (“Crime Wave” by Kathryn Schmidt) So I used blue and white fabric and had fun just cutting random strips of fabric and piecing it back together. Quilt size: width: 18" height: 18" |
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Facets Pillow By: Anne Deister, Colorado, USA This pillow was made from the scrap pieces leftover from my very first pattern called Facets. The pillow blocks are actually sewn as a part of the main quilt blocks and then trimmed to create separate blocks. When the quilt blocks are done so are the pillow blocks. Super easy. Quilt size: width: 21" height: 21" |
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flea market fancy scrappy trip pillow By: susan sobon, Illinois, USA A very good friend of mine is always doing things for me, including giving me some leftover scraps from a quilt she had made. I took the scraps and made her a pillow. I had so much fun asking her advice on the pillow, secretly knowing that she would be receiving it. Quilt size: width: 17″" height: 17″" |
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Flower Pillow By: Jill of Apple Avenue Quilts, Utah, USA I made this pillow to coordinate with my niece’s bedroom. The fabrics surrounding the pillow are another pillow and her bedspread. I made two of them and she was thrilled with them. Quilt size: width: 17" height: 17" |
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Hartjeskussen By: Carla Cornelissen, Netherlands This pillow I made for my daughter she loves hearts and beetles! Quilt size: width: 20" height: 20" |
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Holiday Lane By: Pauline Francis, Michigan, USA The pillow was designed by Jill Finley. It had the houses and trees and you embellish it to suit your decor. I added snowmen with scarves and ear muffs, snowflakes, birds, lamp post, wreaths on the doors, and some embroidery. I used homespun fabrics and recycled felted wool. It was fun to make. Quilt size: width: 34" height: 16" |
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I Love Roses By: Marianne Troccoli, California, USA This pillow was made for our tour guide, when we went to China. She was so sweet to us. I made the heart on the sewing machine and quilted the boarder by hand. Quilt size: width: 17″" height: 17″" |
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Kirigami Snowflake Pillow By: Persimon Dreams, Wisconsin, USA Inspired by the Project QUILTING Challenge ‘My Favorite Color’ and from reading the ‘Hawaiian Quilter’ book. An eclectic striped turquoise blue kirigami cut snowflake is appliqued to a kona white background. Quilt size: width: 12" height: 12" |
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Kona Solids Challenge pillows By: Karen, Minnesota, USA These pillows were made for the Modern Quilt Guild Kona Solids challenge. We were allowed to add one solid to the kona charms and my local guild added an additional rule to use HSTs. Quilt size: width: 24" height: 24" |
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Kristen’s Cathedral Window By: Marie Joerger, New Hampshire, USA This is a pillow I made for my daughter’s 25th birthday which just happens to be this week. Quilt size: width: 17″" height: 17″" |
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Lee’s Gift By: Mardene Abarbanell, Colorado, USA This is a hand pieced Desden Plate, hand appliqued to a background fabric, then machine quilted. A covered button front and back secure the pillow batting. It is not a removable cover due to the covered buttons. Quilt size: width: 19" height: 19" |
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Linked By: Esch House Quilts, Michigan, USA I made this pillow for the X-Factor Pillow Swap on Flickr. I love the crisp color combination. Quilt size: width: 20" height: 20" |
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Lovely Dreams By: Kristen, Minnesota, USA I have always wanted to make a pink and yellow quilt. I decided that starting with a quilted pillow would be a good place to trial these colors. The entire front of the pillow is made from 1-1/2″ squares and then quilted. I added some ric rack around the borders and it is now one of my favorites. Quilt size: width: 14" height: 14" |
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Lucy’s Shooting Star Pillow By: Sue Parenti, Illinois, USA This pillow was a gift to my neice Lucy for Christmas. I fell in love with the book Tile Quilt Revival and I wanted to try the technique out right away. So I made one of the blocks into a pillow for Christmas, her favorite color is yellow so a star is perfect!!! Quilt size: width: 14" height: 14" |
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May your home always be….too small to hold all of your friends. By: Ellen Wigginton, Michigan, USA This pillow was made for a friend. She’s the absolute nicest person I know and needs extra good thoughts sent her way right now. I incorporated patchwork piecing, embroidery, piping, zipper insertion, a self-made pillow form, and hand-quilting into this pillow. Quilt size: width: 16" height: 16" |
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Memories By: Piecrust, Georgia, USA Have a family photo you want to share? Print the photo on fabric and use as the center of a pieced block. Quilt size: width: 12" height: 12" |
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Nostlagic Posie Pillow By: Lea Brummett, Indiana, USA This was made for my spare bedroom. The pattern is by Lynn Wilders, Nostalgic Pillows. The little flowers are 3D, making them stand up off the pillow. They are not part of the the pillow pattern, they were of my own design using a tutorial on Lynn’s blog. Quilt size: width: 18" height: 18" |
