I am from Kansas and LOVE sunflowers. The sunflower is the Kansas state flower and is big, bold, sunny and bright. Recently, I saw a picture in a magazine of a yellow sunflower covering a big square yellow pillow. I fell in love with it. My bedroom is blue, white and yellow and I wanted my sunflower pillow to coordinate with my colors. This is what I came up with:

You will need: 1 yard pillow fabic, yellow fabric for petals (about 1/2 yard), thread to match and contrasting thread, binding if desired, a small square of interfacing, polyfill fiber filling and one large brown button.

I wanted a round pillow but you can make yours in any shape.

I cut two 16 inch (in diameter) circles from a piece of leftover blue/white/yellow upholstery fabric.

Digging through my box of trims, I found a cute navy blue and white striped binding and thought it would add some whimsy. (See picture B)

Pin binding to the right side of one of the round fabric pieces as shown in picture. Baste with a contrasting color of thread (to make it easier to see) and remove pins. Sew over the basting thread with sewing machine, taking care to neatly meet the pieces of binding together (as in Picture C.) Remove basting thread.

Add second circle on top of first circle, right sides together. Pin and baste with contrasting color of thread. Remove pins. Sew with sewing machine, leaving a 3 inch opening for turning. Since my pillow is round, I cut slashes all around the raw edge, every 1/2 inch, being careful not to cut through the stitches. Turn right side out. Iron if necessary and set aside.