Pillow talk!
18 March 2013
I'm so excited to present my next project for Fabri-Quilt's blog ... Inspired by Fabric ... my pillow that I'm calling Mirror Mirror. I was sent fabric from the Fashionista line to work with ... all red and black and gray and white ... favorites!! You can download the directions at Inspired by Fabric .
I have to admit ... when the fabric first arrived, I had a hard time thinking about what to do with it. Bags seem so over done ... I didn't need another wall hanging ... but gee ... I sure do love pillows! When the mirror idea bounced into my head, I pulled out a little sketch pad and drew out a rough idea. I'm no artist! But generally once I 'see' something in my head, I can get it out into some tangible form.
Once I had that figured out, I drew the dimensions on jumbo graph paper ... then chose where everything should go. I knew I wanted the faces in the mirror because that's what we'd see if we were looking into one. It's all very literal for me! I liked the contrast of the red and the lipstick fabric ... all the rest dropped into place from there and I was off to slice and dice and sew!
The lipstick fabric was directional so when I cut my quarter-square triangles, I put them together like this. If you haven't sewn triangles like this very often, you sew the the two short sides first, press to the dark, then sew them into a square. I like to trim off dog ears as I go. Pin the triangles together before you head to the sewing machine in order to keep them in the right position. It's too easy to get mixed up.
Don't worry if you don't feel comfortable about blanket stitching your mirror in place ... either by machine or hand. I'm a big fan of raw edges showing and I love to stitch with random rows of straight stitching around the edge. I sort of wish I'd done one more row. I love how they criss cross over each other. Lengthen your stitches a bit. And because I'm lazy ... I left on my 1/4" foot!!
I'm not great at machine quilting either but you don't need to be an expert! I like to use the left edge of my presser foot and run it along the seam. When I did the section around the mirror, I did three rows of stitching around the outer seam ... then I began to echo the mirror. It was fun!!
Fold the bulk of the pillow top into a neat bundle while you quilt ... it will be smoother and easier to work with it that way. See how my presser foot is following along the previous row of stitching?
I love to look at the back! I used Aurifil thread to stitch and quilt ... they have a light gray 50 wt variegated thread that was perfect for on top of the shoe fabric! Great for piecing with, too.
To save on confusion for when you're doing the pillow back ... this is the first piece of the pillow back ... the second piece will have the raw edges aligning to the left and covering the first section. I like having a lot of turn under for my pillows ... it keeps them from gapping and showing the pillow form inside. Nice and neat!
Ok ... are you ready to sew? Head over to Fabri-Quilt's blog to download the pattern. And ... they're giving away a prize for some lucky winner! Follow these directions to enter the contest.