English Paper Piecing: Liberty Star Pillow

As promised, today a gallery of photos of my Liberty Star Pillow Cover based on a pattern from the book Quilting on the Go: English Paper Piecing by Sharon Burgess. The Star Pillow pattern is an English Paper Piecing design using just one shape - a diamond. I made several more star blocks then the pattern required and as a result my pillow measurements (and lack of borders) differ to that in the book.

Similar to the Star Pillow in Sharon's book I have used Liberty of Tana Lawn fabric for the stars. Not having used Liberty fabric to paper piece before I was hesitant, but as always, nothing ventured, nothing gained. It seems however that there was no need for concern. In fact, the fabrics - including the Oakshott background fabric - were lovely to work with. The needle and thread glided through the fabric layers with ease, and the fabric withstood the glue basting and paper removal process much, much better than I had anticipated. 

Quilting Thread: Aurifil 28wt cotton thread (color #6725).

I have quilted the top of the pillow cover (layered with low loft cotton batting and a cotton backing fabric) by stitching alongside both sides of  all seam lines. I have used Aurifil 28wt thread for extra stitch definition. I was keen to ditch stitch - at least for some of the seams - but hesitated to do so in fear of the pressed open seams popping their stitches and being left with a hole in the patchwork fabric. That wasn't worth the risk! 

For the back of the pillow I have used a barkcloth fabric from the Time Warp collection by Jessica Jones. I adore this fabric and it has been in my stash waiting for the right project to come along. This was it! I have used an iron-on interfacing fabric to add rigidity to the barkcloth fabric and a zip is hidden under the overlapping flap on back of the pillow. The pillow form/insert can therefore be easily removed before washing the pillow cover.

ALL THE DETAILS

Liberty Stars Pillow Cover

Pillow Cover measures 23 inches x 18 inches.

English Paper Pieced Stars (glue basted).
Paper shape: Diamond ~ 2" Six Pointed Star.

Stars Fabric:

Liberty of London - Tana Lawn

Background Fabric:

Oakshott Cotton - Scandinavia in Stockholm (Grey)

Thread:

The Bottom Line 60wt thread by Superior Threads for EPP.

Aurifil 28wt cotton thread for quilting.

Loft loft Warm and White cotton batting.

The Liberty Stars Pillow Cover is available for purchase from
my Etsy Store.

See all the listing details here:
Liberty Stars Pillow Cover

My pillow is not a standard pillow size and as such I struggled to find the right size pillow insert. But then I realized that I had on hand a square pillow insert the same width of the pillow (23" x 23"), which I simply made 5 inches shorter on one end by gently moving all the filling to one side of the insert, stitching a new seam line 5 inches from the original edge and ta-da! ...a custom made pillow insert in less than 5 minutes.

Click on any image for a larger view.

This was such a fun project to make. I really can't wait to start another EPP project but first I have to finish my Wagon Wheel Quilt. It is so close to being done!

Thank you for stopping by!
Rita

RELEVANT LINKS:
Red Pepper Quilts Etsy Store
Quilting on the Go: English Paper Piecing by Sharon Burgess
More RPQ Paper Piecing Projects:
The Daisy Chain Quilt
The Wagon Wheel Quilt
Garland Pillow Cover
Sewing School Hexagon Quilt

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