Quilt Now Pillows

Way back in October when I was swamped with Quilt Market sewing, I was also working on some projects for the February 2015 issue of Quilt Now magazine which would be featuring low volume designs. Like always, I kept things simple. The Silent Film pillow above is made of 64 black, white, cream, and gray squares from some of my favorite prints.

I used eight spools of thread, generously donated by Aurifil, to quilt the pillow in a rainbow of colors. The threads go in color order across the front of the pillow, and they create an almost radiant grid as they intersect over the quiet patchwork background. This is one of those projects you really have to see in person to get the full effect. It's hard to capture it exactly through photos.

The pillow is backed in my favorite floral print from Heather Bailey's Up Parasol collection. I love the contrast of the brightly colored backing against the low volume front.

My second project was even simpler. I'd been seeing a lot of black and white stripes in catalogs and magazines back then, and I wanted to work these into a pillow. My Zebra Interrupted pillow is a lightning quick project, but it makes a wonderful graphic statement -- especially when you pair it with something floral as they did for the magazine photo shoot.

I matched black and white thread to each pieced stripe, quilting them just inside the edges. Rather than matching the thread for the green stripe, however, I did my quilting in a shade of shocking pink. I used the same pink for the backing fabric, which is a leaf print by Lotta Jansdotter. Though this pillow is very different from my usual style, I had a lot of fun with it. It almost has a bit of a Kate Spade feel to me.

These pillows marked my first published magazine projects. What a treat! You can get your own copy -- if you don't have one already -- right here.

Happy weekend, friends!