Nine-Patch Lace Pillow

Nine-Patch Lace Pillow

I have a book titled Heirloom Quilts coming soon; it features designs for two quilts plus a series of heirloom quilting techniques. Today though, I'd like to share with you a Nine-Patch Lace Pillow from one of my older books, Heirloom Quilts by Machine. For those who love white French lace, white embroideries and patchwork, here is your pillow. 

All of the trims are white; the pillow underneath is baby blue. This pillow is simply yummy with its nine patches of French laces, beading and American embroidery. The squares are connected vertically with American white bridging and horizontally with Swiss entredeux. White American bridging is used around the outside edges of the top of the pillow and blue silk ribbon is run through the holes of the bridging. A pretty blue silk ribbon bow is tied in each corner of the pillow. Gathered French edging is stitched around the nine-patch top and another piece of gathered French white edging is stitched into the side seams of the pillow. The beautiful top is stitched onto a blue batiste pillow top; the bottom of the pillow is blue batiste also. This would be a beautiful pillow to use in a little girl’s room, a baby’s room, or your own Victorian romantic bedroom. 

Materials:

Finished size of pillow is 12-inch square; excluding ruffle

•  3/4 yard of 5/8-inch beading  

•  1-1/2 yards of 5/8-inch lace insertion A 

•  1-1/2 yards of 5/8-inch lace insertion B 

•  1 yard of 5/8-inch lace insertion C

•  1/2 yard of 2-inch embroidered insertion 

•  2-1/2 yards of 1-3/4-inch lace edging  

•  2-3/4 yards of 2-inch lace edging 

•  3/4 yard of entredeux

General Supplies:

(These are basic sewing room supplies that will be needed while making blocks or during construction.) 

•  1-3/4 yards of bridging 

•  5 yards of 4mm silk ribbon (sample uses YLI, #97 blue)

•  3/8 yard blue Nelona (Swiss Batiste) 

•  One 12-inch square pillow form OR fiberfill for stuffing 

•  Lightweight white cotton machine thread 

•  Optional: Rotary cutter, ruler, and mat 

•  Bodkin or ribbon weaver 

•  Spray starch and iron

Directions:

***Note:  All seam allowances are 1/4-inch unless otherwise noted. Technique instructions can be found in the book Heirloom Quilts by Machine AND HERE.***

1. Zigzag lace insertion A to lace insertion B using the technique lace to lace. Cut this lace strip in half. Stitch the lace strip to each side of the beading with lace A against the beading using the technique lace to lace (fig. 1a). Weave ribbon through the beading. Cut the lace/beading strip into five 3-1/2-inch pieces. Cut the strips so that the beading holes are similar in each strip (fig. 1b). Set the lace/beading strips aside.

2. Cut lace insertion C in half and attach to each side of the embroidered insertion strip using the technique lace to fabric. Cut four strips 3-1/2-inch long from the embroidered/lace strip (fig. 2). 

3. Press all strips.

4. The pillow top is made from three long strips of three squares each, joined by entredeux and bridging. To make the outer strips, attach entredeux to the cut edges of two embroidered/lace squares using the technique entredeux to fabric. A 1/4-inch seam allowance extends beyond the embroidered strip on each side. Attach lace/beading squares to each side of the embroidered/lace squares using the technique lace to entredeux (fig. 3). Set aside. To make the center strip, attach entredeux to each side of the remaining lace/beading square using the technique entredeux to lace. Attach the embroidered/lace squares to each side of the lace beading squares using the technique entredeux to fabric (fig. 4).

5. Attach bridging to each side of the center strip using the technique entredeux to fabric (fig. 5). Attach the outer strips to the bridging using the same technique. Weave ribbon through the bridging (fig. 6).

6. Attach bridging along the outer edges of the nine-patch lace pillow top using the technique entredeux to fabric and allowing the bridging to extend 1/4-inch at the corners to overlap the holes. Trim the seam allowance from the outer edge of the bridging (fig. 7).

7. Cut three 12-1/2-inch squares of Nelona. Center the nine-patch pillow top on one square of fabric and zigzag the top to the fabric along the outer edge of the bridging. Gather the 1-1/4-inch lace edging to fit the outer edge of the bridging and top stitch in place with a zigzag (fig. 8).

8. Baste the other two Nelona squares together 1/8 inch from the edges and treat as one to form the back of the pillow. Gather the 2-inch-wide lace edging and pin in place on the pillow back with the heading 1/4-inch from the edge; refer to figure 9. Straight stitch the gathered lace in place along the heading.

9. Place the pillow top on the pillow back, right sides together, with the edging lace attached to the pillow top flipped toward the center of the pillow. From the pillow back, stitch just inside the previous stitching line, leaving an opening on one side for turning; if a pillow form will be used, leave one entire side open (fig. 9). Turn right side out and press. Insert the pillow form or stuff with fiberfill. Slipstitch the opening closed to finish the pillow.

10. Cut the remaining 4mm silk ribbon into four pieces. Run the silk ribbon through the outer bridging of the pillow top. Tie the ribbon tails into bows at the corners.

~Martha Pullen