Penguin Pillow

Ever since our first visit to a zoo in February, my son has loved penguins.  Other animals have since entered his heart as well, but penguins still rank among his favorites.  He turns 3 next month and I wanted to make him something, but not a full blown quilt.

And so I give you Penguin Pillow!  The pattern is from a free tutorial by Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts.  It's the 12" block, then I added borders to make it fit a 20" pillow.  The fabrics in the top are all Kona solids: white, black, citrus, pond, & clover.  It's quilted with the wavy line stitch on my machine.

The backing is Winter Wonderland by David Walker for Free Spirit.  Munchkin actually helped me pick it out.  He went with me to the fabric store when I needed a few more fabrics for an I Spy swap I did in June.  I knew at that point I wanted to make him a penguin pillow, so I was looking for penguin fabric that could do double duty. I told him to look for penguins and he found this one.

I hadn't made a pillow before.  I used a tutorial for an envelope backed pillow by Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts.  The only thing I did differently is I used a backing when I did my quilting.  She just uses the top and batting, but I knew this would be for a 3-year-old and I wanted it to hold up well to multiple washings.  I wasn't sure that would be the case if I used batting with no backing, even after adding the pillow back. I even got everything lined up going the same direction the first time--front and back--and that is not always the case!

The pillow form is Inner from Ikea.  On the trip to by pillow forms and other things on our list, Munchkin found a stuffed panda that had to come home with us.  Panda is now his favorite friend, so I think there is a panda pillow in my future!

I'm saving this for his birthday, so he hasn't seen it yet.  I hope he likes it.  I have decided that I want to eventually replace the bulky, oversized cushions on our couch with smaller pillows like this, so I think I'm going to slowly make us a menagerie.

This was on my list of goals for Q3 in the Finish Along hosted by quilt bloggers around the globe.