Gleaned Pillow Shams using Rin and Alturas patterns.

I love making pillow shams. They are less of a commitment than a full quilt, and yet they can make just as much of an impact. Here’s a look at some Gleaned pillow shams using my Rin and Alturas patterns.

Towards the tail end of losing power after Hurricane Irma in September, I had a hankering for some Rin appliqué. You’d think that I would have been hand appliquéing it up without power, but the truth is that so many other things were on my mind (mainly my lack of a roof) that I really didn’t have the mindspace or time for it. Sadly. This is why it was nice when I started thinking about appliqué again towards the end of that first week.

I made a pair of these guys, because I really like how a pair can show off how the variety of shapes can play together. And, a pair is also good for expanding on your fabric combos.

There’s something about exploring a fabric theme across two shams that’s really fun. You have more room and opportunity than just doing one sham, but not too many opportunities like when picking out an entire quilt where it’s easy to get overwhelmed in the picking process.

With this set, I had this lime-y, pale purple-y, olive group in mind with a fun mix of textures between the prints and the fabrics themselves. All of the printed fabrics are my new stuff coming out, and then there’s a bit of Essex linen in there too. The main print from gleaned that I wanted to use has a special edge design, which is always fun to play with in appliqué. There’s some of that happening here.

There’s also more happening on the back with the backing panels.

Finding fun finding places to use these special edges is always enticing to me, but of course, you can definitely use the fabric normally as well.

Cording on a pillow sham is a great place to kick it up a notch. In this case, I like how it also ties the two shams together by using the same fabric.

My Alturas pattern was another motif that had been on my mind.

Again, I liked the idea of making a pillow sham, because it would be a great size to play with and the end results could be used to spruce up anything.

I used the same print as with the Rin shams for the appliqué but in another colorway.

With the Alturas design especially, I like using fabrics that change and offer new ways for seeing the appliqué motif itself. Even though all of the shapes are the same, the way the fabric can be used makes them look a little bit different.

Oh, and BTW, with the size and shape of Alturas, I’ve long searched for the right size scissor. It’s a small-ish shape that is cut multiple layers at once, so sometimes a big scissor can feel a bit too big. As soon as Kai released smaller sizes in their 7000 series, I knew one of them would be perfect for cutting this shape. This is the reason that I decided to offer this size and this one in my shop. Either are great, and I’m constantly on the fence about which size I like better.

For the backing panels, I went with a gray theme using two prints from Gleaned.

There we go. So many new pillow shams!

Patterns : Rin, Alturas

Fabrics : Gleaned, Essex Yarn Dye in Olive (Robert Kaufman)

Some Tips:

+ I’m recently a big fan of the Ikea FJADRAR cushion insert.

+ Use a stiletto when sewing cording–it’ll save your fingers from danger! (Ask me how I know…)