Week 8-Summer Stitch Along - Embellishment

So we’re very nearly there with the bookwrap, but we need to add some stitch to the pieced area.

With the seam allowances, this’ll be the bulkiest bit of the wrap, so hand quilting through it, particularly if you’ve worked the piecing quite small scale might be a bit tricky.

Instead, lets quilt it with embellishments. Tufts or beads work brilliantly. Let’s start with tufts. Choose a thread that’ll work well with your piecing. It could be a colour that blends or a contrasting colour to provide an accent. A single strand embroidery thread will work well, you might use the same thread that you used for other parts of the quilting.

Working from the front, take the needle down through the work and take a small stitch. Repeat this several times holding loops of thread on the front of the work. Knot the threads together tightly and snip the tuft to the required length.

Beads are another great alternative, especially as a project like this can make use of a few leftover beads in an assortment of colours. That’s what I’ve decided to go for. I’m using small seed beads. Choose a coloured thread to sew them on with, that’ll be more interesting – I used the same thread as I had for some of the quilting. Sew the bead on working through all the layers so that the bead ‘quilts’ the surface. As you can see from the photos, I placed a bead at every intersection on the piecing. I like this formal placing, but you can apply the beads more organically in a drift if you think that suits your project better.