Twilight Sparkle Pony Pillow

My daughter is really into My Little Pony and I thought I’d put my quilting skills to use to make her pony-themed items. I started with a Twilight Sparkle pony pillow.

Twilight Sparkle pony pillow (made using the Lisa the Unicorn
pattern from Elizabeth Hartman)

The pattern I used is Lisa the Unicorn from Elizabeth Hartman – I’ve made one before and loved it! I wanted a small project that I could complete in shorter timeframe to give to my daughter and I knew this would be a good place to start. Her favorite pony is Twilight Sparkle so my goal for the pillow was for it to be recognizable to my daughter based on the color palette. I spent about an hour pulling out all the purples I have and comparing it to multiple pictures of the pony. Ultimately I chose the following Kona cotton solids for Twilight Sparkle.

Body color fabric: Dahlia

Main color fabric: Bright Pink, Mulberry and Regal

Color selection, from top: Dahlia, Mulberry, Bright Pink and Regal

Next I needed to choose a background fabric for the pillow. I pulled out several low volume options in white and grey. Nothing felt very appealing. I dug around more and pulled out some Speckled fabric by Rashida Coleman-Hale. I decided on Speckled Metallic Neon Pink because it said sparkle and pony to me :)

Metallic Neon Pink Speckled fabric for the background

Pieced Twilight Sparkle 

I spent time studying images of Twilight Sparkle to try and get the mane colors in the correct order and in a density I thought appropriate given the layout of the pattern. Yes, by the end of this post, you’ll get a sense I spent entirely too much time on this one project – ha! I try to look at small projects as an opportunity to skill build and have fun playing. Also, it’s for someone super special so all the time is worth it :)

Quilting details on pony mane

After piecing the pillow top, I decided I wanted to add something special to the back of the pillow. I typically do a two panel top and bottom pillow back. The pattern suggests a side by side panel and I decided to give it a try. Overall, it worked wonderfully.

I wanted to try and incorporate Twilight’s cutie mark into the back panel I found an image of the mark, traced it and appliqued the pieces to the panel. I used Heat N Bond Lite (it’s sewable) to attach the pieces and then zig zag stitched around each piece. Those center white pieces were exceptionally small to work with!

Twilight Sparkle cutie mark detail on back panel

For the front of the pillow, I quilted wavy lines through the mane of the horse’s hair. I used thread colors to match the fabric. Throughout the entire project, I used Aurifil 50 wt thread. For the mane, I used 2530 Blossom Pink, 2540 Medium Lavender and 2785 Very Dark Navy. For the horse’s face and horn, I used the 2540 Medium Lavender. The face has a crosshatch quilting pattern and the horn has echo quilting inside the horn. For the background, I used 2026 Chalk and did a larger crosshatch pattern.

Unique quilting details in mane, hair, face and background

For the back panels, I used the Dahlia colored fabric and 2540 Medium Lavender thread. I did an angled 60 degree diamond quilting pattern.

Pillow back with appliqued cutie mark

After putting in the last stitch, I laundered it to wash out any excess fabric dye and wash out any basting spray. I placed the pillow form in (it needs a European sham-sized form) and presented it to my daughter. Her reaction was worth every minute put into the pillow!