I am so excited to bring you guys a fun easy bonus project if you already have the Nova Star Quilt Pattern! If you don't have the pattern yet, grab one now and you can make this large pillow!
The Nova Star Quilt Pattern is block based and I thought a quick fun project would be to make 4 Nova Star blocks and then turn them into a large floor pillow. It ends up as a 26" square. I grew up with large floor pillows to prop myself up on the ground watching a movie or reading a book. And I realized, we don't have any those in our house!
I had Everett (my almost 6 year old) help me pick the color palette and fabrics. He went straight to a bright yellow and said "Let's make it SUPER bright and summer time!" And of course, with yellow being one of my favorite colors, I was IN! The tutorial is written to use up 10" squares or any scraps you have on hand. It is very flexible. I ended up using 20 different fabrics in all different sizes - FQs, 10" squares, scraps, yardage and I just cut them all to size.
As I was pulling fabrics, I just decided to go all Ruby Star Society and from a bunch of different lines. Everett chose the pink cat fabric at the very bottom to be fussy cut into the center stars. And then the star print would be our background fabric for the top of the pillow.
The tutorial is written to use the same fabric for the background and the backing envelope but I covet these stars too much to use up a big amount for the backing. Instead, I found a super cute dinosaur print for the backing envelope that I forgot I had - it's old by Alexander Henry.
So first thing I needed to do was group my fabrics into little block families. You need 6 different fabrics per block and I had a few repeats since I used only 20 fabrics. And funny enough, these families changed a little when it came to assembly time because I switched some around.
Because the black prints are very bold against the other bright colors, I made sure that there was one black fabric in each block to evenly distribute the color. Other than that I just mixed up what felt right. Some contrast pairs, some more muted combos.
I also chose to fussy cut the center stars which made the construction and placement of the blocks slightly more intentional. If you will remember, the Nova Star blocks rotate 90 degrees so I had to be mindful of sewing the blocks EXACTLY how I wanted them to face when completely done.
I started first with making all the center stars and oh my gosh they are ADORABLE.
I think this teal blue, bright acid yellow and pink laying cat is my favorite one. I love the metallics that sparkle!
I didn't get a photo of it but because of the fussy cut centers, I got all of my main units sewn together and then laid them all out unsewn. This is where I moved some parts around - the HST moved or the Center star switched blocks from the original. And once I had finalized it, then I sewed the blocks exactly as I had laid them out. This way, the centers stayed facing the same way while the blocks still rotated in the final lay out.
Everett is IN LOVE with the egg print. He points it out every single time he sees this pillow. They are pretty stinking adorable.
Here are all 4 blocks laid out before sashing.
The additional stars in the sashing are perfect. It adds a bit of consistency as well as more chaos and I love that. This is an in-your-face pillow! BOOM!
As you can tell, I could not stop taking photos. This project is just so happy and bright and was photographing so beautifully. So sorry but there are a million more photos coming.
The tutorial includes some basics instructions on quilting the pillow top. And I decided to do a fun vertical pattern of alternating straight line quilting and zig zag quilting. I basted the pillow top and then with a Hera marker, I marked the very center line down the vertical sashing. From there I marked 1" lines throughout the whole top. I quilted straight lines on the marked lines and then went back through in between the 1" gap with a zig zag stitch. It adds a lot texture!
From there, I give instructions on how to make the envelope backing and finish the pillow top! The final pillow top measures a 26" square. I always suggest a pillow insert the same size or 2" larger than the finished pillow size. It depends on the fluff and look you are going for. I used a very fluffy 26" finished pillow for my insert because it is what I had on hand.
I also made a quick little photo tutorial on this process on Instagram. It is saved under the Highlight "Pillow Tutorial".
Everett is so in love with this pillow. He has been taking it everywhere and snuggling with it. We took a few photos outside of his little picnic/yard set up.
Make sure you grab the Nova Star Quilt Pattern if you haven't yet and then you can use this tutorial to make your own floor pillow!
