Meeple Pillowcase

 The Meeple pillowcase is finished!  And, with the help of my kids, it has a pretty epic final photograph:

They were not impressed with my photo of the pillow by itself, and even after we added the Carcassonne meeples, which were the inspiration for the Meeple pattern itself, they still felt like it needed a little more.  I highly approve!

This project was somewhat unusual for me, in that it actually started with the pillow form itself!  (I normally make my own pillow forms from scraps to fit finished projects.) I had bought a new pillow and while it was comfortable, the fabric it was made of was not great.  It was so pilly it annoyed me to no end when I changed the pillowcase or even brushed the exposed end of it with a pillowcase on.

Since it wasn't working, I thew it in the sewing room on my WIP pile with the thought that it would be a good pillow form for a completely enclosed pillowcase.  And there it languished, mostly because I was afraid of the square shape.  3-D sewing is not my forte and I wasn't sure how to put it together.  Once I started designing the Meeple pattern, however, I realized six of the 6" Meeples would fit on it perfectly so I needed to get over my fear and just start making!

I made my six Meeples, then put them together with a very generous border, giving myself extra space to use to form the top around the pillow. I decided I was going to box the corners to fit the pillow cover to the pillow form - if you look closely you can see where the corners are marked so I didn't quilt anywhere I was going to cut later. Then I let my quilting go "off the edges" onto the sides of the pillow just a little to make it interesting!

Cutting into my top to make the boxed corners was scary - if I made a mistake I couldn't uncut them - but the whole process went smoothly and my corners were beautiful.  I even did a mini photo shoot at this point!

And then I waited about a month before I actually finished the pillow case.  I thought the best way to do so was to put in an invisible zipper and I wasn't thrilled about that idea.  I normally do horizontal envelope closures, but this pillow was too wide to make that seem like a good idea.  But then I remembered the pillow shams on my bed when I was a child - they had vertical envelope closures!  Eureka!

It's a little bit baggy, but it works - the pillow is snuggly inside and the front looks good.  I had intended this pillow to be in our family room, but the kids fought over it and the victorious one has been sleeping on it in his room.  The best quilt project is one that is loved when it's finished and this one definitely fits the bill!

The Meeple Quilt Block pattern is available in my pattern shop.  It includes paper piecing patterns to make the Meeple Block in both 6" and 12" finished sizes, but does not include instructions for any finished projects.  Thanks for reading!