Nel Whatmore designer challenge

18
Aug

Nel Whatmore designer challenge – Reene

Posted by Katy

Firework Pillow
by Reene Witchard
http://www.nelliesniceties.blogspot.com

I was delighted to get the chance to design a project using Nel Whatmore’s new range, Katharine’s wheel. The brief was to design something with a firework theme, so after about 10 seconds brain storming I got to work. I went with my usual ‘go-to-project’ and created a pillow. To be clear on this, I mean pillow as in the thing that you lay your head on to sleep at night rather than a poofy thing you throw on the sofa.

The colours that Nel has used in this range are really vivid so I paired them with a deep purple solid as I felt they could hold their own against that backdrop. The pillow top comprises 2 Katharine wheel inspired blocks, one English paper pieced (EPP) and the other raw-edge appliquéd.

For the EPP firework I drew an octagon with equal length sides and cut Dresden blades to fit the sides of the octagon. Once the fabrics were basted to the paper shapes I hand sewed the blades to the octagon. I removed the papers before machine sewing the finished firework to the purple solid.

For the raw-edge appliqué firework I drew a simple curved blade template which I traced around onto double sided fusible web. I fussy-cut a central circle from one of the fabulous prints and used the other fabrics for the blades. Arranged on the solid in a pleasing manner around the central circle the blades make up the Katherine wheel.

Once the fireworks were fixed to the solid I backed the top with batting and hand quilted with large straight stitches in complementary perle threads.

I used the purple spot print and more of the purple solid to make the envelope for the back of the pillow.

Hey presto, a finished firework pillow. It’s a really quick and simple project to run up.

A huge thank you to Reene for this fabulous tutorial and gorgeous pillow.

Nel’s fabric line, Katharine’s Wheel, for Free Spirit is coming soon! Visit Nel’s new website at Nel’s Patterns for more details on Nel’s fabrics and designs!