applique a pillow with wool hearts

Applique woolen pillows that
I created for my family room.

Brief Description: I hand-appliqued these pillows from old woolen trousers. I hate to toss expensive wool out when I can recycle it in a quilt, table runner etc... Wool is very durable and keeps it's shape longer than any other fabric. For this  reason, I prefer to use it in decorative pillows that I know my family will be using roughly for many years.

Supply List:

• wool scraps, if you purchase these, I would suggest no less than 14 inches of five different patterns/solids.
• embroidery floss in a variety of contrasting colors
• scissors
• the templates below, printed and cut out
• embroidery needles
• soft cotton filler of your own choosing

Directions:

1. Cut out the templates as directed.
2. Cut out six hearts for the pillow depicted at the front of the photograph. The hearts are hand-sewn with a blanket stitch on top of 6 inch by 5 1/2 inch rectangles. There are three rectangles across and two rectangles from top to bottom. 
3. Reserve approximately 16 1/2 inches by 13 inches of one woolen swatch for the back of this pillow. 
4. Stitch these pieces together and stuff.
5. For the folk star pillow, cut four stars, four lager penny circles and four small penny circles. Applique these pieces together as they appear in the photo. 
6. You will need four, 8 inch by 8 inch squares for each star pattern and four additional squares for the back side of the pillow.

Would you like to try sewing some for yourself?
Here are my free templates for the pillows pictured.
This template may be downloaded and sized in a
word document to fit the above measurements.
Read the Terms of Use before using it folks.

photographs and written craft pages copyrighted by Grimm 2011 

Penny rugs or Coin rugs