Road to Tennessee quilt block tutorial

Are you ready to make pillows?

I’m going to show you how to stitch a 3-1/2″ Road To Tennessee quilt block and construct an 18″ pillow cover. Let’s begin!

To make each Road To Tennessee block, you’ll need (1) 3-1/2″ Dinosaur square and (2) 2″ background squares for a total of (36) 3-1/2″ Dinosaur squares and (72) 2″ background squares to complete your pillow top. Draw a diagonal line on the back of each square with a pencil.

With right sides together, place a white square on each opposite corner of an 3-1/2″ square. Stitch on the line.

Trim a 1/4″ away from the stitched lines.

Press your seams open. *This reduces bulk and makes it easier to match your seams on this particular block.

Lay your pillow out in a 6×6 setting and rotate the blocks as shown and sew.

Cut a 19-1/2″ piece of batting. This is where all those batting scraps come in handy!

Layer your pieced pillow on top of the batting, pin and quilt as desired. I quilted a 1/4″ on each side of my seams.

Trim to an 18-1/2″ square.

Cut (1) 18-1/2″ square of fabric. This will be your pillow lining. I use a lining on my custom orders because it hides all of the quilting/threads and batting for a more finished look.
Cut (2) 13″x18-1/2″ pieces for your pillow backing.
**Place your quilted pillow on top of the 18-1/2″ lining. ‘Square up’ and trim any excess to make them the exact same size. Sometimes after quilting your work, it ‘shrinks‘ a bit, so if your top doesn’t exactly measure 18-1/2″, that’s still ok. Just make sure that your pieces are the same size as your top. This will help when stitching through all of your layers when sewing your finished piece together.

For the pillow backing, turn under 1/2″ on the 18-1/2″ long side and press. Turn under again, press and top stitch the hem for each piece. Attach your label now if you have one. I stitched mine on the outer backing part of the hem. You now have 4 pieces for your pillow.

Layer them in the following order and pin, being careful to match all of your seams. Pin well.

Pillow liner right side down.
Pillow top right side up
Outer backing piece right side down
Inner backing piece right side down

Stitch around your pillow with 1/2″ seam. Clip your corners . Zig Zag around your raw edges to decrease fraying.

Turn your pillow cover right side out through the backing envelope. Push your corners out and insert your 18″ pillow form.

You’re all finished!

The possibilities are endless when it comes to these covers. Need a quick Christmas gift? Make them for any holiday. Make them with different 3-1/2″ quilt blocks or how about one quilt block. It just needs to be an 18-1/2″ unfinished square to make this pillow!

Here’s a patchwork Christmas pillow I made with some of my leftover Alpine Wonderland scraps.