A few weeks ago I made a 10″ magic fairy door and I used the block to make a 14″ pillowcase. The quilting process started having a mind of its own and I was happy to oblige.

My original idea was to hand quilt everything.  There was one problem –  my stitches are still in the medium size range and the leaves looked horrible and clunky instead of small and delicate.  I have done free motion quilting only once and that was probably a couple of years ago.  So I took a deep breath, removed the little hand quilting I had done and started free motion quilting the vines and the leaves.  As usual, my fear proved unjustified.  Since I can adjust the speed of the pedal of my machine, it went rather smoothly.  I am happy with the way the quilting turned out, even with the smattering of imperfections here and there.

Once the machine quilting was done, I started hand quilting the door.  I think the hand quilting makes the door stand out from the surrounding vines and leaves.  Toward the end, I started stitching along the border with my walking foot.  Then another idea came to my head – alternate the border with machine and hand quilting and alternate the thread colour as well.

This is the first time I also decided to bind my pillowcase.  It’s a woodland fairy door, so what else would I use but a brown binding to go with the light mossy green border.  The finished pillow now resides in my husband’s room.  Hopefully he will not be subject to naughty fairy shenanigans!

Happy Sewing,
-Soma