Simple Flying Geese Pillow

Do you enjoy making pillows? They make a wonderful gift, a great way to add color to a room, and best of all, they are a great way to practice a new quilt block or some free motion quilting.

In my last post, I shared a tutorial for making 4 flying geese at one time. If you missed it, be sure and click the link and check it out or get the PDF that includes both tutorials.

16-inch Flying Geese Pillow

• ¼ yard teal
• ¼ yard orange
• ¼ yard light orange
• ¼ yard yellow
• ¼ yard cream
• ¼ yard gray
• ½ yard for pillow back
• 16-inch pillow form

Make the flying geese blocks in the 2″ x 4″ finished size (using the sizing chart).

Cutting Directions:

• Cut (1) 5¼-inch square from the teal, orange, light orange, and yellow
• Cut (16) 2 7/8-inch squares from the cream
• Cut (8) 2½-inch x 8½-inch rectangles from the gray

Make the 4 at a time flying geese blocks

• Make (4) different colors of flying geese blocks
• Using one of each color – sew 4 flying geese blocks together
• This will measure 4½-inches x 8½-inches
• To make a 8½-inch square block, add a 2½-inch x 8½-inch piece to each side
• Your block will now measure 8½-inches square

Repeat this step for all 4 blocks keeping the colors in the same order.

Layout your blocks and then sew them together.

Your pillowtop will measure 16½-inches square. You could also use this for a table topper.

Add batting and quilt. I also like to add a layer of muslin as a backing to my pillows. It is up to you whether you do this.

I used a gray thread on the gray fabrics and did some free motion swirls and then changed to a cream thread to quilt with a small stipple design around the flying geese.

Once again I am using fabric from my stash and I didn’t have enough of the gray for the back of the pillow. I found a fabric that was a pretty good match and used it.

FINISHING THE PILLOW

ENVELOPE STYLE PILLOW BACK:

For this pillow, I decided to do an envelope-style pillow back.

Each backside piece will be the same width as the front side and ½ of the length plus 4 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 16½-inches so 1/2 of that is 8-inches + 4= 12-inches.

Cut two pieces of the print 16″½ x 12″ for the pillow back. On each piece fold the one side under ¼” and press.

Mr. Mickey joined me in my quilt studio and found a pile of fabric that he could lie on. Looks like a quilt project for Halloween that never got finished!

Would you like a downloadable PDF of this tutorial?

Purchase an ad-free printable version of this tutorial which will include directions to make the 4 at a time flying geese blocks, a chart for other sizes of blocks, and the flying geese pillow tutorial.

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