Magic Parade Letter A Hexie Pillow

As much as this quilting grandma wants to make a quilt for every occasion there ever is for her granddaughter, I think that eventually said granddaughter might not need quite that many quilts. So, I was on a mission to create something else. This project magically evolved and became a very special gift for my granddaughter.

The first piece of magic occurred when I needed just a few more dollars in my online shopping cart to receive free shipping. I selected a mini charm pack of Big Sky, a Moda collection by Annie Brady. Mini charm packs are perfect for sampling a fabric collection and I really loved both the color and design of this collection. Since I had no plan for these, and had been looking for some sort of hexie project, that is what I did with these.

The second piece of magic happened when I won fabric from Pink Door Fabrics as part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. There was one piece that was perfect for Amelia as her first birthday party was unicorn themed. It was the double border print for Magical Parade by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller. The colors worked very nicely with the Big Sky collection.

As the stack of hexie's grew, I spent time arranging and rearranging, with no idea what they would become. Then, while shuffling them around on a visit to my mom's house, I thought, hey, I wonder if I could make a letter A with these?

That is when the idea to turn them into a big pillow occurred. I wasn't sure of the best technique to set and quilt hexies onto a quilt top, but I knew that I did not want to hand sew them together. I tried pinning them to the background fabric but could not get them to line up consistently. I tried spray basting them, but that was not strong enough to hold them. Finally, I did hand stitch them together, but only with very wide stitches. I also spray basted them to the background fabric and added a few pins around the perimeter. Then I quilted straight lines from point to point in all directions on the hexies. I'm sure there are better techniques for this but it got the job done.

Once the hexies were in place, it was time for some quilting fun on the rest of the project. There is small stippling around each of the parade characters which makes them stand out and look more dimensional. The characters on this fabric ended up being Amelia's favorite part of the pillow. She kept pointing to and touching all the faces. The rest of the background is quilted with whimsical swirls. The gray border on the bottom was added simply to make sure the parade did not disappear at the very bottom edge of the pillow.

The binding is a rich gold solid that picks up all the accents in both the hexies and the parade. From the crown to the lettering on the flag, to the stars on the wizard's costume, touches of gold are everywhere.

The pillow is made in an envelope style so that the form can be taken in and out easily and the cover can be washed as often as needed. While there is less quilting on the pillow back, the design is just as much fun as the pillow front.

As you would expect from any young child, she enjoyed the large gift bag this was delivered in as much or more than the pillow itself. The pillow form is 26 inches square. My hope is this pillow will see itself through many hours of book reading, movie watching, and cuddling.