So I'm pretty much a beginner when it comes to quilting. I've made one quilt which I basically taught myself how to do it.

So here I am, I'm trying to make a pillowcase, should be a simple project but I am having such headaches over it, I need help!!

It's not the pillowcase itself which is giving me trouble, that was easy and I have directions to follow. But there's something that I'm doing that I need some expert advice on....

My best friend has often joked he wants a pillowcase with the periodic table of elements on it so he can sleep on it. He's a chemistry nerd. Me, being the doting woman that I am, set it as a task to make him said pillowcase for Christmas.

I may have gotten in way over my head.

My idea was to iron on a nice image of the periodic table onto some scrap white fabric, then basically frame the square periodic table with some geeky related fabric, and then sew that onto the rest of the pillowcase. I can't really figure out a way to get the framed image onto the pillowcase itself without sewing over the top of it... or cutting the pillowcase top into 4 bits and sewing the right sides together. I think that'll look like crap, personally, and want to avoid this at all costs.

I made a quick little mock up of what I essentially want it to look like when completed... and basically need some ideas from logical quilters (of which, I am not) on how to make this project complete....

[IMG]http://i38.tinypic.com/24y8imr.jpg[/IMG]

I guess the simple way to ask this is, how do i get a quilted, framed image onto the center of a pillowcase?

Not sure how to advise you. I know that you can get material that can go into a printer like paper for the purpose of putting some of your own photos or art on material to be sewn into a quilt. Just don't know what sizes they might come in & how big you are wanting the periodic table to be on the pillowcase. Maybe someone else here might have more information for you.

If you can get it to the size that Pam suggested for printing it off on your printer on fabric, then you could actually "quilt" around it.
I think it's a great idea and he'll love you for it!

OR..

You could do it the hard way.
Write them all out on the fabric, but that would probably take you forever and if you are like me, it wouldn't get done. lol

if you are making the pillowcase from scratch, print the periodic table onto fabric and then add borders until the top is the right size.

if you are decorating a pillowcase that's already made, print the periodic table on fabric and then applique it to the preferred side. frame it using ribbon or some other manly-nerdy trim.

do you have a wide format inkjet printer? or know somebody who does? if you do, you can either buy larger-than-letter-sized pretreated (for washable prints) fabric, or buy some, so that the printed table can fill most of the center of the pillow case.

all advice is excellent so far...here's my 2 cents about the periodic table and how I'd advise a beginner.

Find a solid piece of the blue background in your example and assuming you didn't want to or couldn't fold the edges of the periodic table, invest in a bit of fusible web to make life much easier. I suggest Heat N Bond Lite. Make sure it's the lite because it will gum up your machine if not. There are other similar brands, but I am most familiar with this one.

Iron the back of your p. table (after printing on your computer) with Heat N Bond lite. That way, you're dealing with fabrics rather than flimsy iron ons. I'd suggest making a hollowed out rectangle matching the size of you p. table plus a little bit larger. I'd make sure that you have some plain material as a border to the table so that after you iron your heat n bond to it, you can trim away some excess and seal your edge. You'll still need to sew it, but this should help to keep unraveling to a minimum.

Iron the p. table to the background fabric and sew the border around the p.table, then proceed with your directions on the pillowcase. If clear as mud, please pm me to see if I can help. Thanks

Hope you find this helpful. Best wishes with your project & Happy Sewing.

Won't those pocket protectors make it hard to sleep?

Moonpi----bad girl----- :wink: