A couple weeks ago, I was feeling 'in-between' with a few of the projects that I have been working on for a while. While several projects in my sewing room have been moving forward little by little, I pushed this one forward this week for a very satisfying FINISH!
This heart-shaped stitchery, soon-to-be pillow was in the cross-hairs this week.
The stitchery pattern is from Issue 352 of Cross Stitcher Magazine (this is a link to a downloadable version of the issue, not affiliated). The pattern is "Heart of Winter," and the stitched border and added fabric borders are done using my Stitchery Crossover technique CLICK HERE for more info).
I finished the stitchery, added the quilting fabric, and decided to add covered piping using the Piping Hot Binding tool and technique by Susan Cleveland.
If you've ever used this technique, then you know that is super fussy, but VERY effective at adding a fine covered cord to bindings or pieced elements of your quilty projects.
Part of the process to add the piping feels downright upside down, but Susan guides you through the process, step-by-step so, if you follow the steps, you are pretty much guaranteed to be happy with your results.
Pow! With one seam sewn, I had to take a peek at my progress!
That piping is spot on! I love this technique, and I don't use it enough.
Note to self: use more piping hot binding!
With my sights on a pillow, I added the piping and a 3" flange (borders) to the trimmed 14" (14-1/2" unfinished size) quilted pillow top, then made two panels for the back (the half-panels overlap and allow the pillow form to slip in through the center flap opening).
This is the view from the back as I'm sewing around the pillow edge. The pillow from the book ScrapTherapy, Cut the Scraps is made this way.
Once the pillow front and back are sewn around the edge (with right sides together) and turned, you add a seam around the flange edge (above) - in this case where the piping is - so the pillow fits snugly inside of the poofy pillow area, leaving the flange flat.
With all the sewing done, one last pressing before inserting a pillow form.
The all-caps shouting on these pillow forms always make me stop and think before I remove that stiff label.
They say that there are no quilt-police, but are there pillow-police that are ready to hand out citations for this kind of thing?
And there you have it! The pillow, stuffed. Project finished. Box checked!
. . . Next?!
Happy Stitching!
Joan Ford
Head Hummingbird
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