Winter Bear Paw Pillows

Happy Tuesday! Today I want to share a set of pillows I made for our home back in December!


I still love the sample pillows that I made for my Bear Paw Pillows Pattern a few years ago. The colors work for our home most of the year, but as Christmas approached this year, I realized I could get some use out of a different color scheme. On that note though, I didn't want them to only be Christmas pillows. So! I dug into my stash for ideas and came up with a combination that I think will work all winter long. They can work well for Christmas and also lean a little Valentine's Day. Honestly, in our house pink always works, no matter the season!


I had a lot of leftovers of this star print from Daisy Chain by Annabel Wrigley*. I used it as the backing for my Christmas Two by Four Quilt, and I had a lot of long skinny pieces leftover from that. Once I settled on that print, I chose some solids to match from my stash.


Then it was full steam ahead. I was able to pull together the background pieces and the backs of both pillows using only my backing leftovers, which felt really good! I often struggle to use those types of pieces, so I was happy these were used up for something so fun. The pillows came together in a day or two, so it wasn't long before I had them on display!



I didn't have a ton of the solids that matched, so I played with the color placement so that I could squeeze out enough pieces for both pillows. I like how they ended up like sisters instead of twins. The quilting is pretty minimal. I wanted the piecework to be the star of the show. Just some straight lines with an off-white thread.


I used a simple envelope closure for the pillow backings. I typically prefer to do a zippered closure, but I didn't have any zippers that matched or were the right size and I didn't want to order any. Plus the envelope style is so much quicker, it's hard to resist at times! Since I was making these in the midst of holiday sewing and the lined drawstring bag sew along, I was happy to save some time.


I happened to have enough yardage of another print from the same collection, so I used that as the binding. Ideally I would have used more of the solids, but I didn't have enough. So I made do! I think they're still cute.



Here are the finished pillows on our chairs in front of the fireplace around Christmas time! As I write this post today (in February), they're still out and look great. That reminds me, I should probably put up my Valentine's garland! Very pleased with how this project turned out. I love to make projects for our home, it's probably my favorite thing to make. I like having different options to switch between and making them myself gives me lots of home decor to choose from without breaking the bank!


Pattern: Bear Paw Pillows Pattern
Fabric: Daisy Chain by Annabel Wrigley* + solids from stash
Finished Size: 20"x20"

Happy Quilting!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.