A Reverse Applique Pillow

I showed you my "Perked Up Porch"  in my last post where  I slathered my front entryway with pink and purple flowers and several accessories in the same shades.

The one thing that was missing from the porch was a comfy pillow on the Muskoka chair.  Hubby spends a great deal of time in this chair reading  during the summer months so I knew  he would appreciate a soft place to land. 

I bought this book back before Christmas and made a few things out of it.

My favourite project from the book so far is  this dear sweet Patchwork Pixie.

When it came time to make the pillow for the porch, I decided to create another of these adorable items.  

The book featured the instructions to make a reverse applique Christmas Tree pillow.

It also suggested making a pillow in a Valentine's Day theme.  I thought this heart version would be welcoming on our porch -- so I set out to make one!

I had never done any "reverse applique" before.  Basically, it is done in three steps.

First I created a patchwork "quilt" of sorts.  I sewed together squares of pretty fabric, then layered this with quilt batting and a backing fabric.  

Then I machine-quilted it to hold the layers together.  

Next, I layered a piece of plain coloured fabric over top of the mini "quilt."  

Because I had chosen a heart shape for this pillow, I traced the shape of a large heart in the centre of the plain fabric.  

Then I stitched through the layers on top of my traced heart.  Three times I went around the heart shape in order to secure the fabric together.   

Then came the scary part.  I took my sharpest scissors and cut inside the stitched heart as closely as I could to the stitches.  I had to be VERY careful not to cut the stitches or any of the fabric on the outside of the stitched line.  

(I'm not going to lie - I did cut some of the fabric in the wrong place, but I was able to fix it up with a little piece of leftover fabric!)

After the decorative front of the pillow was complete, I sewed a matching back to it and turned it into a simple envelope pillow.  

Now it has  slid perfectly into my pink and purple porch scheme.  

And it is plenty comfy enough for my hubby's reading perch.

  Mind you - he has complained a few times about the over-abundance of femininity out there on the porch.  

Okay. Maybe  it is  a bit too much pink and purple for most men - but I reminded him it was better that I decorated like this OUTSIDE, rather than INSIDE!

Have a lovely long weekend!

Hugs to all!

Bronwyn