Scrappy Throw Pillow

I’ve been saving all of my little leftover triangles from making stitch & flip blocks for the Inkling quilt pattern and converting them into all sorts of fun things. For example, turning the scraps-turned-HSTs into tiny star blocks! For the scraps from my Posy Inkling quilt, however, I thought that a coordinating lumbar pillow would be just the trick.

I started by sewing together all of my stitch & flip scraps together – one print with one background piece until I had a lot of little HSTs. I used my slotted trimmers ruler to trim these to 1.5″ unfinished. I love how easy they were to trim with the slotted trimmers ruler, especially given how small they are.

I sewed them together in coordinating pairs to form a flying geese shape. The lumbar pillow used 224 HSTs (formed into 112 flying geese). I chose to break them up a bit by adding in some background fabric in between the flying geese columns.

I decided to hand quilt the entire pillow (of course!) with a 2″ grid with 20 weight thread. I wanted something thinner than my normal 12 weight thread so it wouldn’t stand out too much and overwhelm my flying geese. I’m pleased with the 20 weight thread, it adds the right amount of texture but the flying geese are still the focal point of the pillow. For the backing, I used another print from the Posy collection, and I basted and hand quilted that as well. I love how thick and cozy this pillow is! It coordinates so well with the Inkling quilt and the improv quilt I’ve made, both out of Posy fabric.

Basic Instructions:

• Sew two identical HSTs together to make a flying geese unit. Repeat until you have 112 flying geese (you’ll need 224 HSTs)
• Sew 16 flying geese together to form a column. Repeat until you have 7 of these
• In between the flying geese columns, sew (1) 1.5″ x 16.5″ background fabric (need (6) 1.5″ x 16.5″)
• On each end of your piece, sew (1) 3.5″ x 16.5″ rectangle. (need (2) 2.5″ x 16.5″)
• Your pillow front now measures 16.5″ x 24.5″. Baste and quilt as desired, create a backing, and turn it into a pillow! For more detailed step-by-step pillow instructions, click here.

Shop Popular Patterns: