Eight point applique star pillow tutorial

Do you enjoy making quilted pillows as much as I do?

Applique is the perfect accent on a small pillow and the eight-pointed stars really pop on this pillow.

Eight point applique star pillow tutorial

14″ pillow

Looking for a perfect beginner quilt project and a great way to practice your free-motion quilting? This would be perfect!

Purchase an ad-free printable version of my Eight Point Star Pillow tutorial here

Supplies:

• ½ yard batik print
• 1/8 yard light batik
• 1/8 yard dark batik
• white or cream for 6½” x 6½” square
• HeatnBond for the applique
• Eight Point star appliques
• Aurifil thread
• 14½” square of batting
• 14½” square of muslin
• 1 – 14″ pillow insert

Cutting:

• ½ yard of print for applique, border, and backing- sub-cut 2 – 2½” x 10½” strips and 2 – 2½” x 14½” strips for the front
• 2½” strip of light teal batik – sub-cut 8 squares
• 2½” strip of dark teal batik – sub-cut 8 squares
• white or cream 6½” x 6½” square

Follow the directions on the HeatnBond to place it on your fabric for the applique. 

The Eight Pointed Star

Download and print the template for the eight-pointed star that is listed in the supplies. Trace the star or stars on to the HeatnBond adhesive.

Instead of cutting two separate eight-pointed stars, I carefully cut the center out of the large star and used it for my small star. I have also included a small star diagram if you prefer to cut it out separately.

Place the stars on the 6½” center square and applique if desired. (I usually wait until I have the whole pillow top completed.

14″ pillow diagram

This diagram shows you how to piece the pillow top.

• Use a ¼” seam allowance throughout.
• Sew three of the 2½” squares together using 2 light and 1 dark square.
• Repeat this step three times.
• Sew one of these sections to the top of the applique center and one to the bottom.

Next, add a dark 2½” square to both ends of the two remaining sections and then, add them to the sides of your center.

Add the borders around the square to complete the pillow top.

Applique and Quilting

Applique the stars, I did a little wiggle free motion stitch on my vintage Singer sewing machine as it doesn’t have a zigzag stitch. If you have a sewing machine that does zigzag then use a narrow setting to do your applique.

Adding some batting for texture

I like to add a layer of batting and a layer of muslin to my pillow top before quilting it. This really helps to give a beautiful texture.

Quilt as desired. I outlined around the stars and did a loop on the squares.

FINISHING THE PILLOW

Envelope Style Pillow Back:

For this pillow, I decided to do an envelope style pillow back as I had plenty of background fabric.

Each backside piece will be the same width as the front side and ½ of the length plus 5 inches.

This will account for seams and create an overlap which is the envelope part. If you make the pieces too short, you will have a gap when you insert the pillow form.

For example, my pillow is 14 inches so 1/2 of that is 7 inches + 5= 12 inches.

• Cut two pieces of the print 14½″ x 12″ for the pillow back. On each piece fold the one side under ¼” and press.
• On one piece fold under ½” and topstitch it. On the other piece fold under 1″ and topstitch.
• Place the 1″ top stitched piece face down on the pillow top, then place the ½” top stitched piece face down on it.
• Stitch around the pillow with a ¼” seam allowance.

Turn right side out, press and insert the pillow insert. You now have a beautiful pillow!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. It has been converted to an optional PDF that’s optimized for printing.

Purchase an ad-free printable version of my Eight Point Star Pillow tutorial here

If you make a pillow from this tutorial, I would love to see a photo of it! I have many pillow tutorials and here are a few others that you might enjoy.

I originally created this pillow in 2013, can you believe that!

• Scrappy Batik pillow
• Breezee pillow
• Tree Owl pillow
• Kaleidoscope pillow