I finished my Gear Pillow last week (see previous posts here and here).

I’m glad I was able to finish quilting and assembling the pillow before our show and tell at the Montreal MQG meeting. For the quilting, I decided to use the H2O design by Leah Day. I love the scale that Brigitte from Zen Chic gave to the pattern (see the quilting pictures in this quilt tutorial ). I tried to replicate that. I quilted everything on the front with this pattern except the circle appliqué in the center.

For the back, I used a tone on tone chevron print by Riley Blake. I quilted that panel just by following the chevron lines. I used an invisible zipper for the closure and I added some orange piping when I assembled the front and back panels. I bought both an invisible zipper foot and a pipping foot just before the Holidays with this project in mind. I don’t regret it. It made both tasks so much easier. I no longer have excuse for not using piping! I had read at a few places online that it was trickier to use the invisible zipper foot when there was piping installed. So, I decided to move the zipper closure around 2″ from one of the side edges. I just made my back panel 1″ longer to take into account the seam allowances for the zipper.

I tried different new techniques for this project and I really enjoyed figuring out how I would achieve my design. I’m really happy of how it turned out. Now, I’m looking forward seeing all the projects that are being made as part of the Riley Blake Challenge. I think that this was my favorite part of the Madrona Road Challenge last year.