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Paisley Swirls By: Jo Mack, Ohio, USA I took Craftsy’s Stupendous Stitching class and made this pillow using many of the techniques I learned in the class. I used couching, decorative machine stitches, and hand embroidery with perle cotton. The techniques are great fun. Quilt size: width: 14" height: 14" |
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Patchwork Pillow By: Karen, Wisconsin, USA This pillow was a gift for a friend. Quilt size: width: 14" height: 12" |
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Pay it Forward Pillow By: Donna Frederick, Kentucky, USA I made this pillow as a pay it forward gift Quilt size: width: 12″" height: 8″" |
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pillow (barbara woods) By: barbara woods, Georgia, USA made for my girls Quilt size: width: 13" height: 19" |
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Pillow Hunting trophies By: Zlata, Russian Federation Pillow sewn in gift to hunter. His major trophies – elk and wild boar. Silhouettes of animals made of machine appliqué. Quilt size: width: 16" height: 16" |
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Pillow Talk By: Marg McCulloch, Alberta, Canada These two pillows were made from a pattern called “Pillow Talk” that is a product of The Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Fun & Easy! Quilt size: width: 21" height: 11" |
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Pillows blue By: Pstland1, Pennsylvania, USA This pillows go with the blue quilt. Quilt size: width: 12" height: 12" |
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Purple with a touch of Silver By: Isabell, United Kingdom I made this purple and silver pillow/cushion for my Grand daughter, the colours are her favourite. Quilt size: width: 24" height: 24" |
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Quilted Pillow By: Gale Lavers, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Free pattern from April 2011 Aurifil BOM. All scraps from saved hst. Design was to showcase embroidery, and since I didn’t have any of my own, I cut up an old tablecloth done by my mom and used it. She did awesome work and it is a daily reminder of her. The pattern is still available free. Quilt size: width: 20" height: 20" |
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Radiating Dresden By: Melissa, Washington, USA I made this pillow with left over dresden pieces from my Sew Intertwined Quilt. I was having trouble finding the inspiration to quilt the actual quilt and now that the pillow is done I have a reason to finish my quilt – it is about 1/3 of the way quilted right now! Quilt size: width: 17" height: 17" |
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Rainbow Pillow By: Vicki @ Quilting Lodge, Texas, USA I originally made this pillow for a solids challenge. I designed the pattern and used straight line quilting all over. I really love how it turned out and I think it would make an awesome quilt pattern too. Quilt size: width: 30" height: 30" |
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Rylans pillow By: Michelle Irving, Australia Was just fiddling around with some scraps and crazy patches and my grandson says ,..Is that a quilt for me? I said no,it was too small and he said ,well,make me a pillow. Quilt size: width: 18" height: 18" |
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Scrappy Quilt-As-You-Go Pillow By: Shel, Washington, USA This is a scrappy quilt-as-you-go patchwork 18″ pillow. I made it for my older daughter using scraps leftover from her twin size bed quilt. The fabrics include Heirloom by Joel Dewberry, Just Wing It by Momo, Happier by Deena Rutter, and Kumari Garden by Dena Designs for Free Spirit, among others. Quilt size: width: 18" height: 18" |
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Sedona Star By: Sally Gould Wright, California, USA My first class at Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar in Pacific Grove California was with the wonderful Sally Collins. this was out class project which I finished as a large pillow for our living room. It is machine pieced with commercial cottons and silk dupioni and machine quilted. Quilt size: width: 22" height: 22" |
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Snowflake Pillow By: Julie Cefalu, California, USA I made this snowflake pillow using left over batting for the snowflake. I quilted snowflakes and holly in the background and added buttons for some extra pop. Quilt size: width: 16" height: 16" |
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Spinning Canoes By: Jess Frost, Australia I used Denyse Schmidt’s Chicopee collection along with natural Essex linen to make this pillow. The blocks are paper pieced Tippecanoe blocks. I have quilted it following the canoe shapes on one of the diagonals. Quilt size: width: 20" height: 20" |
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Spring in my home By: ana-ane, Spain The cushion is realized by fabrics batik by the technology of window, the quilted one this one handmade, by a big stitch at the edge of the bies, is my first work with this technology Quilt size: width: 16″" height: 16″" |
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Stack ‘n’ Slash By: Kaaren Biggs, Ontario, Canada The Stack ‘n’ Slash technique, similar to crazy quilting but by machine, was originally used to make a wallhanging as a sample for a class I teach, but the leftovers turned into a lovely cushion to match! Both pieces were gifted to a long-time non-quilting friend for Christmas 2010. Quilt size: width: 16" height: 16" |
