The temperature has dipped into the single digits and the days are getting darker, which means it’s time for indoor cozy season! With my stash of Pumpkin Pie Latte fully restocked, the diffuser filled with cinnamon and orange essential oils, and my favourite quilts laundered and ready to snuggle under, all that remained to do was add some soft colourful cushions to the mix. Enter these new Guiding Lights Pillows.
Cushions are a perfect way to add a fresh new feeling to your home décor without breaking the bank and without requiring any renovations or new furniture. They’re pretty amazing that way. Plus, you get to settle in for a fun stitching session, play with some of your favourite fabrics, and finish up a project in a day. How bad can that be?!
The Guiding Lights Pillow pattern is ready for instant digital download.
This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission.
Story Behind the Design
This design has been on my mind since 2019!
Ever since I shared the Guiding Lights quilt block with you, I’ve been wanting to show you how dynamic the base block can be when you play around with your layout. To make that even easier for you, I’ve created the Guiding Lights Pillow Pattern which has the templates mirrored so you don’t have to worry about modifying the templates.
This is what I love about quilting, something as simple as three diamonds can be combined to create a captivating new motif.
When I was designing this block back in 2019, I wanted to create something that held meaning, was visually appealing, was fun to stitch and fit with the holiday theme.
The symbolism of the 3 diamonds represents several things, but first and foremost it symbolizes the loss of my 3 children. I’ve spoken quite frequently about my first loss which resulted in MJ being born silent at 26 weeks. The other two happened earlier in my pregnancy and were both silent miscarriages (meaning, I didn’t find out about the loss until my ultrasound showed there was no longer a heartbeat).
So, why diamonds?
Well, I tend to be a glass-half-full kind of person, so despite my heartbreak and grief, I wanted to focus on the positive things that came from my fertility challenges.
- Love – everything I did was for the love of my family. That was always front of mind.
- Hope – hope that things will work out. Hope for goodness and kindness. Hope for better days.
- Light – in the darkness, it’s important to look for and be guided by the light.
I’ve spent many years processing my grief and dealing with my fertility challenges. I don’t share this to bring you down, I share this in the hopes of helping others feel comfortable sharing their challenges and in the hopes of raising awareness that this is still a challenge for many.
At the time, I didn’t realize just how common pregnancy loss was and still is.
Did you know that 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage?
That’s high. Since this is an area that still needs attention and commitment from others and with October being pregnancy loss awareness month, I’m hoping the release of the Guiding Lights Pillow pattern will help:
- bring you comfort if you’re dealing with your own grief,
- raise awareness of an ongoing challenge for many families,
- support a cause that hopefully helps reduce this from happening to others; and
- share love and comfort through the art of handmade.
Helping Others
I’ve personally been donating to the International Stillborn Alliance and wanted to raise additional awareness by dedicating 25% of all Guiding Lights Pillow pattern sales made in October to the ISA. It’s an organization near and dear to my heart and one I don’t hear spoken about often. I’m hoping this helps raise awareness.
Guiding Lights Pillow Pattern Features
To make this the best quilting experience for you, I’ve snuck in a bunch of features in the Guiding Lights Pillow pattern, including:
- Instructions for two pillow sizes: 18” x 18” square style and 23” x 15” lumbar style. The different versions look great together too!
- FPP templates are 100% scaled to size, so you don’t have to play around with your printer settings.
- Anatomy of an FPP template so you understand where you need to stitch and where you need to cut (probably the hardest part about FPP is keeping that straight!).
- Detailed step-by-step instructions so you understand exactly how the block should look at each step of the piecing adventure.
- Fabric cutting diagrams to help you maximize your fabric.
- Detailed instructions on how to insert a metal zipper in your pillows.
- Active links to additional tutorials to give you added guidance.
- Design ideas for both the square and lumbar versions to inspire you.
- Colouring page to help you plan your own colourway.
- Block labels to help you stay organized as you stitch.
- Track your Progress tick boxes at each step, so you know exactly where you left off!
Be sure to leave a comment below if there’s a feature you’d love to see included in sfD patterns!
Technique Featured in the Guiding Lights Pillow
The pattern uses Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP) to help you achieve nice crisp points on your diamonds. The technique also ensures that your diamonds stay lined up and creates this crisp angular motif.
If you’re new to FPP, you’ll be happy to know that I’ve included cutting instructions for each of the pieces. I’m not sure why this information is often excluded from FPP patterns, but I’ve received lots of ‘thank you’ for sneaking those details in 😉
When working with angles, FPP can be a little tricky, which is why I’ve been quite generous on the size of the pieces to give you ample wiggle room for placing your fabric pieces. You can opt to trim those down if you’re an experienced FPPer!
For even more help diving into FPP, there’s already a detailed tutorial on how to make the Guiding Lights block on the blog.
Square Pillow 18” x 18”
You can’t go wrong with a classic square cushion.
What I love about the Guiding Lights motif is that it’s nicely centered on the cushion. Sometimes I find the patchwork design can get lost in the squishiness of a pillow. I avoided that by incorporating lots of negative space around the design!
You can still karate chop your cushion without distorting the shape 😊
Materials Featured
I wanted the overall feel of the pillow to be warm and inviting with a little pop of colour. You’re probably not surprised that my favourite coral found its way into the mix – ha!
- Guiding Lights Pillow Pattern – square option
- Fabrics are all Art Gallery Pure Solids in:
- 50wt Aurifil Thread for piecing
- 40wt Aurifil Thread in #1318 for quilting
- Lining – this is a great option
- Batting
- YKK metal zipper
- Rotary cutter with these blades
- Cutting mat
- Sewing Machine
- Iron and wool pressing mat
- Tailor’s scissors
Lumbar Pillow 23” x 15”
What’s awesome about the Guiding Lights lumbar style cushion is that it adds a different layer and size to your pillow mix. It helps break the monotony of only featuring square cushions and I find them super comfortable for lower back support.
Materials Featured
Deep olive and forest greens have been calling to me and so I leaned into that vibe for the lumbar Guiding Lights pillow. It was also fun to see how the same colours I featured in the square version read differently by featuring olive green as the background. Amazing the impact colour play has on your compositions!
- Guiding Lights Pillow Pattern – lumbar version
- Fabrics are all Art Gallery Pure Solids in:
- 50wt Aurifil Thread for piecing
- 40wt Aurifil Thread in #1318 for quilting
- Lining – this is a great option
- Batting
- YKK metal zipper
- Rotary cutter with these blades
- Cutting mat
- Sewing Machine
- Iron and wool pressing mat
- Tailor’s scissors
For more pillow inspiration, check out:
Don’t forget to download your Guiding Lights Pillow Pattern and support a great cause this October!
Happy quilting!
xo
Shannon
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Beautiful pillows for a meaningful cause. Sending hugs to you.
So thrilled you like these ones, Gail!! Thank you for your kind words 💝
Shannon,
What brand pillow form do you use for your pillows?
Thank you
I love the Fjadrar feather pillow insets from Ikea. They’re not as stuffed as they used to be, but they still give a nice squishy effect!
Thanks so much!
Thank you, Vicki!