Sephie

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your sentiments

So this pocket caused me endless amounts of frustration. It was hard to wrap my brain around what part went where, and what would be "showing" when, etc. So yes, I pre-quilted the pocket prior to attaching to the backing. I measured the width of the intended quilt backing and divided by 3 (in this case, width was intended to be 60, so 20), so that the pocket would be roughly centered. I took the piece of fabric that I wanted to be the pillow back (the music fabric), that would show when the quillow was in pillow form, and cut that piece the same size as the pillow front. Then I did the bottom strip of the backing as the height of the pocket, layered the pillow back right side up and the pillow front right side down, and just added 20in of fabric to both sides. When sewing it together, you would do the pillow back (music fabric) right side up, pillow front right side down, and side fabric right side down. It's hard to keep it all straight, but you have to imagine the backing as one piece, and keep those pieces in the correct orientation. Then remember the pillow front is backwards.

Pin the top of the pillow pocket to curve down, away from the top edge of the bottom strip when you're joining it to the rest of the backing so that you don't sew it into the seam allowance at the top. That was actually kind of difficult since I made a mistake there. I had intended to just sew the pocket front to the pocket back right sides together, then fold out and layer in the batting instead of having to bind it. I completely forgot to do that until after I had already quilted it! So I had to bind it, which I think does look nice, but also adds extra bulk into that side seam.

Changes I'd make: make the pillow back piece (music fabric) at least 1/2in longer in length, because you have to put the pillow front a little bit lower from the top edge so that it doesn't accidentally get sewn in when you're attaching the entire bottom strip to the rest of the backing. I had to trim off 1/2in of the bottom border of the pillow pocket, but it still turned out ok since I had left so much extra room. I'd also leave room to use a bigger seam allowance, because the pre-quilted pillow front needs reinforced seams at the top edge and bottom edge, and I would've liked to have room to go across those side seams a few extra times.

I sewed a handle into the seam at the very bottom edge of the quilt, and when I was sewing the binding on, I had to "help" my sewing machine pull the fabric through. Finally, I found something the feed dogs had trouble moving, even with my walking foot! The binding, the quilt sandwich, the pillow pocket sandwich, plus the handle which was flannel on both sides and 2 layers of batting! How many layers does that count as??

Sorry that was so long...