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Stained Glass Pillow Shams By: Pam Geisel, Ohio, USA A customer asked me to make two pillow shams to match her Frank Lloyd Wright-style stained glass windows. A photo of the pillow shams with the window can be found at: www.ForQuiltsSake.com. Quilt size: width: 28" height: 18" |
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Stripes Squared By: Carol Ann Johnston, Idaho, USA
Quilt size: width: 18" height: 18" |
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swim, said the mama By: craftytammie, Kansas, USA I made this applique pillow top in a 42 Quilts workshop. I used wavy lines for quilting to mimic water, and outlined the fish with some hand quilting using pearl cotton. The pillow back is a Denyse Schmidt print and has the same wavy quilting. Quilt size: width: 17" height: 17" |
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Tara’s Pillow By: Aliza Prinsloo, South Africa A birthday gift to a little one year old…Tara. Quilt size: width: 20" height: 20" |
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The Incredible Pillow By: Tina Marie, Alberta, Canada My husband bought some marvel material and asked me to make something with it. I decided to make a few pillows with it. I fussy cut the center piece and made a whirly gig block. It hung on the design wall until I was inspired to finally finish it. A very manly pillow for the man cave was born. Quilt size: width: 16" height: 16" |
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Three Angles By: Mary on Lake Pulaski, Minnesota, USA Made from Far Far Away II line by Heather Ross which is part linen alone with other various linen pieces. Hand quilted. Quilt size: width: 20" height: 20" |
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Tickled 1.0 By: Patti Shanks, Saskatchewan, Canada I made this pillow using Chicopee and linen. The feathers are a downsized version of the tutorial by Anna Marie Horner. I made the piping using a Basic Grey grunge fabric. There is a zipper closure in the back. Quilt size: width: 18" height: 18" |
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water Lily By: Bette Gove, Virginia, USA This quilted pillow was started at a class I took in Williamsburg, VA in 2009. The design was made by my instructor. I’m sorry I cannot remember who that was. Quilt size: width: 16.5" height: 16.5" |
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Water Pixie By: Vickie Clontz, North Carolina, USA My daughter is an amazing artist, specializing in the Japanese art form of anime, or manga. The first time she helped me at a quilt show, she got a little bored by the end of the day and drew this lovely Water Pixie. I thought she was so beautiful, and so I designed a pattern around her drawing. Quilt size: width: 19″" height: 19″" |
All the pilows are beautiful and so much inspiration!
Thanks for the eye candy.
I use the curved basting pins. I prefer the larger ones, plus I use one of those short wooden dowels thingies to close them…saves my fingers.
All of the pillows are so beautiful that I had trouble picking my favorites. Basting is my least favorite part of quilting. I usually use the curved pins, but I have also hand basted with thread. It takes me about 3 hours to thread baste a large quilt and kills my back, so I don’t do it that way much.
I use spring clamps (permanently borrowed from DH’s tools) to clamp my project to my cutting table over my big mat. Then I just use a needle and thread to go back and forth. Fortunately most of my projects are small.
I’ve tried spray basting a couple of times. It was definitely an outdoor activity (not good in winter) and requires assistance — and not from the cat! I also tried the fusible batting once and didn’t like the hard spots it left.
When I gave to baste I always use spray basting spray. Sometimes though a good press wil be enough, if the project is small.
I baste fast with long stitches, basically just to hold the pieces of fabric together. Sometimes I use small stainless steel safety pins to baste.
I haven’t used basting spray but I have used fusible batting which adheres when you iron with steam and that is far less tricky than basting with curved pins.
Hand basting with long stitches
Love the pillows
Some wonderful cushions this week. For basting the best tip I can give is to take your time, nothing worse than rushing it and finding the backing is scrunched up. I also love the spray glue or else I take my time and hand baste depends on how I am quilting it.
Happy days.
Bev.xoxo
I am thinking of making new covers for my sofa cushions so enjoyed this bit of inspiration.
Basting? I usually use basting thread and big stitches but If I plan to use a hoop, I may pin baste.
I use my sewing machine to baste if I am in a hurry, otherwise I do it by hand.
So many beautiful pillows it was hard to choose a favorite. When I read the question about basting my first response was “back basting”. I use this method for hand applique. I use a very large embroidery needle and button thread.
It was hard to choose just 6 favorite pillows. I baste with spray many times, but always use a few pins. Other times I baste all with pins. Basting is not my favorite thing to do.
Wonderful pillows…Lots of talent and inspirationg.
I spray baste and have never had a problem.
I love spray baste. If the quilt is too big for that I use curved safety pins
I hadn baste. I tried safety pins, but they didn’t work as well. I am going to try spray basting sometime.
I use Safety Pins to Baste a Quilt..Though I may try basting w/spray also next time….