So I’m making a pillow out of the Hawaiian piece and though Leslee loaned me a book on pillow making, it doesn’t really cover some questions that have arisen. What I’m mainly interested in is the size of the top and how far to take the quilting. The inside pillow is 12 x 12 and according to the directions it takes a 13 x 13 top and bottom. What I’m wondering is if I take off the ¼ inch seam it takes to piece them together should I echo quilt out to a marked 12 ½ top? It makes sense, but I’d hate to go sewing over the quilting after I’d gone ahead and done it. The partial echo that fills in the corners and sides could get it if I'm not careful with the measurements. Any thoughts?

Steve are they meaning finished at 13 by? Most pillows are sewn with a little larger seam allowance as a general rule. Might try laying your fabric over the pillow and then either pinning the "seam" to see how it will fit...or basting it....that way too you can mark where you want the stitching to end and the seam to begin. Have you allowed for the shrinkage due to quilting as well? Can understand fully not wanting to cover stitches. :-)

The instructions on pillow package read that for a pillow 12 x 12 I'll need a cut fabric square size 13 x 13. It just seems it would need more room, though when I did as you suggested it looked darn near right on. I'm making a pocket type pillow so I can wash it. If I sew the final seams 2-inch down the sides before the flap, the pillow should sit snug within the outer cover. I figure that I can pin it, just to be sure, before sewing.

Is a lot of quilting "Make it up as you go along" or have I just been lucky?
:D

Well, I think BOTH Steve! LOL I've made alot of stuff as I went along and have been DARN lucky when it came out right! LOL Cannot wait to see this pillow!

Sounds like you are doing fine..with maybe a little bit of both thrown in! :D Dont tempt the fates though...that sewing genie will wake up and give you oodles of redraft lessons. Cant wait to see the pillow pictures. Now I have a question for you.....Do Hawaiian quilt motifs have to be in solid colors?

According to everything I've read, no. It's more a tradition to use solids, and probably when the Dutch first gave them material, the Hawaiians had a knee jerk reaction to the strange looking plaids. Then too since the actual quilting is so intricate you'd probably not want to detract from the stitching with anything too busy. Kind of like solids in whole cloth quilting I'd imagine.

Was just thinking of some batiks I have that might work...Solids are hard for me to get into...seem to want movement and contrast a lot.

I've got all the appliqué and backing material for the panels and stuck to solids, but made them as interesting as I could. I replaced the celery with a green a shade darker to go with the orange. There are also combinations of red with white background, fuchsia and bright yellow, royal purple and turquoise, true blue and dusty rose, and gold atop a khaki brown. Bordered and sashed by forest green, with varied green prairie points it should wake up the eyes big time.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say this is for the large quilt. I was actually thinking of a batik for the trim.