Mermaid Kisses and Starfish Wishes Pillow

Hello again, Amy of Sew Incredibly Crazy here to show you one of my favorite things- a little touch of the sea. Being landlocked in the state I live, the sea is such a pleasant place to visit and it holds so many great memories.  So how do you make one for yourself….

Here is what you will need.

Several fat quarters of fabric- this was made from Moda’s Manderley

1/2 yard of coordinating fabric for back

Sizzix Sand and Sea die – for seahorse

HeatnBond® Lite

HeatnBond® Ultrahold

HeatnBond® Iron-on Vinyl

StitchnSew™ Sew-In High Loft Fleece Interfacing

Project Instructions:

Cut the background piece to 18 1/2″ square.  For border pieces cut 6 fabric strips, 3 1/2″ by WOF.  You can use your fat quarters for this.  Sew the strips together.

After sewing the strips together, cut 4 – 2 1/2″ x 18 1/2″ strips.

Out of a coordinating fabric cut 4 – 2 1/2″ squares.  Sew them on either end of the 2 of the strips. Getting 2 – 22 1/2″ border strips.

Sew your two 18 1/2″ border strips to the sides of your background piece.  Sew the two 22 1/2″ border pieces to the top and bottom of the background.

Appliqué Directions:

For the water, take a piece of HeatnBond® Lite and free hand the water.  Cut 1/4″ around the outside of your watermark shape.  Iron onto the wrong side of your fabric.  Cut directly on the shape of the water mark.  Iron onto the background.  Appliqué stitch around the water.

Using the pattern found HERE, repeat the above for the starfish and the seashell bottom using HeatnBond® Lite .  For the decorative top of the seashell, use HeatnBond® Ultrahold.  After ironing it onto the fabric and cutting out the top of the seashell, fold the seashell along the scallops, cut a small slit in each of these.  It is like making a paper snowflake.  You do this so after you iron it onto the base fabric, you can see it through the slits that you made.

Get the Mermaid Kisses and Starfish wishes pattern from HERE.  Use your HeatnBond® Ultrahold trace around the letter.  Iron to the wrong side of the fabric.  Cut out the letters.  Iron to the desired location on your water. You will not have to add any stitching around the lettering when using HeatnBond® Ultrahold.  For the seahorses, use your Sizzix seahorse die. Iron  HeatnBond® Ultrahold to your fabric, run it through your machine.  Removing backing and iron on to the water of your background.

For the bottle, freehand it onto the back of your HeatnBond® Iron-on Vinyl. Make sure that there is enough vinyl at the top to fold over at the top. There are handy squares on the back to make sure that the bottle is symmetrical.  Cut around the edge of your bottle. Follow the instruction on the package. After finishing your bottle, make one using HeatnBond® Lite  and a piece of fabric.  Iron the fabric to your pillow, then iron the vinyl on top of the fabric bottle.  If you want to add a message in the bottle, do this before you iron on the vinyl.  Appliqué stitch around the bottle.

Make a quilt sandwich with StitchnSew™ Sew-In High Loft Fleece Interfacing and Quilt As Desired.  Make an envelope back, and your pillow is complete.

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and I wish you, Mermaid Kisses and Starfish Wishes!