How to Make a Trapunto Mini Pillow Washington DC

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Trapunto is a fancy style of hand quilting in which areas are stuffed for added loft. Certain parts of the quilt’s design are puffier than others because you carefully insert extra materials into those areas to make them stand out. Although it’s a bit more time-consuming than standard hand quilting, Trapunto is very easy to do, and the results are gorgeous! This old Italian technique traditionally has been used to add interesting highlights to white-on-white bridal quilts and other whole-cloth quilts (quilts that don’t have any appliqué or piecing). The following sections tell you how to create a beautiful Trapunto Mini-Pillow with a flower petal design. The finished size of the pillow is only 7 x 7 inches, so it’s a great project to ease you into the Trapunto technique.

Stashing your materials
The following list describes the fabrics and notions you need to make the Trapunto Mini-Pillow:

One 51⁄2- x 51⁄2-inch piece of off-white tone-on-tone fabric

1⁄4 yard of yellow print fabric (a fat quarter works nicely here)

One 8- x 8-inch piece of off-white tone-on-tone fabric

One 8- x 8-inch piece of coordinating print fabric

All-purpose thread in off-white

Hand-quilting thread in off-white

A between needle

1 yard of purchased piping in navy blue

One 20-ounce bag of polyester stuffing (fiberfill) for stuffing the pillow (pillow forms are not available in this small size)

Rug-weight yarn in off-white (available at any fabric shop)

A large-eyed needle

Preparing the pillow top
Follow these steps to get the pillow top assembled and ready to be quilted:
1. Fold the 51⁄2-inch square of off-white fabric into quarters, and press it. Unfold the square, and lay it flat.
2. Using the crease lines as a guide, transfer the flower petal quilting pattern at the end of this project section to the center of the square by tracing or using dressmakers’ carbon and a sharp pencil Pressing the quilt top fabric at this point may set the markings permanently, so don’t chance it. There’s no need to press the fabric anyway because handling will cause the creases to fall out.
3. From the yellow print fabric, cut two 11⁄2- x 51⁄2-inch strips for the upper and lower borders, and cut two 11⁄2- x 1⁄2-inch strips for side borders.
4. Using the all-purpose thread and a 1⁄4-inch seam allowance, machine stitch the upper and lower borders to the square. Press the seam allowances toward the borders.
5. Repeat Step 4 with the two side borders.
6. Layer the pillow top with the batting and the 8- x 8-inch solid off-white piece, which acts as the backing for the quilted portion of the pillow. Thread baste the three layers together in preparation for quilting

Quilting the pillow top
Before anything else, the pillow top needs to be quilted. Follow these steps:
1. Thread a between needle with a length of quilting thread about as long as the distance from your elbow to your fingertips. 2. Starting wherever you feel like on the quilting design, bury the knot in the batting, and begin quilting, following the petal pattern you marked on the center square. For best results, take small, evenly spaced stitches.
3. Outline the off-white center square by hand quilting 1⁄4 inch away from either side of the seam line connecting the center with the borders.
4. Stipple quilt the entire off-white area surrounding the flower petal design by taking small, meandering stitches. This stipple quilting helps “raise” the main quilting motif by squishing down the areas surrounding it.

Adding dimension to the pillow top
These steps tell you how to give your pillow top the Trapunto look:
1. Thread a large-eyed needle with a doubled length of rug yarn.
2. Turn the pillow top over so that the wrong side (the lining) is facing you.
3. Starting at the center end of a petal channel (which resulted from quilting the design in the center of the pillow top), insert the needle between the batting and the lining fabric, as shown in Figure 15-12. Don’t go through the front layer! When doing Trapunto, you need to keep the yarn between the batting and the lining because otherwise you can see the yarn through the top layer of fabric. Also, instead of creating a smoothly filled channel, inserting the yarn below the wrong layer makes the channel bumpy.
4. Pull the needle out of the fabric at the tip of the petal (see Figure 15-12a), and pull the yarn until only 1⁄2 inch is still peeking out at the starting point.
5. Insert the needle into the hole you just came out of (see Figure 15-12b), and run it through the channel to the other end of the petal, pulling the needle out when you reach the end.
6. Trim the yarn close to the hole and at your starting point. Fill each petal’s channel individually. The yarn doesn’t need to be knotted because your quilting keeps it in the channels.
7. Repeat Steps 3 through 6 in the channels of all eight petals.
8. With a small pair of scissors, carefully cut a small slit in the lining fabric at the center of each petal, but don’t cut through the batting or the quilted layer.
The slit need only be 1⁄2-inch long at the most, as shown in Figure 15-13a.
9. Using the large-eyed needle or some other sharp object, push a small amount of stuffing (about the size of a pea) into the slit. Repeat with small bits of stuffing until you fill the petal.
10. Carefully whip stitch the slit closed using off-white all-purpose thread in a hand-sewing needle.
To work the whip stitch,
1) Knot the end of a single length of thread.
2) Insert the needle on the underside of the quilt, bringing it up to the right side on one side of the slit.
3) Cross to the other side of slit and take a stitch, whipping back and forth between the left- and right-hand sides of the slit until it’s closed.
11. After you stuff all the petals, machine stitch around the pillow top, about 1⁄8 inch from the raw edges.
12. Trim away the excess lining fabric and batting that extends beyond the edges of the pillow top.

Assembling the pillow
Follow these steps to assemble the pillow:
1. Using the all-purpose thread, begin machine stitching the piping around the pillow top at the center of one edge, leaving a 2-inch tail of piping hanging free.
2. When you approach a corner, stop stitching 1⁄4 inch away from the corner.
3. Clip into the seam allowance of the piping close to but not through the stuffed area of the piping. Clipping eliminates the bulk that would otherwise leave you with rounded, icky corners rather than nice, pointed ones.
4. Rotate the pillow top around the corner, and resume stitching the piping to the next edge. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 at each corner.
5. When you return to your starting point, overlap the remaining piping with the tail you left at the starting point, and stitch across the overlapped tails to completely stitch the piping in place. The fabric and piping thicknesses will be a bit bulky. Stitch slowly so that you don’t break your needle.
6. Place the completed pillow top against the 8- x 8-inch piece of coordinating backing fabric, right sides together. Pin the two pieces together to keep them from shifting during assembly.
7. Machine stitch the pillow top to the backing, following the stitching line you made when attaching the piping. Leave a 4-inch opening along the bottom edge for turning.
8. Clip the corners close to the stitching line (but not through it) to eliminate bulk at the corners.
9. Turn the pillow top right side out by pulling it through the opening.
10. Stuff the pillow pocket firmly with polyester stuffing.
11. Tuck in the seam allowances of the opening, and hand stitch the opening closed using the whip stitch.

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For Dummies is a registered trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Used here by license.

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