Family Archives - Gray Barn Designs

Need a gift for the upcoming holidays or other special occasion? You can make this quilted pillow to share your love of family with those around you!

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I wanted this pillow to look modern and sophisticated. I think the Navy on White Damask by Riley Blake Designs helped me to achieve this look.

Kona White and Kona Navy for the letters and background helped to bring all three fabrics together for an outstanding FAMILY…ha! Pun intended!

While testing and double testing the pattern, I made 5 pillows! One of the pillows I made used Garden Girl Damask Pink by Zoe Pearn of Riley Blake Designs. This pillow got some extra pizzazz with black pom pom trim. How cute is this?!

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If you decide you like the pom pom trim (or some other decorative trim), be sure to purchase 3 1/2 yards. This will give you a bit of extra trim to match where the pom poms start and stop or to match other trim designs. Since I had never used pom pom trim before, I found a great tutorial for adding pom poms to a pillow. You can link to the tutorial here.

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I will be adding this FAMILY pillow pattern to our favorite pattern website, FAVE Quilts. In addition to finding inspirational FREE quilt patterns, FAVE Quilts posts tips and tutorials on the latest quilting techniques. Sandy and I subscribe to their free e-newsletter, Piecing It Together. This newsletter keeps us up to date on the latest quilting trends! You can subscribe to Piecing It Together by clicking here.

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This pattern provides you with all the information you need to make your own, unique FAMILY pillow with an envelope back. It’s a great weekend project!

To get started on your pillow, download the pattern by clicking the link below:

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Be sure to share pics of your FAMILY with us!

Every family has its quirky side — why not honor that uniqueness with a thoroughly modern quilt banner?

Sew up this quilt quickly and take it to display at this year’s summer family reunion. It could make you the most popular person in attendance. Sandy and I will be rock stars at our family reunion next month!

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We wanted something bright, modern and of course quilted! Pinwheels are a favorite of ours so we decided to play around with pinwheel layouts. The pink and white blocks evolved and well, we love the results!

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We used scraps we had on hand. We just selected a few coordinating scrap colors and used the hot pink for accents. You can download this pattern by clicking on the link below:

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I (Cindy) learned a new technique while finishing this quilt. I watched several on line tutorials about how to add a quilt binding at a 45 degree angle (instead of at the usual 90 degrees). My favorite tutorial is by Marci Baker and you can link to it here. Marci does a nice job of showing the step by step process of adding quilt bindings at different angles.

While I was attaching this binding, I had my laptop right next to my sewing machine. I would watch, sew, pause, watch, sew and pause until I had this binding sewn on just right. Full disclosure–my seam ripper got a real work out that day!

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We will also be posting this pattern to FaveQuilts.com as this is our “GO TO” site for free quilt patterns. You will be sure to find many quilt designs, no matter what your quilting style! Give it a try for lots of summer quilting inspiration!

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