A Compass Quilt Block – Appliqued and English Paper Pieced

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Sometimes it takes other people to stretch us and take us to uncharted territory.

A dear friend asked about some pillow covers. Of course I would love to sew you some pillow covers, dear friend!

The conversation started with some talk about map fabric. Yes, I do enjoy maps as well. We can make that happen. The conversation ended with a mention of a compass painted on the ceiling of the room where these pillow will eventually reside.

Okay. Compass.

We’ll try to find something to resonate with a compass. I didn’t find any compass fabric that I felt suited the feel I wanted for these pillows.

As I searched for quilting fabric, I learned that there is a somewhat common ‘mariner’s compass’ block for quilting. I had never attempted something so fancy. I did some searching on Etsy and Craftsy for some patterns for a mariner’s compass.

After doing a bit of searching, I landed on a free template from Wombat Quilts. If you click through to Wombat Quilts, scroll down to the very very last template titled Which Way North. That’s the free template I used to get me started on this project.

(Valdani Size 8 Black Pearl Thread)

Since I was sewing a block for the front of an 18 inch pillow, I needed a compass that measured around 16 inches from tip to tip. I blew up the template from Wombat Quilts and cut out the parts I wanted to use for this somewhat simplified design compared to her’s. (If you look at her original PDF, her compass has many more points than my compass.)

I decided to English paper piece my compass block. Since this was kind of a trial and error block, I sewed one for myself first. It’s not usually in my best interest to try something new on a project for a friend.

So I cut apart the free template that I enlarged a bit and started tracing the pieces I needed onto card stock. I had all my triangles cut to create my compass, and I started gluing the fabric onto the card stock.

(Brass Zipper)

I had decided to applique the compass onto a background instead of paper piecing the entire front of the pillow.

I quickly learned that there was no way I could get sharp points on these triangles. The ends were too skinny for English paper piecing and by the time I folded the fabric around the tip, it overlapped out from behind the tip.

Essentially, I had to live with blunt tips on my compass. Good thing I decided to do a trial cover. The applique process with the compass block wasn’t going to work well.

I went ahead and finished the compass with flat tips. I actually was really enjoying the fabric combination and have learned that most of my hand made projects are finished with some sort of unexpected flaw.

Once this trial pillow was finished, I started on a map pillow for my friend. I knew my best option, at this point, was to English paper piece the entire front of the pillow.

I went back to my template from Wombat Quilts and enlarged it until I had shapes large enough for a 16 inch compass.

I taped together enough card stock to represent the front of an 18 by 18 inch pillow cover. I started tracing and using all my geometry skills from high school to make the best compass I could possibly muster.

Truth be told, I sent a picture of this geometry project to my husband at work (he’s an engineer). I figured he’d be impressed with his unprecise, fairly creative brained wife. 🙂

After I finished tracing and labeling, I cut out all the shapes for the front of the pillow. I selected fabric and started gluing around all the triangles.

I then hand stitched the shapes together with a simple whip stitch. Here’s what the back of the completed pieces looked like after glued and sewed together.

I started peeling the fabrics back from the edges. I learned, yet again, that using small amounts of glue is better than slathering glue on thick.

Here’s the front panel of my pillow. The points are soooooo much better on this one than on my trial pillow cover.

I hand stitched around the compass block with Valdani Size 8 Pearl Cotton Thread from Sunny Day Supply. I love the look of the hand quilting. I haven’t been industrious enough to attempt to hand quilt an entire quilt, but it’s on my to-do list. Quilting a pillow cover of this size is immensely enjoyable for me.

I added a bit of texture to this pillow with a wooden button from Field and Cloth. It’s my first time ever sewing on a button. 🙂

As customary for any pillow I’ve made in the last six months, I used another brass zipper. Mixing textures has become such a fun way of adding dimension and creativity to my recent projects.

The hand quilting combined with the wooden button and brass zipper gives so much richness and life to this project. I’m so pleased with the result.

The back is a simple single panel of the map fabric that I also used on the front.

What started as a business request will soon turn into a gift for a dear friend. I hope this pillow is loved and cherished for years!