Weekend Project: Dragonfly Pillow

How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? How about the pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn't have that dangerous beak.

Jack Handy

Ta-daa! I finally got to the dragonfly pillow project that was in my queue! As you may remember, I saw the fabric last February at the Sewing and Quilt Expo in Tampa, and bought some because I have a friend who absolutely loves dragonflies.

Here is the lay out of the fabric pieces for each side of the pillow:

Let's just take a moment and pretend that this attractive layout was, in fact, my plan from the very beginning...

Ah, wasn't that nice? Now, for the truth. I purchased one yard, intending to make one pillow case for Ani. Then, another friend of mine, Allison, saw the fabric and commented on how much she liked it. So, I decided to make two.

Alas, I didn't have quite enough fabric to completely cover both pillows. It occured to me that I could cut four square pieces and add a small border around each (like a picture frame) to make the squares large enough to cover the pillows. The border would add a nice decorative touch.

I searched my stash and found a solid that blended quite nicely. I used my new rotary cutter to cut strips - two inches wide and the same length as the sides of the squares of the dragonfly fabric.

Those of you with experience piecing quilts already realize exactly what that means. That means that I had square gaps at each corner, where my border strips didn't extend far enough..

A quick trip back to the drawing board and I realized that I had enough leftover of the dragonfly fabric to add corner boxes, 2 inches by 2 inches. Thank goodness!

So, the road was a bit circuitous, but the end result is nice. ;)

A few miscellaneous details. Real quilters sew with 1/4 inch seams and iron open. I used 5/8 inch seams, pressed them open and then top stitched them open.

My first seams created three pieces of equal length (but different widths):

Next I connected those three pieces to create one front face.

I did the same for the back, except that I added an invisible zipper, so that the pillow case can be removed and washed periodically.

I had to mail one to Ani, and haven't heard yet how she likes it. But Allison loves hers!