Hey! I have a great project that will add to your farmhouse decor!
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This is a wool and cotton hand project with some paper piecing as well.
Here is your wool animal friends
I made mine with black pattern wools from Primitive Gatherings, here is the wool listing in my shop.
My fabric was a combination of Moda Homegrown and Muslin Mates
For the wool appliqué I used the lightest shiplap fabric in the bundle. I added the cow first about 1 inch up from the selvage and just used a hand blanket stitch using a hand dyed Valdani thread that had multiple blacks and browns in it. I did use a fusible product for my wool, I used heat and bond lite.
After the cow, I did the pig and chicken, the same way. I set this aside trying to figure out my windmills and how could I make this work.
Here is the paper pieced pattern for the windmills.
I am not teaching the method. Theres tons of tutorials out there, I strongly recommend Craftsy if you want to do something online, I really encourage you to take a live class because paper piecing feels backwards working it.
Ok so for the windmill, I used a 51/2″ x WOF (FQ) gray print for the windmill and a 21/2 inch white background print, I sewed these together 1/4″ seam RST turn and press. There will be big waste for this project( I feel like this is typical with paper piecing). In between the windmill is a tiny white back ground as well.
To start the first blade of the windmill, I pressed my paper at the edge of the blade/background and then lined it up on the seam of the fabric ( remember the paper is attached to the wrong side of the fabric) I used a 1/8th seam ruler and trimmed the seam of the blade and the first background.
RST place a white strip I cut 2 1/2 inch x wof of a couple white prints, place together an sew on line, flip and finger press open,
When you attach the next blade, you need to keep your paper folded on itself, so the ink side is facing itself, then you have to kind of feel that seam where the blade fabric and white background meet and then line up the folded paper where the blade seam is, then when you flip it you will be going in the right direction
I understand this is super confusing, Please take your time and think it through, I did it wrong the first time but I was determined that the way to do this was with a presewn fabric piece to work with.
Keep that paper folded and trim,
The picture above I think you can see what I did, while folded I lined up the next blade seam on the seam of the fabric, you can see the white and the seam, looks like I’m off a little, but feel that seam and kinda move your paper so the blade line of the paper lines up with the blade seam , you can also see that I had huge fabric waste todo this tome sure I was covering my paper pieces.
After doing all the blades and backgrounds, I trimmed up the 1/4″ seam all the way around, keep in mind the pdf doesn’t have the 1/4″seam attached so don’t sew on that line , cut 1/4″ away. Then just needed to add the quarter circle.
To make the quarter circle, I just traced the pattern from template plastic, traced it on a white fabric, wrong side, trimmed 1/2inch all the way around, then spray starch it. With the template piece on the fabric, use an old stencil brush and fluff the seam up the edge and over kinda keep working it so there is no creases and allow the fabric to absorb the extra, press that seam with an iron, remove your template, I placed it on the block and just did a top stitch to secure this. Retrim that block. You will need 3 windmills
I used the black bird cage wire fabric to define the windmill blacks. These are all 1 inch final pieces, so cut 6 strips 1 1/2″ x 22″ ( I had a fat quarter)
attach the windmills with 2 small strips, then attach strips to each side of the windmills, trim this up and then trim your farm animal pice to match this measurement. attach a black strip to the other side of the animals and then to the top and bottom, This is not perfectly square. Its ok, it doesn’t look it once the pillow is in.
I did a small quilt sandwich for the top only and did some light quilting, crosshatching  around the animals,  because honestly, mine is just decor at my home, it’s not going to get wear and tear. I made some bias tape out of the black gingham fabric and made 1/2 inch bias out of 2 inch strips, you will need 6 strips 2″ by 22″, 4 for ties and 2 for the pillow top edge.
So insert the top of your pillow front and pillow back into the bias, sew, add the ties to the inside, and the right sides together the pillow front and back, sew the sides and bottom, keep top open, flip and press, insert your form and tie your ties!
I know a time consuming project but great for farmhouse feel!
I hope you enjoyed and thanks for stopping by! Colleen
Love my chair? It’s from Pier 1! I love it, can’t say enough great things, the plaid matches perfectly throughout the whole chair and ottoman!
