Aylin Öztürk « modafabrics

Hi my name is Aylin Öztürk and I’m really happy to be here on Moda Bakeshop. You can find me on Flickr as Nilya2011.

After taking part in a pillow swap in 2011, I’m kind of addicted to making pillows. You can make the craziest pattern with the craziest fabrics in a small piece like a pillow.

I got a beautiful layer cake of Reunion by Sweetwater, from Tacha at Fat Quarterly to make something nice out of it and I just knew what I wanted to do. I made my starflower pillow once in 2011 for a swap and I wanted to make one for our home too. This was the chance!

But I didn’t stop there! I also made a second front for the pillow using the leftover squares from the layer cake.

You can find instructions for making the second pillow front in Issue 8 of Fat Quarterly.

Both patterns require foundation piecing. The templates are located in the Printer Friendly Version at the bottom of this post.

1 Layer Cake of Reunion by Sweetwater
1/4 yard of solid fabric for the background of flower star
2 squares 20 1/2” of interfacing
2 squares 20 1/2” of lining fabric

Print the pp-pattern A – F 4 times each.

Sort your fabrics as you want them to be next to each other, like a color wheel. I used every fabric only once in the wheel, but it is up to you. Each wedge in the centre of the Star Flower pattern is made up of 3 different fabrics. The Star Flower centre is made up of 12 wedges.

To help in choosing which fabrics you want to use, cut strips of 3 1/2” x 5” from each fabric to see your wheel again with stripes. You might want to change some fabrics, that´s why I cut them all a bit too big. After putting three stripes together to a bundle you should number them, so you will get the fabrics in the right order.

To make the wedges, I first sewed the 3 strips together and then cut them into a triangle shape. Decide how wide each of your strips in the color-wheel-part should be. My strips were 2 1/4” for the outer wheel, 2 1/2” for the middle strip and 3 1/4” for the inner wheel.

Once the strips are sewn together cut them into the wedge shape – 4” wide at the widest part and 7” long to the tip of the triangle. (i.e. an isosceles triangle 4” wide by 7” long).

If you like, you can also paper piece these triangles by making paper templates for each of the wedges and then sewing the fabric to the templates. I find it easier to make the wedges without paper piecing.

Next decide which fabrics your want to use for the zig zags. This is where you will need the paper templates A-F. There are 2 zigs per wedge.

Lay out the wedges and divide the wheel into 4 sections made up of 3 wedges. Going clockwise around the section, an A and B template will be sewn to the first wedge, a C and D template will be sewn to the second wedge, and an E and F template will be sewn to the third wedge.

Note: Remember that when you paper piece your template will be the mirror image of the end result.

Piece each of the templates A – F. Use your chosen fabric for the diagonal strip and background fabric for the other pieces.

TIP: The small triangles are the same for all the templates A – F. Cut a 3” square from background and cut in half diagonally to piece this section.

Sew the A and B templates together and sew to each of the first wedges in each section of your wheel. Once you have sewn the sections together remove the paper from the back.

Sew the C and D templates together and sew to each of the second wedges in each section of your wheel.

Sew the E and F templates together and sew to each of the third wedges in each section of your wheel.

Sew the 3 wedges together in each section to make a quarter of the block. Match up each of the seams when you sew the wedges together.

Repeat with the other sections. Sew 2 quarter blocks together to make two halves. Sew the halves together to make the block.

I always use interfacing for pillows, but perhaps you use batting or prefer to leave your pillows un-quilted. It is up to you.

If you use interfacing, layer your quilt top, interfacing and lining and baste in place. I quilted the circles to fix the 3 layers and echo quilted the zig zag.

Make the pillow top into a pillow using your favourite method or make the second pillow front, as found in Issue 8 of Fat Quarterly, and make a double-sided pillow as I did!