[QUOTE=piepatch;6091449][QUOTE=Sandrea I had to teach a class at the American Sewing Guild Sewing Retreat in Sebring last month and I taught the stitch and slash pillow and that was how I ended up with all the pretty discarded pieces.
Sandrea, I am curious to know..........what is a stitch and slash pillow? Inquiring minds want to know.
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Hello piepatch....I got the information for STITCH AND SLASH, from the Craftsy.com site. You take 4 fat quarters and layer them on top of each other with the prettiest one on the bottom and a plain one on the top. (Usually all batiks or prints). Then turn them over, and on the bottom fabric, draw lines (I used like a tic tac toe lines only I made them CURVY LINES) Then in between each of those sections trace around a glass or a cup and make a circle inside each of those "tic tac toe" squares. You can draw everything with a pen and it won't show later because it is on the bottom. Then "on the bottom side" sew straight stitching, on all the lines and cicles. You must use a thread in the bobbin that is a contrast to the top fabric because you need to be able to see where the stitching is on top when you turn it over. Then when you turn it right side up you will have 4 fat quarters sandwiched together and you will see where you sewed those lines on the bottom side. NEXT STEP: You use a seam ripper It has to be VERY SHARP!! A cheapie one won't do. I used a Clover (Pd. $5.99 for it) and it was really sharp. Then the fun begins. (
MAKE SURE when you are ready to rip, that you are ripping from the "TOP" and NOT the bottom where you drew the lines with a pen.)Next: Rip out
JUST THE TOP LAYER , inside the circles, and inside the tic tac toe squares. Or you can rip just every other one. Whatever you decide looks good to you. Next: Being ever so careful, you get
down into the 2nd layer and rip out inside the cirles and squares but leave a little bit of a border from the lst layer so you can see both layers showing. Then rip as much or as little as what looks good to you. NEXT: Finally you go to the 3rd layer and do the same. Just rip out what ever you don't want or leave some you like showing. DO NOT CUT THE 4th LAYER, that is the bottom of your piece. It is your own creation and totally up to you how much or little you want to rip away. One of my students could not handle the seam ripper since it may not have been sharp enough so she used a pr. of scissors to cut the pieces out, having clean edges, and it was still very beautiful. The seam ripper gives it a more rustic or fuzzy look because of the ripped edges. The trick is....be careful not to cut into the next layer when you are ripping. Then if you desire, you can couch pretty yarns, or threads or trims over the stitching that still shows on the top of your pillow top. (You can add borders if you like and make into a pillow). THEN....this is how you end up with lots of beautiful little tiny scraps...but you can use them like I mentioned in this article, as an accent piece for the room, or use in a purse or tote etc..