Hola! It’s Fran from Cotton and Joy back with the third pattern of the holiday pillows series! If you missed the first two, you can find them here and here. . 

Quick projects like pillow covers are so fun and quick to make, and one of my favorite ways to infuse some holiday or seasonal fun into our home without spending tons of money. 

The third pillow in this series is Valentine’s Day-inspired scrappy pillow. The romantic in me can’t help but love Valentine’s and adding little touches of Valentine’s inspired decor to my home so it doesn’t look so sad after all the Christmas decorations come down. And it’s perfect to use up some of those scraps we all have in our sewing rooms!

Download your free PDF Scrappy Heart Valentine's Day Quilted Pillow Cover Pattern HERE!  

Once again, I wish I had taken more pictures of the process but this came together so quickly, I didn’t even have time to!

For quilting, I decided to do my go-to quilting - straight line quilting! I used the walking foot on my Janome 9450 and quilted lines half an inch apart. I just lined up the edge of my walking foot with the seams on the heart and around the pillow cover to help guide me. 

Lately, I have been loving the look of binding on pillow covers. For this one, I used one of the brighter solids on the heart for a nice contrast with the light blue on the background.

I hope you enjoyed this project and don’t forget to come back for future seasonal/holiday pillow projects!

Fran, xo

Welcome back to the Rainbow Quilt Block of the Month designed by Janome Maker Carolina Oneto! You are almost through the whole quilt! 

This month we will make our eleventh block. Carolina sews all the blocks on her Janome 1600P-QC. She recommends you to use a stitch length between 2.0 and 2.2, but this sewing machine is capable of stitch length variable up to a maximum of 6mm!

Remember that all the blocks will have a finished size of 12” so that means the unfinished size will be 12 1/2”

Fabrics:
White background

• Sixteen 2 1/2” squares
• One 5 1/2” square

Red

• ·Two  5 1/2” squares

Orange

• Five  4 1/2” squares

Yellow

• One 5 1/2” square

INSTRUCTION FOR SQUARE-IN-A-SQUARE UNITS
Mark the wrong side of the white 2 1/2″ squares in half once diagonally. Lay a marked square right sides together with a light green 4 1/2″ square and sew on the marked line. Repeat on the diagonally opposite corner. Repeat on the other corners.Make 5. Unit measures 4 1/2″ unfinished.

Instructions for making HST two at a time

Do this process with the 2 red squares of 5 1/2” and the two squares of the same size in yellow and white. You will assemble 4 half-square triangles.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE QUARTER SQUARE TRIANGLES

• To make a QST take two HST’s from the previous step (one red-white and one red-yellow) and place them right sides together with opposite colors touching.
• Use a pencil or water soluble marker and draw a line from corner to corner, bisecting the HST seam.
• On both sides of the diagonal line, stitch a 1/4” seam.
• Using an acrylic quilter’s ruler and rotary cutter, cut along the pencil line.
• Trim the blocks to a 4 1/2” square

FINAL ASSEMBLY 

• Arrange your blocks in correct layout
• Using a quarter inch seam allowance, sew together in rows. Join all rows, using a quarter inch seam allowance.
• Press your completed block and trim down to 12.5″ square (if necessary).

You can still start today and catch up with the Janome Rainbow Block of the Month by visiting the links below:

Block One     HERE

Block Two     HERE

Block Three  HERE

Block Four    HERE

Block Five    HERE

Block Six      HERE 

Block Seven  HERE   

Block Eight   HERE

Block Nine  HERE

Block Ten HERE

After you make your block, we’d love to see them!

Janome Sewing Classroom

Janome America Instagram – Be sure to tag @janomeamerica and use the hashtag #janomemakes and also tag @carolinaoneto!

Welcome back to the Rainbow Quilt Block of the Month designed by Janome Maker Carolina Oneto!

This month Carolina will walk you through how to make our tenth block. The Rolling Stone block is in a new color combo!

I sew all the blocks on my Janome 1600P-QC, and I really love it, one of the great things about this machine is that with nearly 9" x 6" to the right of the needle the 1600P-QC gives an extra-wide work area, especially for big projects and quilts!

Remember that all the blocks will have a finished size of 12” so that means the unfinished size will be 12 1/2”

Fabrics:

White fabric

· one  2.5′′ x 18′′ rectangle

Dark purple

· Four 4 1/2” square

Light purple

· twelve  2.5′′ x 2.5′′ square

Pink

· one 4 1/2′′ square

Blue

· four  2.5′′ x 2.5′′ squares

 · one 2.5′′ x 18′′ rectangle

INSTRUCTION FOR SQUARE IN A SQUARE UNITS

Mark the wrong side of the 2 1/2″ squares in half once diagonally (light purple and blue). Lay marked square right sides together with a white 4 1/2″ square and sew on the marked line. Repeat on the diagonally opposite corner. Repeat on the other corners. Make 4. Unit measures 4 1/2″ unfinished.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE RECTANGLE UNITS

• Sew the two long strips of fabric, right sides together.
• Next, cut your sewn strip of fabrics into four equal parts of 4.5”. Press to the dark side.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

• Arrange your blocks in the correct layout
• Using a quarter-inch seam allowance, sew together in rows. Join all rows, using a quarter-inch seam allowance.
• Press your completed block and trim down to 12.5″ square (if necessary).

