Nothing finishes off your quilt quite like a coordinating pillow sham or bed cushion. A pillow sham is a pillow cover that is used for decorative purposes only and not for sleeping on. It can be made with any leftover discarded blocks (known as orphan blocks), embellished with embroidery or ribbon and finished off with an attractive border. It is also a great way to use up any leftover scraps.

If you are in a great hurry, you can shorten the length of your quilt and use a pillow sham to finish off the look, this way you are tackling two small projects rather than one large quilt. Or better still, make a pillow sham and bed-runner, but that is another day’s project.

Last week we embroidered a motif on our pillow sham that ties in with the quilt. This week we are going to take all our scraps and put them together to make a piano key border, and subsequently add some ribbon. Read on to find out how.

Note: Finished size of quilt is 74” by 96”.

Pillow sham fabric front (from last week)

Fabric scraps for piano key border

90” of coordinating ribbon

Wadding

1 Last week we looked at embroidering a motif on the pillow sham fabric, but you could also consider appliqué. Once all the work is completed cut the fabric down to measure 18” by 27”.

2 Cut all your fabric scraps into varying different widths by 3½” high. Make sure there is a considerable difference in the widths, to make it look a bit more interesting.

3 Sew all fabric pieces together to make four strips, two measuring 27” by 3½” and two measuring 24” by 3½ ”. Distribute colours evenly. Press seams to one side. The strips will be stretchy so spray with starch and then press each strip carefully.

4 Attach the longer strips to the top and bottom.

5 Attach shorter strips to each side, continuing the piano keys border right out to the corner (see figure 1). This finishes our pillow sham top which is now ready for quilting. Lay pillow sham front on top of wadding (there is no need for backing fabric here) and follow the guidelines on quilting in previous article.

6 Once all quilting is completed, attach narrow ribbon 1¼” in from seam line all around the front fabric (see figure 2), using a large zig-zag stitch on your machine. This is known as couching. Leave aside for pillow assembly next week.

NEXT WEEK: The finishing touches. CL