Get Punny with the GO! Sea Life Medley Pillow Tutorial

Hi AccuQuilt friends! I'm Melanie from A Bit of Scrap Stuff and I'm so excited to share a tutorial with the new AccuQuilt GO! Sea Life Medley die (55190). When I saw the brand new GO! Sea Life Medley die, I knew I needed to make some fun pillows with puns or "punny pillows"! I always love a good pun and so do my kids! 

Don't worry if puns aren't your thing - I'll show an example of a personalized seahorse family pillow too! 

The 6" x 12" Sea Life Medley contains: Crab, Fish, Seahorse, Starfish plus a tiny circle for eyes or bubbles.

Read more on the GO! Sea Life Medley and all the 2019 Limited-Edition dies! 

Of course the GO! Sea Life Medley is awesome, AccuQuilt-quality so your crab legs (and all the sea creatures) will cut perfectly! The die has two-toned foam so it's super easy to know where to place your fabric for accurate cuts! Let's gather up our supplies and start cutting!

Supplies

• AccuQuilt GO!, GO! Big or GO! Baby
• GO! Sea Life Medley Die
• GO! Carefree Alphabet - Uppercase
• GO! Carefree Alphabet - Lowercase
• Fabric - I used Reef by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman
• Fusible Web - I used Heat N Bond -LITE (purple package)

Tutorial for 18" Sea Life Pillow

We'll use my SEAS the day pillow for an example, but each pillow or pun can easily be adapted to these instructions.

1. Measure the crab appliqué shape on your die (height and width) - add ½" to measurement. Cut one fabric square and one piece of fusible web to size. You will have less fabric waste if you only cut your fabric ½" larger. Example: The crab shape is 3" x 4¾", so cut both the fabric and fusible interfacing at 3½" x 5¼".

2. Adhere the fusible web to the wrong side of the fabric following the instructions included on the fusible web package.


3. Peel off the fusible web paper backing.


4. Align fused fabric over crab shape on your GO! Sea Life Medley die. Cover with cutting mat and run through your AccuQuilt GO! fabric cutter.

5. Slide cutting mat off die. If fusible web is face side up, it will stick to the cutting mat - but it comes off super easy since no heat is involved! The cut is accurate and perfect! 

6. Repeat steps 1-5 to cut one fish, one seahorse, one starfish, and four eyes.


7. Again repeat steps 1-5 with the GO! Carefree Alphabet Upper Case and Lower Case dies to cut the letters for "SEAS the day".


8. Cut one 19" fabric square out of a fabric of your choice to be the pillow background.


9. Fold the 19" fabric square in half two times to create quadrants and a center crease from top to bottom and left to right. Iron those creases so they are set in the fabric while you work with it. These folds will make it easy to center the appliqué shapes.


10. Place cut fabric shapes on 19" pillow fabric square as desired. Be sure NOT to place close to fabric edge as we will be trimming the fabric down to 18½" square and then sewing a ¼" seams so final pillow size is 18".

NOTE: My original fabric square was 18" as I was using a fat quarter. This gives a final pillow size of 17½" - which gives a full fit for a 18" pillow form. 

11. Fuse your sea creatures and letter shapes to pillow background following fusible interfacing instructions. Before applying heat, be sure you have all words spelled correctly and creatures placed where you want them.

OPTIONAL: Use your FREE AccuQuilt embroidery file downloads and machine embroider around each shape. OR you can machine appliqué / stitch around each shape free-hand.

12. Make a mini quilt sandwich: With the pillow's front fabric right side up, batting, then inside pillow fabric right side down. Quilt as desired. I chose to stipple my pillow to adhere my cut fabric pieces instead of embroidering each shape. If you choose to quilt over your shapes make sure your fusible web is designed for quilting so your needle doesn't become sticky or break (Heat 'N Bond LITE).

13. Make your preferred pillow backing: I prefer to use a zipper-style as I feel it gives a polished look and it makes it easy to remove the pillow cover for washing, but you can create an envelopes style or sew them up completely.

Click here to meet all our GO! Getters and learn all about their work!

BINDING

Cut two 2½" x 42" strips of fabric and attach the binding to the pillow with your preferred method. Now it's time to enjoy your SEAS the day pillow! I just couldn't stop with one pillow so I made a total of four. Here are a few more punny pillows with the GO! Sea Life Medley and GO! Carefree Alphabet dies:

Be a STAR

Don't Be Crabby

I also made this personalized seahorse pillow. It would be very easy to make one for your own family or it could be a fabulous gift for someone else!

Thank you so much reading my tutorial. I can't wait to see your amazing punny pillows too! Be sure to share your puns and designs with me and AccuQuilt on social media. Tag me @abitofscrapstuff and @AccuQuilt on Instagram and always hashtag #AccuQuilt so we can see them! Give us a follow while you're there and you'll be the first to know what we're making.

If you're not on social, tell us your puns in the comments and remember to subscribe to the blog so you're the first to know about new products and patterns.

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