Rosette Ruffle Pillow

This pillow is the first project I made using the Accuquilt GO! Baby I was sent to review. I cut the following with the 2 1/2" strip cutter die on the GO! Baby:

• Eight strips 2 1/2" wide by 13" long (the orange edging)
• Two strips 2 1/2" wide by 64" long (the pink rosette)

For the long strips I folded my fabric in half, then in half again so I had a 16" length. You could also cut the strips with scissors or a rotary cutter.

Other materials: 

• 3" circle for the center of the flower
• Large button (mine is 3/4")
• Two 11.25" squares for the center of the front and back (the brown with white polka dots in my pillow)

To get started, lay out one of your center sqaures. Start with one of your strips for the rosette and form a circle with 1/2" border away from the edge of the square and spiral inwards. To create the circle, add a pleat every 1 1/2 or 2 inches. I didn't want mine to be perfectly precise pleats so I just added the pleats as I went without measuring. The 1 1/2 to 2 inch measurement is on the inside of the spiral where the orange star is in the top left image below. Pin the pleats in place as you go. Where the strips ended, I folded the edge under 1/2" so it would just look like another pleat (top right photo).

Start sewing around the center and spiral your way out. As you sew leave 1/2" seam allowance. Fold the fabric you have already sewn away from the foot to avoid sewing down multiple layers.

Here's what the back looked like after I finished sewing the spiral.

When I measured the stitches on the back of the fabric, the largest part of my spiral was 6" and the width between rows at the outer edge was 1 1/4" and narrowed as I got to the center of the spiral. Here's an illustration of what the stitching looked like on the back of the fabric:

After the rosette is sewn down you'll add the border. Sew on one strip at a time as shown in the diagram within the photo below (the photo shows the front with just 2 of the 4 strips attached). Sew 4 strips to the front square and 4 to the back square with a 3/8" seam allowance.

Next, place the 3" circle in the center and sew it down with the button in the middle. I added a few pleats to the center circle as I was hand sewing on the button.

Put right sides together and sew all the way around the pillow with a 3/8" seam allowance, leaving a 4" opening.

Turn the pillow right side out and stuff with fiberfill. You could also modify this to use a pillowform. Hand stitch the opening closed. The final exterior measurements are 14" square.