Just in time for Valentine's Day

 My newest design...  the One Heart Reading Pillow!

The shape of this pillow is perfect for reading in bed due to it's triangle shape which keeps your back supported.  Although I've made this style of pillow before, I started out with the idea of piecing a heart from scraps. 

 

A year ago, I drafted a heart shape, then paper pieced red/pink/white fabrics together and hand appliqued them to the white background fabric.   The whole pillow was white and I was going to cover it with free motion quilted writing.  Then I changed my mind and the project was put aside.  A new year, brought me new ideas.  I realized this would be a perfect opportunity to use my burgeoning button collection.

Once I sorted out which buttons I wanted to use (avoiding any with shanks), I used a dab of fabric glue to position the buttons in place.

 

The purpose of using washable fabric glue?  I wanted to temporarily hold the layout of those buttons so that I could machine stitch them in place.    I've sewn buttons on using my machine for many years now, although this is the first time I've used glue to hold buttons in place before sewing, but it worked quite well.

Check out the button love!

The next new idea for the pillow was to eliminate all that white!  I decided the back of my reading pillow could be made using red and cream pieces left from my Pretty Please quilt, supplemented by pinks from my scrap bin.  I was trying to repeat the colours used for the scrappy pieced heart in pinks and reds on the pillow front.

Circles were quilted on the red/pink zig zags, while the cream fabrics were quilted with the word "love" running across the width of the pillow.   A fun way to practice some free motion quilting!

Figuring out how to quilt the pillow front had me stumped.  Every idea I sketched up got tossed aside until I remembered how I quilted my Forgotten Charms  quilt.  I loved the texture those swirly "S" shapes made, so that became the quilting design outside the heart on the front.

Determined to make this completely from my stash, I found that the only cording I had to make piping was quite large.  I'll admit, it was more challenging to sew, especially at the points of the pillow, more than narrow piping would've been, but I do like how you see more of the dotty print I used for the piping this way.  Speaking of dots... couldn't resist more dots for the pillow's side panels.  You know my love of dots! ;o)

The underside of the pillow is a solid piece of fabric, rather than patchwork.  I do love how this tonal print ties in with all the patchwork fabrics.

Can you see the hidden zipper that makes this cover removeable?

One Heart is made up of so many of my favourites...pretty scraps, buttons, polka dots, pinks with reds... sigh... that I'm looking forward to putting it to use the next time I want to settle in to read a favourite book. 

 

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesdays over at Quilt Story.

***Edited to add***
There have been some questions about the pattern for my pillow and due to the interest, I'm seriously considering making it into a PDF pattern and selling it.  I need your help in deciding.

  I'm thinking of giving several options for it.  One would be basic (no patchwork) and perhaps a couple other versions.     Would you like the pattern to be in a tutorial style or would written directions with a few pictures work best for you?  I could include instructions for the patchwork plus applique as well as how to make your own piping.  What do you think?  Thanks so much for your lovely feedback.  I really appreciate it!

 One Heart is a pillow cover(it has a hidden zipper), which means I also sewed and stuffed the pillow insert that fits inside the cover.  Hope that helps.

**** Thanks for your feedback! I have a reading pillow pattern available in PDF format . The wedge shape of the pillow is the same, but instead of a heart on the front panel, this new version (click here to read post) features hexagons that can be made using pre-cuts.

 NOTE: from this pattern, you will sew the pillow cover (with hidden zipper closure) and  then you sew the pillow form (which you will stuff) to insert inside the finished pillow cover.