That’s the Ticket Pillow!

Hi my name’s Kelly and I’m SO excited to bring you my very first Moda Bake Shop
tutorial. I hope you enjoy it! If you’re looking for a way to perk up your home decor, this pillow’s just the ticket! 🙂

One Punctuation Jelly Roll
One yard of coordinating fabric from the Punctuation line

4 colors of Perle Cotton for hand-stitching- black, red, green and blue
Pillow form (the pillow finishes at about 19″ but I used an 18″ pillow form)

Choose your strips to make up your 4 blocks. For each block, I used the alphabet fabric, the stripe, the plaid floral, yellow stripe (1/2 a strip per block), dot fabric, and ticket fabric.
You’ll use the cream alphabet strip for the sashing through the center of your pillow.

Now, let’s cut each set of fabrics into the following sizes:
Alphabet- 2″ square (set aside left overs for binding)
Stripe- 2.5 x 2 and 2.5 x 4
Plaid Floral- 2 x 4 and 2 x 5.5
Yellow Stripe- 1.5 x 5.5 and 1.5 x 6.5
Polka Dots- 2 x 6.5 and 2 x 8
Tickets- 2.5 x 8 and 2.5 x 10

Cream Alphabet- 1.25 x 9.75 (2 pieces) and 1.25 x 19.75
Let’s make your squares. We’ll make one of each of the four colors.
Start with your center square and add the 2.5 x 2 stripe piece to the side.
Add the 2.5 x 4 stripe piece to the top of this unit.
Keep adding pieces to the block. First the side piece and then the top piece.
Each block will have a yellow stripe piece in the center of it.
When you’ve added all the strips, your block will look like this:
Make one block in each color: red, blue, black and green. Your blocks should measure about 9.75″ square. Attach the cream alphabet sashing between two of the blocks. Repeat for the other two blocks.
Attach the longer cream alphabet sashing piece to one of the sets of blocks. Carefully, pin the two units together matching the seams up and stitch together.
Now your pillow top is complete and ready to be quilted. Put together a quilt sandwich (top, batting and backing) and quilt as desired. (I quilted my pillow with clear thread and stitched in the ditch between the blocks with a bit of diagonal quilting for added dimension)
Now, let’s do a little bit of hand-stitching through the yellow stripe fabric in the center of your blocks to add a little dash of something to the mix. Use one ply of perle cotton and stitch through the center of your yellow strips matching your perle cotton to the color of your block.

For your backing, cut your yardage into two pieces- 19.75 x 13

Turn under the raw edge of the backing piece (along the 13″ edge) and hem the edge.

For the piece of backing that will be the outer overlap, I added a coordinating piece to dress it up a bit. Just use one of your left over jelly roll strips and treat the edge of the backing like the edge of a quilt and “bind it”. Overlap the two backing pieces and pin the together with a measurement of 19.75 square. Layer backing (wrong side up) and pillow top (right side up) and stitch around the piece to form your pillow. Make your binding. I used the leftover alphabet fabric strips from the first blocks of my squares and did a scrappy binding for my pillow but you have enough yardage from your backing material to use that if you’d prefer something a little more streamlined. Attach your binding and finish as you would a regular quilt. Insert your pillow form. Sit back and relax and enjoy your new pillow!

One deliciously colorful pillow perfect for nap time or ANYtime!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial! With a little bit of planning and a bit more yardage for backing, you can make two pillows from one Jelly Roll so why not cut out two and sew them up at the same time? I’d love to hear from you if you make this project. I’m working on sewing every day in September. Stop by and say hi!

Kelly Lautenbach
{www.kellylautenbach.typepad.com}