Hello! You may remember me from before when we did the Star Dance Quilt Along back in August. By the way, I’m still quilting exclusively with Quilt+ thread. It’s just so thick and luscious. Well, I also enjoy embroidery, see some of my work in this post. I was asked if I would like the brand new embroidery panels that Coats and Clark teamed up with Natalie Malan to make. And since I had no embroidery projects going at the moment I said, “yes, please.” I always like to be working on one. Supplies Here’s a look at the panels. They are watercolor, feminine, and just plain lovely. I was also given a jumbo pack of their embroidery floss. The kits include a 10″ fabric square with the watercolor image ready for you to embroidery. You will also need: embroidery hoop (I used a 9″) embroidery needles embroidery floss All of these supplies including the panels are available in person at Walmart. How To The great thing about the panels is that they leave you room to do as much or as little embroidery as you want. I chose to stick with the directions printed on the panel inserts. They taught you the stitches needed to replicate Natalie’s look. Plus, lo and behold, Natalie herself has an instructional video for each and every stitch. Find it here. Consider it a free embroidery lesson. She has a pretty cool way of tying a knot that I hadn’t seen before. I liked a lot! The video is extremely clear, close up and helpful. She also starts her back stitch MUCH different than me in a very cool way. You’ll also learn the little leaf or petal stitch, again, she does it different from me. Don’t you think it’s so cool how we all use different methods to get the same results? If you’ve been wanting to learn embroidery this is a great little lesson to get started with. Pillow Tutorial I thought I’d include a little tutorial for my cacti pillow. Oh my goodness, y’all! I am so in love with this one. So I embroidered the cacti panel of Natalie’s, and then trimmed it down to 8.5″ square. If you need help trimming larger blocks down, there’s a tutorial for that here. Then, I cut (2) strips 4×8.5″ and sewed them onto the sides of the panel, and pressed. Next, I cut (2) strips 4×15.5″ and sewed them on to the top and bottom. The pillow top measures 15.5″ square. I basted the top to wool batting from Hobb’s and muslin backing and quilted around the panel in 1/2″ increments with my walking foot using Quilt+ thread. It was quick and easy! Next square up the backing and batting to the same size as the pillow top. For the back panels, I cut a strip of fabric that measured 15.5″ x WOF and then cut two pieces from it: 13″ and 10″. On the 15.5″ side of each piece I made a hem by pressing it over a little over 1/4″ and then repeating that and then sewing along the hem. I layered my quilted pillow top face up and then put the back panels on face down overlapping them to make an envelope closure, pinned around the edges and then sewed around them using a 1/2 seam allowance. After that I zig zag stitched the seam allowance for sturdiness and keep my seams from fraying with use. I turned it right side out and stuffed it with a 15″ pillow form. The next time you are in Walmart, go to their craft section and pick up one of these lovely embroidery panels and the rest of the supplies if you don’t have them, sit yourself somewhere comfy and cozy and take your time stitching. Don’t worry about being perfect, just enjoy the act of the stitching itself, the rest will come.
