Half-Square Triangle Pillow Tutorial

Hello! Happy Monday! Today I’m sharing all of the information on how to make my half-square triangle pillow. I’ve shared bits and pieces of my progress on this project over the past couple of weeks, and it’s now finished and ready for our Quilt Market booth!

This was such a fun project…and if you have extra half-square triangles from 

other projects this can really go together extra fast! I used 16 different prints along with a background fabric for my pillow. 

Materials for 16″ x 16″ pillow:

• 32 print squares 3″ x 3″
• 32 background squares 3″ x 3″
• 4″ x 16 ½″ print fabric for zipper flap
• (2) rectangles 8 ½″ x 16 ½″ for pillow back
• (2) strips of fabric 2 ¼″ x Width of Fabric for binding
• 18″ (or longer) zipper
• 16″ pillow form

Make the Half-Square Triangles:

Begin by making 64 half-square triangles using the 32 print squares 3″ x 3″ and the 32 background squares 3″ x 3″. (Here is my method for making half-square triangles). Trim half-square triangles to measure 2 ½″ x 2 ½″.

Make the 16-patch units:

Then sew the half-square triangles into four separate 16-patch units positioning the hst’s as shown above.

Now you can decide on a layout for your blocks. I thought about placing all of the units in the same position…

but then I ended up really loving the design created by turning each unit 90 degrees from the one next to it.

Quilt as desired. Then trim the edges even with the quilt front. (I used a simple plain Bella solid for the backing).

Next, you’ll want to make your pillow back. You can make a simple envelope-style back or make a back with a zipper closure. I always use this tutorial for making a zipper back with a flap to cover the zipper.  (Fabric and zipper information in my materials list is for that method).

Center the pillow front wrong sides together on top of the pillow back, making sure that the zipper pull is in the center of the pillow.  Use pins (Wonder Clips work best) to keep the layers together and sew a ¼″ seam around all edges of the pillow.

Then bind the pillow using prepared binding from the 2 ¼″ strips (see my binding tutorials here and here).

I picked a couple of fun prints for my pillow back!

This is one of my favorite sizes of pillows to make…it looks great as an accent pillow on a chair, a sofa, or even a bed!

Happy quilting!  Thanks so much for stopping by!