Boho Round Pillow

I love the Dresden blade which can be used for fan blocks, flowers, and circles. I've made a few quilted projects using this and have so many more I want to make. 

I was inspired by some vintage fabrics that I had set aside and inspiration hit one day - the Dresden blade for a round pillow! I started with a 16" pillow form and sized the blades for it. I needed to fill in some fabrics and selected some that looked vintage (can you tell which are vintage and which are new?)

For making a pillow I wanted some stability so I spray basted it to muslin before quilting it.

For the center I cut out a cardboard template and used the foil trick for a perfect pressed circle. Lay a small piece of foil down, next lay your fabric right side down, then add your cardboard template on top. Fold up all of the edges toward the center and press from both sides. Let cool completely. Then remove the foil and cardboard. Press one more time.

I gathered the edges before sewing the front and back together so that it would fit around the pillow better. I like the rumpled look of the edges.

I made the backing with overlapping flaps for ease of removing the cover and washing it and I added a tie.

Here are some of the other projects I've made with the Dresden:

 Cotton Candy Color Wheel

Pink Dresden Flower

Pink Dresden Flower

I had lots of pink fabric strips left from the Sea of Pink quilt I made and realized it would be perfect with the Dresden template and make it into a flower.

The center circle is crazy patch pieced with some french knots add at the end for quilting it. The blades are hand quilted.

The background needed some subtle contrast so I used a pale blue batik and machine quilted it with light blue thread around my heart design to make it pop. I love the little pigs fabric, whic makes it whimsical! I feel relaxed looking at this hanging on my wall. 

This is what the template looks like: 

I got my EZ Quilting template from Darlene Zimmerman's website many years ago. The Missouri Quilt Co has any extra long template that can cut up to 10" blades.