Quilted Pillow Cover

A friend had hip replacement surgery recently, and I wanted to make something that would be calorie-free and somehow comforting as well as useful. After perusing the JoAnn website for pillow forms, I decided I was tired of square pillows and settled on one that was 12 x 18 inches. My friend's artwork is wedded to her sewing machine and Kimonomomo had the perfect sewing-machine-patterned cotton from Japan (and a scissors one as well). Before I sewed the pillow cover together, I pieced and sandwiched cotton batting for the top of the pillow, then quilted it with a circular sashiko pattern (Linked Seven Treasures / Shippō tsunagi) in two shades of red, and black and ecru. The back has a flap so the cover is removable. Depending on the plumpness of the pillow, you may need 1-2 extra inches on each side. Once sewn together, my final cover was 13 x 19 inches.

To make the cover removable: for the back, hem two different pieces (the piece shown on the right is pieced with two different patterns) that together will be the size of the front but also include at least three inches of overlap. To sew: overlap the two hemmed pieces with hems facing toward each other, with the cloth pattern face down. Sew them with both those right sides facing the right side of the quilted front. Sew all the way around. Reach into the opening and turn the cover right-side out after sewing.