Happy Haunting Pillow

We are continuing our Halloween Series today with a fantastic pillow from Melanie! Be sure to stop by Melanie's Instagram and start following her! I love seeing all of her lovely creations! :)


I'm Melanie and I'm excited to be part of the Halloween fun at Fort Worth Fabric Studio! A bit about me: I married my high school sweetheart and we have 3 fabulous kids. My "fabric-ing" as my kids call it...usually happens at night while they are asleep. I like to listen to an audiobook or a podcast,  have a snack, and sew in the evenings- it's very relaxing to me. I share my sewing adventures on Instagram as mellierc.

I chose to create a large 20" pillow using the Economy Block or Square in a Square Block with the Happy Haunting fabric from Riley Blake.  I like non-scary Halloween, but my boys are starting to like scary stuff now....so this fabric is a bit of a compromise as it has skulls on it :).  So let's get started!

Fabrics needed to create the 20" Happy Haunting Pillow. No worries if pillows aren't your thing...just add binding and now you have a mini quilt!

From left to right:

Happy Haunting Gray Sticker Riley Blake: 2/3 yard (center squares and backing)

Swiss Dots Black Riley Blake: 1/2 yard (squares/triangles, border, and binding if you cut very carefully)

Happy Haunting Black Skull Riley Blake: 1/3 yard (squares/triangles)

Let's move onto cutting. Do cut carefully as there isn't much left over especially the Swiss Dots fabric  if you are wanting to have enough to making binding as well. The image below does show strips for binding, which I decided not use in the end for my pillow.

Happy Haunting Gray Sticker Riley Blake: Cut nine 3.5" x 3.5" squares. (fussy cut if desired). Remaining fabric is for backing.  I cut my pillow backing pieces prior to cutting my nine squares to make sure I had large enough pieces of fabric to create my pillow back.

Swiss Dots Black Riley Blake Cut ten 4.5"x4.5" squares and eight  3.5" x 3.5" squares. Cut four 1.25" x 21" strips for border-they are a bit long to allow for trimming after being sewn on. (If you prefer a 21" finished size square to make your 20" pillow cut the four strips 1.75"x 21-22" for border). If you cut very carefully and use the thinner border strip, there will be enough left over for optional 2" binding strips.

Happy Haunting Black Skull Riley Blake: Cut eight 4.5"x4.5" squares and ten  3.5" x 3.5" squares.

Step 2 cutting. Cut the  4.5"x4.5" squares and 3.5" x 3.5" squares in half to make triangles as shown below. 

Time to start sewing.   

1. Center one 3.5" black triangle on the center block gray square and sew with 1/4" seam. 

Notes: All seams while creating blocks and pillow front are 1/4" seam. The triangles are a bit oversized so we can trim our economy blocks down to the correct size. I think the blocks are more accurate this way. So keep your ruler and rotary cutter handy :).

2. Now repeat with the opposite side.

3. Press block and trim off excess triangle edges.

4. Add 2 more 3.5" triangles to remaining sides as shown above to complete the first square.

5. Trim block to 4.75". This is approximately 0.25" past each point on the center square.

6. To create the outside square. Sew the white  4.5" triangles on all four sides like you did with the black fabric earlier. Then trim block to 6.5". This is approximately 0.25" past each point on the second square.

7. Sew five 6.5" blocks with the white outer square and four 6.5" blocks with the black outer square.

Assembling your pillow

8. Sew together your nine 6.5" blocks. Choose your favorite arrangement or follow my example below. Then add border strips. I wait to trim the length of my border strips until after I have sewn the strips on- then I trim them off when I square it up. 

I trimmed my square to 20" as I like a tight fit on my pillow. If want to follow Lindsey's fantastic Envelope Pillow Instructions, use the 1.75" border strips and trim your pillow front to 21". 

9.  Cut a piece of batting about 1" larger on all four sides from your pillow front. Lay your pillow front on top of batting- be sure to place in the center and right side up. Quilt as desired. I chose to quilt mine in a 2" diagonal grid pattern.

10. After quilting the pillow front, it's time to make your favorite pillow closure. 

Click here to use Lindsey's fantastic Envelope Pillow Instructions

Now it's time to enjoy your Halloween pillow! I'm pretty sure mine will stay out until Halloween as my boys love the large size :) 

Thank you Fort Worth Fabric Studio for inviting me to share my tutorial!

Be sure to tag me on Instagram if you make a pillow too!