Brrr! I need a Quillow (huh?)

It's almost 100 degrees and the humidity is drowning us. So why not sew up a toasty quilt? No, I haven't gone mad, just getting a head start on winter. It will eventually get cold again, right?

My friend Jess over at TwinFibers knew I had a son who loved polar bears, so she sent me her scraps from the Brrr line designed by Laurie Wisbrun. They've been marinating on my fabric shelf for a little too long. I loved the fabric, but was short on ideas. Enter another friend, who gave me the needed inspiration during a conversation about camping and the lack of packing space and who really needs to sleep on pillows when you're in a tent anyway?

A lovely solution: a quillow! 

Um, what?

Quillow, you know, a quilt that folds up into a pillow. Genius.

This was the perfect use for those polar bear fabrics - I added in a solid red to break up the busyness of the prints and give me the wee bit more yardage I needed. The back is a simple white muslin I had on hand (which is terribly wrinkled - apparently my iron is on strike).

Then there's a fun surprise! See the red pocket on the backside, above? When you fold the quilt up and flip the pocket inside out to contain it all, you find this log cabin block! Yeah, it was a bit fussy to piece, and yeah, it turned out just a wee bit too small to hold the quilt without wrinkles and puckers, but I still love it, and so does my son!