Liberty Tilda Rose Stencil Pillows

I'm so happy to show you this finished project today! These are my Liberty and Tilda fabric stencil pillows, but I'll take you back to where they all began...A few months ago, my kids piano teacher asked for some custom cushions in a few different sizes, to refresh her living room decor. I brought her some fabric options, and we decided on some cream tapestry fabrics with richly coloured embroidered flowers and birds on them. Unsurprisingly they were not that different from the colours she already had, and what she wanted was just the same as what she had, just different.And we talked about having a couple of feature pillows with large flowers stitched on their fronts. I had a vague picture in my head, and I'm sure she had a completely different vague idea. She said as long as they tied in with rest and were neutral backgrounds, she would love some statement pillows.

So I came home and researched some rose stencil designs, because I'd had a design like this mulling around for years. I pulled some fabric based on the colours in the other cushions I'd made. I was going to make a 3D looking rose and that would be simple. Fabrics from both my Liberty and Tilda collections kept jumping out at me, and they seemed like the perfect match.

The reality was of course, not that quick and easy. I scanned some designs into Illustrator, moved the layout around a lot of times, added leaves, deleted buds. Tried to simplify the number of pieces. I thought I had made it pretty simple.But then came the hard work of turning this flat picture into a 3D one using only fabric colours. Because I couldn't see the finished design, and I was stubborn and wouldn't scan my fabrics into Illustrator...it was really hard to envision the right way to go about it. So I just had to start...and it was ok! It actually seemed like a very forgiving type of design. I just picked a light source, and tried to stick to it in a loose way.You can see here that I swatched my fabrics and gave them a number. Then I assigned each petal and leaf a number, and then gave them a fabric number (yah, it made sense to me!).

I diamond quilted each linen base, then raw edge appliqued each piece after fusing it.

Then I added an embroidered centre of graduated beige and brown thread for stamens, and a gold french knots for a touch of bling.

The second pillow was a long time in coming. My old friend Procrastination came around...unwelcome as usual. Just don't ever place an order with me and say 'no rush'...as there won't be...!But after I got over that, and dove in, of course I made the second one in half the time. It's the same but different.

I added simple hand quilting around the edges of the roses with a gorgeous variegated perle 8 thread. These each bound in a different Tilda fabric, and finished with an envelope zipper closure on the backs.

And here they are! My client who had waited so patiently, and had no idea what she was actually getting was thankfully delighted.

I loved delivering them yesterday, and seeing them in their new home. But I'm missing them already...