EASY Log Cabin Block Quilted Pillow Tutorial
Today, I will show you how to make a quilted pillow for Christmas or any other holiday! This pillow uses a simple log cabin block, stitches up quickly, and makes a beautiful gift!
Wait, is Christmas over?? Well, yes, it is. The silly thing about Christmas is that if you make gifts for someone and then blog about it, it ruins the surprise. That’s why today, I’m going to share with you a tutorial for these little quilted throw pillows that I made for friends and family this year.
The pattern is straightforward, so I could make about ten quilted pillow covers in a short amount of time. You can also switch out the fabrics and use these for other holidays. For example, you can pretend they are Valentine’s Day pillows if you like.
About Log Cabin Quilt Blocks
The pillows are a basic log cabin block. Usually, when making a log cabin block, you need to pay attention to where the light and dark fabrics are placed with each other. Often, all of the light fabrics are on the right-hand side of the block, and the darks are on the left-hand side of the block.
Similar to these blocks from Cora Quilts:
Another layout features the lights in the center, with the darks on the outside. When you sew the blocks together to make a quilt, these principles become very important and can change the entire look of your quilt.
You can also make the blocks scrappy, and then you won’t need to worry about where the light and dark fabrics are. The scrappy improv quilt is an example of that.
But today, we are not making a big quilt, just pillows. Some of the pillows I made have all of the light strips around the center, while others have them randomly placed.
After I finished making them, I decided I liked them with the light strips in the center, so I kept the random one for myself as a mish-mash. Whatever you do, please take a second to see how you want them to be laid out before starting.
When finished, these pillows are about 15 1/2″ square. You can put them in a 16″ pillow and have them super stuffed, or use a 14″ pillow form with looser stuffing.
EASY Log Cabin Block Quilted Pillow Tutorial
Equipment
- quilting ruler
supplies
- 1 piece 4″x 4″ square for the center of the pillow
- 7-8 pieces 4″ wide strips of fabric in various prints
Instructions
Log Cabin Pillow Instructions
- All seam allowances are 1/4″
- Start by sewing one of the 4″ strips to the right side of the 4″x4″ square. Trim the piece to fit the square. Press. Pin another 4″ wide strip of fabric to the sewn fabric squares. Stitch. Trim and Press.
- Work clockwise, trimming and pressing each strip as you go.
- Keep working and adding strips until you’ve sewn a total of 8 strips to the 4″x4″ square.
- That’s it. Pretty simple, huh! Since I wanted my pillows to have a “scrappy” feel, I just used random Christmas prints.
- When you’re done creating the log cabin block, quilt the pillow.
How to Quilt the Pillow
- Since these pillows are small, they are easy to quilt on your home sewing machine. Our machine quilting tutorial provides instructions for quilting the pillow.
How to Finish the Pillow
- There are a few different ways to do this. You can just cut a fabric the same size as the pillow front and sew them together. Sew a back on the pillow, making sure to leave a hole to turn the pillow right side out. Then insert the pillow form and hand sew the opening closed.
- However, I recommend using my Zippered Back Pillow Tutorial instead. That way, you can easily remove the pillow form and swap it out for the seasons. Use whatever method you like best to close up a pillow.
Here they are with my Quilted Christmas Pillow from last year. Can you sense a theme here? I think next year, I’ll make a tiny pillow to round out the bunch.
