Bryan House Quilts

Halfa Rainbow Pillow {Sizzix Tutorial}

Tutorial

Hi there!

I have a wee Sizzix pillow tutorial, let’s call it the “Halfa Rainbow Pillow”, for you today using the 5” x 2 1/2” Chevron Sizzix die.

Two of my daughters have these amazing window seats in their bedrooms and I have promised them pillows and window seat cushions. This past weekend we were able to get curtains hung in their freshly painted rooms (check and check, high five, yeah!). It only seemed fitting that I start to make good on my promise.

So I started with my middle daughter who has the ultimate girly rainbow MonStar quilt on her bed. (MonStar is a pattern from my book Modern Rainbow.) And I still have (well had) this delicious fat quarter bundle of Mirror Ball Dots by Michael Miller. So a pillow using these fabrics seems like a perfect fit.

Fabric sammich. Healthier than a Big Mac right? I'm still hoarding this fat quarter bundle of Michael Miller mirror ball dots.

Ok, so choose 3 Fat Quarters and 1/2 yard for background fabric. (You probably could get away with less fabric.) I chose to work with the cool half of the rainbow: purple, blue, and aqua.

Make your Sizzix sandwich – bottom cutting pad, die cutter with blades up, fabric, and top cutting pad. I could have folded my fat quarter more economically. However narrow you cut it or fold it, consider keeping the tail. This will help nest more die cut shapes from the fabric. Also note that for this pattern, you’ll need to send half the fabric through the machine right sides up and the other half, right sides down. Cut 8 from each color – 4 from each side. Also cut 8 for the bottom background border and the top background border.

Once you get all your shapes cut out, divide them into two groups. If you were to cut these using a ruler, you would need to cut your 2 1/2” strips and then use your 60 degree angle line to cut these shapes into groups of 60 degree and 120 degree shapes. It’s kinda nice to just run the fabric through the Sizzix die cutting machine without thinking that hard! 🙂 
Ok, so two groups with 4 of each color in each group. We are going to sew 8 rows of these diamonds together – 4 rows with a forward slant and 4 rows with a backward slant. First lay out your rows – white, purple, blue, aqua, white. Then sew the diamonds together, end to end.

Lining up the diamonds can be a bit tricky. Once you know the trick it’s fairly straight forward. Instead of lining up them up, you’re going to stagger them by 1/4 inch to align the match points. Match points are where the seams align.

Once you have the 8 rows pieced,  press the seams to the side. Alternate directions as you press. You can see in my picture below that I’ve got the seams on the very bottom row are pressed to the right and the seams in the top row are pressed to the left. 
Next we are going to sew the rows together into pairs. The pairs will look a bit like an arrow. Make sure the arrows point in the same direction and the colors are also going the same direction. 

Working with two rows, align the seams with the right sides together. 

You can either pin the seams as I’ve shown in the picture below. 

Or, you can just nest the seams together without pinning as I show in this picture. This is my preferred method. 

Sew the 8 rows into 4 pairs and press the seams open. 

Repeat the process of sewing the rows together and sew the 4 pairs together to get the mini quilt top. Press the seams open and if you want trim the dog ears from the back. (The dog ears are those bits of fabric that stick out from the edges of the fabric and the seam allowances. They sometimes can show through the fabric once the project is quilted.) 
Now square up the top. I trimmed my top down so that the whole thing 
would be square at 16 1/2” x 16 12”. 

When trimming make sure to leave at least 1/4” seam allowance 
from the points closest to the edge, as I’ve shown below. 
Quilt as desired. I quilted echoing zig zags with straight line quilting using my walking foot. 
I also quilted in the ditch between each of the rows. 
Finish as a mini or a pillow. I made a pillow with an envelope enclosure. Then I bound the whole thing with the silver gray Mirror Ball dots. 

I’ve had this super girly border print type fabric since QuiltCon 2012 and I finally had a chance to use it. So the back is a treat in of itself. Note to self, must buy more fabric for fun pillow backs! 

Here the pillow, all done and ready to be snuggled. 🙂 

And honestly, this fabric and rainbow combination is perfect for My Little Pony. 🙂 
And somehow, the pillow has already been put to good use at a tea party. Somehow Merida commandeered Elsa’s dress and now is lunching with Anna, hmmmmm. 

Thanks for tuning in guys! I’ll answer any questions in the comments. 🙂 

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