DIY Rice Therapy Pillow

I wanted to make a small project involving piecing and was something useful that I don't already have. Enter the Rice Therapy Pillow. These are great little pillows that can be used hot or cold to relieve aches and pains or warm up cold feet. You simply store the bag in the freezer for cold therapy and microwave it for a few minutes on high for warm therapy. 

I made a removable cover for the pillow using pieced right square triangles in dark blue and neon green.

The great thing about half square triangle blocks is that just by rotating the blocks, you can create a myriad of designs.

Fun isn't it?

I finally settled on a combination of stripe and triangle. Here's the inside of the finished pillow cover.

The interior pillow is a very basic rectangle filled with rice. I used the cheapest rice available (although I read not to use quick cooking rice). I added a few drops of lavender oil to the rice and now it's an aromatherapy pillow too. Lovely!!

The pillow cover slips over the rice pillow and fastens with three buttons. You certainly don't have to make a removable cover but it's kind of fun to try out some new designs and techniques on the pillow cover.