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| Purple Pansy (7-5/8" x 9-3/4") by Susan Brubaker Knapp |
Yesterday, I finished “Purple Pansy.” It is a small wholecloth painted piece. I finished it by first doing a pillowcase turn with the batting inside, and then quilting it. I used only three thread colors, a pinkish-purple on the petals, a gray on top of the yellow area at the flower center, and a green on the leaves.
The advantages of finishing using a pillowcase turn are that it is very fast and easy, and that the piece looks more like art than like a quilt. The primary disadvantage is that it sometimes leaves slightly distorted edges that can’t be corrected the way you can do when you bind or face a piece. This distortion occurs when the quilting is heavier in some areas than others, causing the piece to draw up in some places. You can see that the finished piece is not completely squared up. On small pieces, I think this can be rather charming; I don’t obsess about it too much. But if you are more of a perfectionist, this technique is probably not for you!
If you are interested in learning how to finish a piece with a pillowcase turn, I have a free tutorial (a downloadable PDF) on my website here.
Here is a detail shot showing some of the quilting stitches:
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