Leafy Pillows

FINISHED PILLOW SIZE: 18˝ × 18˝

These happy pillows bring a room to life and make it smile. Linda used thin-wale corduroy for her pillow backgrounds and embroidered veins on the felted wool leaves with perle cotton size 16.

Materials

(For 2 pillows)

•Pillow front fabric (corduroy): ⅔ yard

•Appliqué fabrics:

Leaves: 6 or more different green felted wool Chunks (9˝ × 10˝)

Stems: 2 greenish-yellow felted wool Chunks (9˝ × 10˝) or 1 Chubby (16˝ × 16˝)

Circles: A scrap of a dotted cotton fabric

•Pillow back fabric: ⅔ yard

•Cotton fabric to cover piping cord: ⅔ yard

Additional supplies

•Self-adhesive laminating sheets: 6 sheets

•Clear vinyl: ⅝ yard of 54˝ wide OR ⅝ yard of 16˝–18˝ wide

•Fusible web: 8 sheets of SoftFuse OR 1 yard of 18˝-wide fusible

•Appliqué threads: Aurifil wool in colors to match or complement the fabrics

•Embroidery thread: Perle cotton size 12 or 16 for leaf veins

•¼˝ cotton cord for the piping: 4½ yards

•Polyester stuffing: 1 bag

Cutting

Block background fabric

Cut 2 squares 20˝ × 20˝.

Pillow back fabric

Cut 2 squares 18½˝ × 18½˝.

Piping

Cut 1 square 21˝ × 21˝ to make a 2˝-wide continuous bias strip 165˝ long for the piping at the edge of the pillows (see Continuous Bias Binding).

Stuffing the Pillows

Linda tried using a pillow form in her pillows, but she thought that they were too full. She chose to stuff the pillow itself and sew it closed.

After talking about it, we both realized that even though our throw pillows have removable covers and could be washed, neither of us ever does that. We treat special pillows carefully to preserve their look, but even so, throw pillows are not forever sorts of objects. We get tired of one look and trade it out for another at some point.

Stuffing the pillow with polyester stuffing is less expensive than using a pillow form, and it is easier to construct a pillow that is sewn closed, which is how these instructions are written.

If you want to, you can insert a zipper on the back in much the same way that the zipper is sewn into the Strawberry Zip Bag. To do this, cut a piece of backing fabric 20˝ × 20˝. Cut it apart at the point where you want the zipper to be. Sew in the zipper and then trim the pillow back to 18½˝ × 18½˝.

Pillow Assembly

Refer to General Appliqué Instructions as needed.

1.Make templates and overlays for the block using the Leafy Pillows patterns.

2.Press the backgrounds in half horizontally and vertically. Place them on your design wall.

3.Refer to Preparing to Stitch to choose fabrics, fuse the fusible web to all the felted wool appliqués, and cut them out.

4.Place the appliqué pieces on the backgrounds on your design wall. Use the overlay to place the appliqué pieces in the proper position, or place them by eye. Play with color and fabric choices until you are happy with the way the pillows look.

Appliqué placement

5.Fuse and appliqué the pillows. Select your appliqué stitch from Stitches for Appliquéing with Felted Wool.

6.When the appliqué is complete, embroider the veins in the leaves using a stem stitch.

Embroider leaf veins with stem stitch.

7.Press the pillow fronts on the wrong side, and trim each to 18½˝ × 18½˝.

8.Refer to Piping to make and sew the cording to the edge of the pillow tops.

9.Pin a pillow top to a pillow back, right sides together, with the piping in between. Use a zipper foot and sew together the pillow with a ¼˝ seam allowance, leaving a 4˝ opening in the center of a side.

10.Turn the pillows right side out. Stuff each with polyester stuffing and stitch the opening closed by hand.