And that’s all!

I hope you enjoy this new block! And don’t forget to share it!

You can still start today and catch up with the Janome Rainbow Block of the Month by visiting the links below:

Block One     HERE

Block Two     HERE

Block Three  HERE

Block Four    HERE

Block Five    HERE

Block Six      HERE 

Block Seven  HERE   

Block Eight   HERE

Block Nine  HERE

After you make your block, we’d love to see them!

Janome Sewing Classroom

Janome America Instagram – Be sure to tag @janomeamerica and use the hashtag #janomemakes and also tag @carolinaoneto!

Welcome Back to the Rainbow Quilt Block of the Month designed by Janome Maker Carolina Oneto!  This month we will make our ninth block. The Star Cross is a quilt block that allows you to practice making HST 4 at a time and square in a square units! I sew all the blocks on my Janome 1600P-QC , which has a great Needle Threader, so you can quickly get your needle threaded so you can start sewing.

All blocks in the Rainbow Quilt Block of the Month will have a finished size of 12” so that means the unfinished size will be 12 1/2”. All seams are 1/4".

Fabrics:

White background

• One 7 1/4” square
• Twenty 2 1/2” squares

Dark Green

·One 7 1/4” square

Light Green

• Five  5 1/2” squares

Instructions for making HST four at a time:

• Make four half-square triangles.
• Place a white and colored fabric square (7 1/4”) right sides together.
• Sew a 1/4″ seam allowance all around the perimeter of the square.
• Make two diagonal cuts and press each piece open to one side.

• Trim away the dog ears using a square quilting ruler, you will obtain four 4 1/2” HST

Instructions for Square in a Square Units:

Mark the wrong side of the white 2 1/2″ squares in half once diagonally. Lay marked square right sides together with a light green 4 1/2″ square and sew on the marked line. Repeat on the diagonally opposite corner. Repeat on the other corners. Make 5. Unit measures 4 1/2″ unfinished.

Final Assembly:

• Arrange your blocks in the correct layout
• Using a quarter-inch seam allowance, sew together in rows. Join all rows, using a quarter-inch seam allowance.
• Press your completed block and trim down to 12.5″ square (if necessary).

And that’s all!

I hope you enjoy this new block! And don’t forget to share it!

You can still start today and catch up with the Janome Rainbow Block of the Month by visiting the links below:

Block One     HERE

Block Two     HERE

Block Three  HERE

Block Four    HERE

Block Five    HERE

Block Six      HERE 

Block Seven  HERE   

Block Eight   HERE

After you make your block, we’d love to see them!

Janome Sewing Classroom

Janome America Instagram – Be sure to tag @janomeamerica and use the hashtag #janomemakes and also tag @carolinaoneto!

Add some seasonal charm to your season by adding some lovely pillows to your home decor with a fantastic pattern by Janome Maker Fran Gulick from Cotton+Joy!  Today's project is the first of 4 lovely patterns she has designed just for you! 

Hola! I am Fran Gulick, a Chilean quilter living in Spokane, WA, and a Janome Maker. Quick projects like table toppers and pillows are my favorite way to take care of the holiday sewing itch without spending a ton of money and without the time commitment of larger projects like a full quilt. They are always fun and fast to make, and can make great gifts too!

That’s why I am so excited to share with you four pillow projects you can swap when a new season/holiday arrives throughout the year. Whether you are a quilter with experience or a beginner, you will love these quick and fun projects! 

First up is the Scrappy Fall pillow! This is the pillow that inspired all of the projects. A couple of years ago I made a fall quilt using my Solstice Lights pattern and it’s one of my favorite quilts to use. I’ve been staring at the leftover scraps in my scrap bins ever since and I finally decided to use some of them to make a pillow cover. Download your free PDF Scrappy Fall Pillow Pattern HERE! 

So I gathered up my scraps and grabbed a matching fat quarter from my stash for the background and got to sewing. I wish I had taken more pictures of the process but this is one of those projects that comes together so quickly, I didn’t even have time to, haha. I did the math, cut, pieced, quilted, and bound this beaut in one afternoon!

For quilting, I decided to go with a classic grid quilting with black thread. I used my Hera marker to mark my lines about 3” apart and then got to quilting on my Janome 9450. 

This is my first time adding binding to a pillow cover, and I have to say I am a big fan! I love how it adds a little something to this otherwise pretty minimalist pillow cover.

I hope you enjoyed this project and don’t forget to come back for future seasonal/holiday pillow projects!