I’ve wanted to make a patchwork heart pillow cover since I made my Valentine’s Day table runner last year, and I finally had time to pull out by scrap fabrics and get some sewing done over the weekend weekend. For the front of the pillow, I followed the same dimensions for the squares and basic assembly steps as the table runner.
I used this Excel file as a guide for cutting and arranging the pieces, and started my piecing the half square triangles that make the “v” shaped parts of the heart. Once I had those, I arranged the solid squares for the heart…
…added the half square triangles around the edges…
…and filled in the alternating pink and white squares do the background.
From there, I sewed all the patches together in strips, then sewed the strips together.
I layered the pillow top on top of some low lift fleece and scrap fabric and quilted it with diagonal lines of stitching.
I wasn’t completely happy with the quilting when I made my table runner. Marked lines didn’t completely wash out, and the areas where I didn’t mark the lines aren’t as straight as I would like. This time I tried a trick I’d seen on Pinterest, and used an index card layed corner to corner across the squares as a stitching guide.
It worked like a charm! My lines are straight and it made the quilting quick and easy.
Once the quilting was done, I added a simple button back and wrestled the finished cover (18″ x 20″) onto a 20″ x 20″ pillow form. It’s a little tight, but it makes for a nice, firm pillow.
All done and ready to brighten up my living room for Valentine’s Day!
