Fall is such a cozy and colorful season, and I love everything that comes with it—especially the decorating! I love all things pumpkin and thought I should try to make a pumpkin pillow using the same technique as the ghosts from Boo Crew. That’s how the Pumpkin Patch pillow came to life! I used Essex Linen, but it would look just as sweet in anything from your stash!

To optimize your fabric and create as little waste as possible, follow the cutting diagram below. 

Once you have all your fabric and batting cut out, it’s time to baste! You are going to sandwich the front of your pillow. Lay the piece of muslin down and place the batting on top. Now place the front piece of fabric (right side up) on top of that. Baste however you prefer. For this pillow, I chose to pin baste, but if spray basting is your jam, that works too!

This is the fun part! There are so many great ways to quilt using just your walking foot. And the fun part about having a wholecloth piece is that it is a completely blank canvas. So have fun and get creative with this part! If you like how I quilted mine, I did a 2” grid at a 45° angle.

Now it’s time to layout where you want your pumpkins. I wanted a more uniform look, but if you want to make it random, that would look great too! I used safety pins to mark where I wanted my pumpkins. I also included a graphic to show you where I placed the pumpkins on the grid. 

Now let's make some pumpkins! Start by cutting out the pieces of cording needed. For each pumpkin you will need one 30" piece of orange cording and one 3" piece of brown cording for the stem. If you purchased the kit, there are a couple extra cords to practice if desired.

Set your machine to a zigzag stitch. You want it to be fairly wide so it catches both sides of cording as you sew down the middle. I set my stitch width to 6.0. 

First you will need to tack down the stem. The stitches won't show, so you can use any thread color. I tacked mine about 1/3 of the way up the cord. It's best if the bottom section of cord comes undone a bit so it will lay flatter. This will make it easier for your machine to go over when you make the pumpkin. Backstitch a few times to make sure it's secure. Once it's tacked down, you can trim the bottom section of cord to reduce bulk.

Take the 30” piece of orange cording and place it 3/4" or so to the left of the stem. Zigzag right down the center of the cording making sure to backstitch a few times to secure the stitches at the beginning. once you sew down the cord about an inch, stop with your needle down on the right and pivot. 

Now you will wrap the cord around and sew it alongside the section just sewed in the opposite direction. 

Keep repeating this up and down zigzag shape of cording until your pumpkin is the desired size. I found that the perfect size for me was 3 full zigzags on each side of the stem as shown below.

Trim the cording on the sides of the pumpkins. Try to cut them at an angle as shown below. This gives the pumpkins a more rounded appearance rather than having a straight edge at the end of the cording.

Trim the stem to desired length. I made some of my stems long and cut some short. I wanted all my pumpkins to be different just like they are at the pumpkin patch!

Now it’s time to square up the front of the pillow. Trim down to a 21” x 21” square.

The rest of this pillow is constructed exactly like the Boo Crew Pillow. Follow steps 9 & 10 of the Boo Crew tutorial to finish your Pumpkin Patch Pillow (Boo Crew Tutorial).

Happy Quilting!