Simple Autumn Court House Steps Cushion
The weather is turning colder and Fall is here in the Midwest and of course along with it comes all things Halloween and Autumn. My birthday is on Halloween so that’s an added bit of fun for our family. This year being in a new home I decided to add a cushion for the couch with a subtle Halloween feel to it, just enough orange and black to work but not so much that I’d want to put it away before Thanksgiving. I’ve always wanted to try a traditional Courthouse Steps block and this was the perfect opportunity to play with shades of gray and orange.
Following are my tips for making a 20×20 Courthouse Steps pillow cover/cushion.
To begin with I wanted a fun print for the center fabric. Much like a log cabin block, your starting print can be a different size from your strips and there is no wrong way to do it, which is always my favorite kind of project to make. I found this Candy Liberty print in a dark purple and built the rest of the fabrics from this one print. I decided to cut the center square at 2 inches and the rest of the strips at 1.5 so they would finish at 1.5 and one inches each.
Tools used and always at the ready for any of my sewing projects are: seam presser, a turning tool and of course who can even sew anything without a trusty rotary cutter and cutting mat. I’ve found one of my best sewing cheats is to save ironing until the very end, so I use a seam presser to keep things flat until I can iron them all at the end.
With a block like this the fun is in the fabric pull as well as the relaxing sewing of adding row after row of strips to frame the center square. I chose Liberty fabrics in shades of gray/black and oranges. My Liberty stash has mostly smaller cuts of fabrics so as my block got bigger I cut extra strips and sewed them together to make the longer pieces.
With my center square being 2 inches square, my first set of strips (black floral) were cut to 2×1.5 and my next (rust orange floral) 5×1.5. I didn’t pre cut the strips and just cut them to size as I worked and added sewn strips which for me is the most relaxing sewing work. Once all my strips were added to make the cushion cover the size of my pillow, I gave the seams a good iron and spray basted to batting. I added minor quilting with a clear monofilament thread in the seams which can’t be seen at all. I’m still hoping to go back and add some black hand quilting which shouldn’t be too hard since the back of my pillow is a simple envelope opening with overlapping flaps.
I love the look of a classic quilt block in more bold colors and contrasts from light to dark, and it plays nicely with so many other colors in this room.
This cushion will be sitting here on my couch until the Christmas pillows come out and after that I’ll need to make some other seasonal colors to replace it for a while.
Sorry I just had to add that last picture with my very fluffy puppy. I hope you’ll take inspiration from this post and try your own Courthouse Steps cushion, please tag me on social media @faithessenburg and @cloverusa so we can see your own makes.
Happy sewing!
