New York Beauty Pillow + Templates

The New York Beauty pillow is finished and stuffed with a 24" pillow form. It's going to be a gift, and I hope she loves it as much as I do.

The prints are from the Flock collection by Thomas Knauer for Andover Fabrics -- available in stores any minute now -- except the border pinwheels which are from his Pear Tree collection. The two collections work so well together.

I made a rookie foundation-piecing mistake and over-trimmed one of the seams. Thanks for all your advice on stabilizing the scant seam. I ended up fusing a narrow interfacing strip over the area. I'm confident that the interfacing, reinforced with quilting, will hold the seam together.

I backed the pillow with two of the larger scale prints -- I love the funky trees and the circus stripes.  The fabrics feel wonderful in the hand, and the colors are bright and cheerful without being overwhelming

I quilted with a double echo stitch around the inner and outer points, and a tight stipple in the central star.

 The back has a few straight lines and an envelope closure.

If you would like to give this pattern a try, I've posted foundation piecing templates for a 12" finished block, with an option for a wider outside border. I used the larger border to give me enough margin to finish the pillow edges.
You can download the templates here.
If you make something with the templates, I'd love for you to post photos to the Piece and Press Flickr group.