A Pillow - More

Yesterday, the applique monogram was prepared and lightly applied to the background fabric. Now that the applique monogram is on the background fabric, I'm ready to add some borders to the square. This extra fabric will also be helpful when hooping...so, I want do go ahead and add them now, rather than wait until the embroidery is done. And, since I'm not sure just exactly what I'm going to be doing to embellish the monogram...I might need the extra room to work on. I also want the front of the pillow to be a little dimensional when I stitch, so it will need a little thin batting. And, there needs to be a layer of fabric for me to hide my knots in...so, I begin the layering by putting a piece of loose weave muslin on the cutting table.

 Then, the layer of thin muslin on top of that.

 Last, the linen pillow center.

  Next, I draw a box around the monogram...making sure that it is centered inside the box. This will give me a good line to use for alignment of my borders. The lines are not my stitching lines...they are guides for the cut edge of the border strips. All of the layers are pinned together, along these lines...so that they won't slip around when I'm sewing the borders on.

I'm using some left-over upholstery strips from the curtains I finished for my niece last week. Waste not...want not! And, they are already precut...long strips. I just cut a length that is plenty for covering the side of the pillow. Using the pencil line just drawn, the first border is pinned in place (I removed the prior pinning and included the border, then re-pinned).

One strip pinned at the top...and one at the bottom. Sew using a bit more than a quarter inch seam, then press these borders away from the center of the pillow. Rotate the pillow, and pin the other two side borders and sew these in place.

 

Then press these away from the center of the pillow....and, the pillow front is ready for the embroidery.

All of these layers are place into my large embroidery hoop (which is also my small lap quilting hoop)...ready for some stitching.

The monogram will be appliqued in place with some gold silk thread I have that was purchased just for applique work. I have black, gray, tan, gold, and dark green...and one of these is always close enough to use for applique...so I save them just for that. The thread is really thin so creating tiny stitches is easy. More on that next...