Have a Heart Argyle Valentine Pillow Tutorial

What can I say, I have an unhealthy obsession with argyle.  Last year I made a Valentine's wall hanging and table topper so this year I thought some pillows were in order.  In the spirit of sharing the love, here's a how-to in case you want to make your own.

Cut the following:

(1) strip 3" x wof gray
(1) strip 3" x wof navy
(1) strip 6" x wof pink
(1) 12" x 19" batting scrap

(1) 11" x 6 1/2" rectangle gray for back

(1) 11" x 12 1/2" rectangle gray for back
(2) strips 2" x wof navy for binding

Other supplies:

This heart template or draw your own hearts
Quilter's Freezer Paper Sheets


Seam allowance 1/4"

Making the Pillow Front

Sew your your navy and gray strips together to make a strip set.  Press towards the navy.
 

Trim the end of your strip set using the 30° line on your ruler.

Cut your strip set into 3" pieces cutting parallel to your initial cut.  You will need 6 of these to make your diamonds.

Sew two pieces together to make a diamond.  You need to offset the ends by 1/4" and the center seam will not nest like it would when piecing squares.  This takes a little practice, check out from the blue chair for some more helpful tips.   The good news is your center intersection doesn't have to be perfect since your hearts will cover them: )

Sew your remaining pairs together so you have three diamonds.  I pressed towards the gray so the center point was open to reduce bulk.

Trim the end of your 6" pink strip using the 30° line as we did before.  This time turn your ruler placing the 30° line on your cut edge and cut an isosceles triangle (all the sides are equal).  Turn and repeat so you have 4 of these triangles.  My strip was folded in half so I got 2 from each cut.

For my corners I used my existing 30° cut and moved over 1/4" and then cut straight down the side (makes 2). 

For the remaining two I used the ones I just cut as a template.  If this seems to complicated you can just cut 4 more full triangles and trim them down at the end.  You can NOT make 1 triangle and cut it in half, it will be 1/4" too small.  Trust me!

Sew together your rows and then join the rows to complete your top.

At this point I layered my top with batting and quilted it.  You don't need a backing since this will be the inside of your pillow but you can certainly add one if you like.  I used a hera marking tool to draw lines 1 1/4" from my seam lines to complete the argyle motif and quilted it with pale pink thread. 

This is my scruffy applique method, feel free to use your favorite applique technique.  I printed this heart template on to quilter's freezer paper and roughly cut out the shapes.  With what was left of my 6" pink strip I cut a 2" strip for the back of my pillow and then was able to iron the four hearts on the remaining piece. 

Cut out the hearts on the outside line and arrange them on your argyle front.  Sew on the inside line to attach your hearts to the top.  I shorten my stitch length to make it easier to sew the curves and to perforate the paper.  Very carefully remove the freezer paper from your hearts.  Trim your top to 11" x 18".

Making the Pillow Back

Finish one long side of the 6 1/2" x 11" piece by folding the edge over 1/4" then again and top stitching near the edge.  I added a pink band to the edge of the 12 1/2" x 11" piece.  Fold the pink 2" strip in half and sew it to one of the 11" sides.  Top stitch if desired.  If you'd like to add a label to the back of your pillow you should also do that now.  I used my extra heart here.

Layer your pieces with the pillow top right side down and the back pieces right side up with the backing pieces overlapping.  I sewed around the 4 sides with a narrow zigzag to make it easier to bind but pins are fine.  Sew together your two 2" strips of navy, fold in half and apply your binding.  Riley Blake has a great demo of my favorite way to applying binding.

Insert a 12"x18" pillow form or make your own using this tutorial from Piece N Quilt.

Make another one because you're having so much fun;-)