Free Living Room Quilted Pillow Tutorial

February 20, 2021 • Sewn Quilt Patterns • Tutorials

Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission from the sale if you click through and purchase.

After I finished my Living Room Quilt Mini I knew I wanted to make a pillow too. I love how this pattern lends itself to a lumbar pillow so easily. The bonus is that I was able to make this pillow with the leftover fabric I had from my throw size Living Room Quilt. (I ordered extra of the background!)

Supplies Needed:

Living Room Quilt Pattern
Leftover triangles from the pattern (or make three new, striped ones and cut four background)
¼ yard piece of the background fabric you used
17" x 39" piece of batting
½" yard piece of fabric for the back of the pillow
( 3-4 ) Pieces of prepared binding
14" x 36" Pillow Form

Cut:

Background Fabric: ( 2 ) 3 ½" x WOF; subcut to ( 2 ) 3 ½" x 15" and ( 2 ) 3 ½" x 29" strips
Back of Pillow: ( 2 ) 15" x WOF; subcut in half to 15" x 21"

Assembly Instructions:

Start by sewing together your triangles. (For tips on Sewing with Triangles Click Here!) You have them made already if you followed the instructions in the Living Room Quilt Pattern.
Trim the end triangles so that this piece is approximately 8 ½" x 29"
Attach the 3 ½" x 29" background piece to the top and bottom

Sew on the 3 ½" x 15" background piece to the two sides.

Quilting Your Pillow:

Baste your pillow front to your batting however you choose. Note: I wish I had used spray basting instead of pins for mine. The quilting design I chose was a lot of back and forth through the machine so it caused some stretching in the fabric with all the bias edges. However, it worked out just fine with pins!
Quilt your pillow! I chose to follow the 60 degree lines of the pieces. I used ½" lines and I marked it all with this beautiful hera marker! For more quilting inspiration - check out this blog post!
Once your finished quilting, trim the pillow from down to 15" x 37"

Finishing Your Pillow:

First, prepare the back of your pillow. Using your iron, press the 15" edge ofboth pieces down 1/4". Then roll that edge over again 1" and press again.
Sew along that edge on both pieces to create a nice finished edge.

Place your pillow front right side down on a surface that you can pin on.
Next place one of your pillow back pieces (right side up) on top. Then place the second piece (also right side up) on top so that it overlaps the first piece by a few inches. This will be the pocket to get your form in later.

Pin or thread baste all these layers together.
If you are more comfortable you can sew around all these layers with a ¼" seam allowance. I chose to simultaneously attach my binding while I sewed these layers together.

Wrap your binding around and finish it off either by hand-stitch or machine. For a few more ideas on finishing your quilt binding check out this blog post!