Facets - the pillow version

This was another scrap buster and took four 5" squares of blue Konas from my scrap bin and all the smaller bits of white Kona I had set aside as not big enough for the last few projects, but not small enough to cut into squares and stash away with the other scraps.

Cats are so helpful ;-)

To quilt this one, I decided on a simple crosshatch pattern of straight lines that would underline the simplicity of this pattern but add enough "oomph" to do a gemstone justice.
Marking all the lines with a Hera marker and ruler before quilting doesn't only help to keep you on the straight and narrow, so to speak, but really helps to visualize what the quilting will look like. And if you don't like it, just iron it out and start again.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret here... I have a slightly irrational fear of zippers. Or rather, a healthy dose of respect, and I tend to shy away from anything that requires a zipper. I have sewn in a multitude of zippers, in pillows, dresses, skirts, pants... even invisible ones, but for some odd reason, my knee-jerk reaction is still to avoid having to put one in. So this pillow was going to just have an envelope back. Tuck in a flap and be done. Luckily, I found the perfect backing fabric for this one but didn't have enough of it to make the envelope, so I bit the bullet and bought a zipper. Boy, am I glad I did! I love how it looks, that it's neat and tidy front and back, and I am actually a little proud of myself for having managed to add that zipper in one go, without the need for the seam ripper ;-)

If you have a similar issue, I have added a tutorial on sewing a zipper into a pillow case, since this blog post first came out. I hope it helps you, zippers really are not as scary as they look.

Fabrics: Kona Solids scraps in Indigo, Nightfall, Windsor and Grapemist for the gemstone and Kona white for the background