Quilted Envelope Pillows and Tutorial

I had so much fun quilting these panels and making pillows for my sister Janet and her DH for their 10 year anniversary!  I bought the fabric months and months ago and wasn't sure what to do with it.  The fabric is "Nest" by Valori Wells for Free spirit.  When Janet saw it she immediately said "Oh, those would make beautiful pillows for our living room!"  What a great idea!

The panel started out like this:  In the picture (below) I am testing thread color.  I have a bunch of #Aurifil and some Precencia thread and was able to find colors that worked perfectly!

I used a Hobbs Poly Batting and a cheap cotton backing (it won't show in finished product).
First I quilted around the birds, flowers, branches, and sprays of green. 

Then I stopped and contemplated... Should I keep quilting or should I stop? 

My main concern was that the yellow and blue negative space was very poofy and I was fearful that it would get snagged and/or dirty over time.

So I solicited a few opinions of which only one gave me the answer I was hoping for.  

I emailed Wendy Sheppard author of Ivory Spring Blog and Annie's Learn to Machine Quilt class and she suggested McTavishing the negative space.

Oh boy!

I've never done that!  Thankfully Wendy has a wonderful "Thread Talk" on the topic. If you're at all interested in McTavishing on your home machine you should check out all of Wendy's Thread Talk posts!

I read and re-read the Thread Talk, pulled out one of the panels that was a short cut, and practiced (after I practiced on paper and gained some confidence that I could do this).  

McTavishing is very forgiving and

*** 

I love, love, love the way the #Aurifil Mako Cotton 50Wt thread allows me to quilt densely, with lots of backtracking, and NO thread buildup!!   Aurifil is my "go to" thread and it worked perfectly for the McTavishing <3  ***

Once I completed one of the panels I couldn't wait to see what it would look like as a pillow. 

I cut two pieces of backing the same size as the panel...

I folded, pressed and top stitched one end of each of the backing pieces.   Use a LARGE 1+ inch fold twice - and be sure to top stitch near the top and bottom of the fold.

I then layered the 2 backing pieces with the front (quilted) panel with right sides together.

You can see (above) that both backing pieces are right side down to the quilted top.  The size of backing piece I cut will make a large envelope backing so there is no seeing the inside of my quilted top piece.

Once you have layered and pinned the two backing pieces and the quilted top, then stitch the layers together with a normal 1/4 inch seam allowance.  No need to leave any opening, the envelope back will allow you to turn the piece right side out !!

After stitching and before turning right side out, be sure to trim the corner fabric away without cutting through the stitching.

Now, turn right side out and push out those corners !!  

Stuff with a pre-made pillow form and you are done !!   I love these pillows and wish they matched my decor.... ; )

I want to give special thanks to Wendy Sheppard (of Ivory Spring Blog) for encouraging me to quilt the negative space with a McTavishing approach and for providing the tutorials (Thread Talk) to help it happen. Thank you Wendy!

Hope you've all enjoyed this really lengthy post -- thanks for stopping by today !

To see more images of the quilted envelope pillows visit this post written in Oct, 2014 for the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

Hugs,
Karen

PS Linking up to all my favorite blogs... Quilt Story Fabric Tuesday, Freemotion by the River, Esther's Blog, Richard and Tanya's Link a finish Friday and Leah Days Freemotion Friday!  

Check them all out on my sidebar !  Awesome projects to see !!