How to make the Brick Road Pillow or Table Topper

I finished up the tutorial for the Brick Road pillow! If you would like to know how to make the Brick Road Quilt Pillow just keep reading. Since I already have lots of pillows, I decided to make a table topper instead. I never know what I’m going to make sometimes until I’m done. Are you that way also?

As I mentioned yesterday, I couldn’t find the original photos of the pillow so I decided to make it again so I could show you photos of the steps. Here is the pieced top before I decided to make it into a table topper instead of a pillow.

Here you can see the pillow and the table topper. You can also read my first post when I talked about working on the light blue Brick Road pillow.

This is a very simple pattern that uses 3 colors. I am using batiks and one of them is a fairly large multi-colored print. Each rectangle cut looks entirely different.

I also picked a green that was in the print for my accent color. I’m still having trouble getting the colors right with my camera when I use it in the house. Very frustrating.

Fabrics

• White – 1/8 yard
• Multi-print – 1/8 yard
• Green – 3/4 yard includes pillow back or table topper & binding

I used scraps for this project so most of my pieces were cut individually. If you use yardage then cut strips the length of the fabric as shown below. The pieces I had weren’t long enough to make this work so I just cut separate pieces.

Cutting Strips WOF

• White – cut strips 1″ x width of the fabric (WOF)
• Green – cut strip 2″ x width of the fabric (WOF)
• Multi-print – cut strip 3″ x width of the fabric (WOF)

Sew with a ¼” seam allowance.

• Sew a white strip to both sides of the green print
• Press seams toward the green print
• Sew the mult-print to one side of the white strips
• Press toward the multi-print
• Cut sections 2″ wide

Step One

Cut Individual Pieces

• White – cut 42 – 1″ x 2″ rectangles
• Green – cut 21 – 2″ x 2″ squares
• Multi-print – cut 21 – 2″ x 3″ rectangles

Set one white 1″ x 2″ piece to the left side of the green 2″ square. Repeat adding one white 1″ x 2″ piece to the right side. Press seams toward the green fabric. Next add one multi-print 2″ x 3″ rectangle to the section you just made. Press the seam toward the multi-print.

Step Two

Make 21 sections like this.

Step Three

Sew 3 sections together to make a row. Press the seams toward the multi-print. Repeat this step for a total of 7 rows.

Step Four

Cut the following:
White – cut 8 – 1″ x 15½” sashing strips, sew the strips between the rows and also at the top and bottom.

Normally I don’t do much pinning and the design is very forgiving in the way the rows line up and I’m not a perfectionist.

To get everything to line up better, you may want to do a little pinning. I’m using my vintage 15-91 Singer which has painter’s tape marking my ¼” seam allowance.

Step Five

Add the borders

• The piece should measure 15″ square
• Cut 2 – 2″ x 15″ strips, sew to the sides
• Cut 2 – 2″ x 18″ strips, sew to the top and bottom

Pillow

Add batting and a backing like muslin – quilt as desired. Here is a closeup of the quilting that I did. This is just straight-stitch sewing with a regular foot on my machine. I didn’t mark any lines, I just eye-balled it. If you are hesitant to try free-motion quilting then you should definitely try this!

Pillow Backing

• Cut 2 pieces of the green fabric – 13″ x 18″.
• On each piece fold one of the 18″ sides under ¼” and press.
• On one piece, fold under another 1″ and top stitch it.
• On the other piece, fold under ¼” again and top stitch.
• Place the 1″ top stitched piece face down on the right side of the pillow top.
• Next place the ¼” top stitched piece face down on top of it.
• Pin the pieces and stitch around the pillow with a ¼” seam allowance.
• Double stitch over the area where the back pieces overlap to make the seams stronger.

Table Topper

Add batting and a backing, the green yardage will be enough for the backing and binding. Since I used scraps in my stash, my backing is different. You can also see some of my stitching done with Auifil thread.

Cut 2 strips of 2½” x width of fabric for the binding. Sew your binding strips together and then fold lengthwise. I like to sew my binding to the front of the quilt and then topstitch on the back of the quilt just a hair past the stitching line. You can also hand stitch your binding.

This could also be used as a giant mug rug. So nice to actually have a photo that shows the correct colors!

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and I would love to see any project your make with it. I created a pdf that is just 2 pages but has all of the information needed to make either the pillow or table topper. There are full-color diagrams included.

Purchase an ad-free printable PDF version of the Brick Road Pillow/Table Topper tutorial here.

You might get a kick out of this photo, I laid the Brick Road table topper on top of the pillow and it gives you an idea of how this would look if I had made it into a pillow like the light blue Brick Road pillow.

Other tutorials you will enjoy!

• Sparkle Pillow tutorial
• Jacob’s Ladder Box
• Churn Dash Placemats
• How to add binding