For the "on display friend"

**The full tutorial is now available here**

Thank you for your patience! I've had a rough couple weeks. We went away for a few days over the long weekend then things just went downhill after we got back. I can tell by the number of people who have unsubscribed recently, that maybe I need to get myself together and post something.  So, I've decided to start my first gift tutorial even though my pillow isn't finished. A couple posts probably makes more sense because this is a long tutorial.

This tutorial is based on a pillow that I saw in a Japanese magazine last year. I couldn't afford the magazine at the time so I made a quick sketch of the pillow.  I feel bad that I never wrote down the name. At the time, I didn't know that it was made from courthouse step blocks! I didn't even know what courthouse steps block were until I made this quilt for my dqs10 partner and someone told me the name in the comments! Yay! I love to learn. If you know where to credit the design, please let me know!

I think this pillow would be good for the type of friend who likes to display your handmade gifts year-round. It's a strange mix of fun/traditional/modern and will end up a generous 20 inches. I have more planned for this pillow but this is the main part of the design:

Name: On Display Friend {Pillow}
Finished Size: 20"
Credit: Japanese Magazine (I'm assuming Cotton Time or Quilts Japan)
Sewing Style: Foundation Paper Pieced
Labour Level - Best Friend Status

Step 1: Choose Fabrics

You will need four fabrics per block.  The general idea is to have a light background, dark "star points," and medium corners. I'm not the best with values so my dark and medium run a rather blurry line. 

The very astute will notice that I didn't use many of the fabrics in my picture. Once I got going, I realized that some just weren't working for me. Pretty common among, quilters, I think!

If you read the specs, then you know that I foundation paper pieced the blocks. I made a template and will share it with you in part two: construction (only because I have no idea how to share a pdf, yet).  For now, here is a rundown of the colour layout for those of us who work better with schematics (note: I forgot to add "light" to the top middle image) (double note: "light" reminds me of bud light. Not sure why).

If you don't like to use foundation piecing, then head over to Kerry's blog and use her method. She is also in the midst of a (awesome) courthouse steps pillow tutorial and is not using foundation paper.

Once you have an idea of the fabrics that you want to use, you can either cut all your strips up front or cut as you go. I cut all my strips up front but didn't use a lot of them. No biggie - they are perfect for string quilts.

Here are my strips after they were cut.

You will need to cut the following fabrics:

Dark Fabrics: 8 prints each at least 1" x WOF
Medium Fabrics: 8 prints each at least 1" x WOF
Light Fabrics: 1-20 prints each at least 1" x WOF

Stay tuned for the next post on constructing the blocks and pillow, as well as updated pictures of my finished pillow! And this time there won't be such a lag.

Happy Tuesday and Thanks for reading.