DIY Valentine Pillow

Valentine’s Day is a month away, plenty of time to sew this cute Dresden Plate pillow for someone special. This quilt pattern became popular in the 1920’s using scraps of fabric from feed sacks set against a light colored background. Over the years many variations have been created making it look very modern with traditional roots. Since I am new to quilting it has been on my list as I try new techniques. I found this great video tutorial from ICandy Fiber Art that gives helpful tips for constructing the block. I used the Valentine bundle of fat quarters and some assorted fabric from the Classic subscription box.

Materials needed

• 15” fabric square for front and back

• 20 Assorted scrap fabrics 5”x3” for petals

• 5” center circle I used Farm Charm panel by Gingiber

• Coordinating Aurifil thread from Chroma subscription

• Pillow form or Poly-fil stuffing

• 9” zipper

• Dresden ruler 

It was fun to open the Valentine fat quarter assortment from Cotton Cuts and pick the fabric for the petals in the quilt block. I used 10 different fabrics cutting two of each design using the Dresden ruler. I also used some of my favorite Fairy Dust Fabric from my October blog project Ombre tote bag.

Once the pieces are cut fold the fabric in half and sew ¼” seam across the wider side. To save time you can chain piece all twenty in a row. Snip the pieces apart and trim the corners, turn right sides out and with the help of a template align the seam in a straight line and press to create the perfect point on the petal.

I laid out the pieces to decide the placement ahead of time and then I sewed ¼” seams lining up the points, back tacking at each end to secure the seams. Press the seams open as you go along.

Continue to sew the petals together to form two halves of the outer circle.

Line up the two halves and sew the seams completing the circle. Press the seams open. Measure the inner circle and add at least ½” for the seam allowance. Set your machine for a long basting stitch and sew ¼” from the edge around the circle. Gently pull the threads to help turn the seam to press the edge under.

Add a scrap piece of fusible lightweight interfacing to the wrong side to hold the shape of the inner circle. This doubles as a way to fuse the center in place.

Next cut the square of fabrics for the front and back. I allowed 2” from the center on all sides cutting it 15” square. I also cut a square of batting to do some quilting on the front around the Dresden plate. Since I was making a pillow it was not necessary to make a quilt sandwich with three layers. Spray baste the Dresden plate to the center of the fabric and then spray baste the fabric square to the batting.

Using a walking foot sew around each petal about a ¼” from the edge. I then used a Frixon pen to write the words to free motion quilt with 40 wt black thread. Make sure to sew with a coordinating thread around the inner circle close to the edge to secure it in place.

To construct the pillow you will start with the right sides together and sew a ¼” seam along the bottom edge to prepare for zipper placement. Mark 2 ½” from each end. Start sewing with the stitch length at 2.5 till you get to the first line, change the stitch length to a 5 sewing to the next line and then change it back to the smaller stitch. Press the seam open. I use ¼’ fusible tape to hold the zipper in place with the teeth lined up on the seam.

Using your zipper foot and coordinating thread topstitch around the zipper, back stitching at the top and bottom to reinforce the area. From the right side carefully using the seam ripper remove the basting stitches to reveal the zipper.

After removing the threads, open the zipper. With right sides together sew the other three sides of the square with a ¼’ seam. Trim the corners and turn right sides out through the open zipper. To help hide the top stitching along the zipper you can touch it up with a matching Sharpie fine point marker.

Give the pillow a final press and you are ready to stuff with a pillow form or Poly-fil.

If you use the pillow form it will be easy to change out the cover for the holidays. Cotton Cuts will feature fat quarters for the holidays throughout the year so be sure to check the website for current Fabric bundles.