***THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED***

one of my sponsors, the felt pod, sent me some fabulous felt to work with.   i have not really worked with felt much, other than the really cheap craft felt.  this 100% wool felt was the complete opposite!  i was a little worried about how it would work, or if i could figure out how to work with it, but the quality is so nice that it was a breeze to use!  it was thick, but easy to cut through, soft, and so vibrant!

 i decided to make a pillow for a little friend, to go with a quilt i helped her mom get started on.  i went for a simple chinese lantern and tried my hand at a variety of different techniques on this pillow.

aren’t these colors amazing?!  the felt pod has so many great colors to choose from.  this project took  2  18″x18″ sheets in cerise, one 8″x12″ sheet of each teal and willow, and one 1/2″ roll of salmon felt ribbon.

 i started with a piece of scratch paper and drew an oval shape with the ends chopped flat, for the main body of the lantern.

 i traced it with a white quilter’s pencil, which showed up well on the felt.

then i cut out the shape.

i wanted to try a reverse applique so i put the piece of teal felt on the backside, covering the opening i had just cut out.  i made sure that it was centered over the opening.

then i pinned down each of the 4 corners, to hold the teal piece in place.

next i flipped the 18″x18″ sheet over and pinned some more to make sure the under sheet didn’t wiggle.

then i took it to my machine.  i wanted a really close stitch to the edge, and a contrasting stitch, so i used a bright yellow thread.

 i also wanted a wide stitch so i set my machine to its widest setting.

 then i trimmed my threads.

 i flipped over the piece again and trimmed off the excess felt around the lantern shape to reduce bulk.

then i made 2 rectangles out of the willow felt for the top and bottom of the lantern, and did a more traditional applique over the top of the fabric.

again, i loved how easy this felt was to work with – it didn’t wiggle or shift as i sewed and it never stretched out either.

on the bottom piece of the lantern i cut a length of the salmon felt ribbon with pointed ends and folded it, tucked it under the rectangle, and stitched it down to make a ribbon end for the bottom of the lantern.

i needed something to hang the lantern from and wanted to incorporate the ribbon again, so i used the ribbon to weave a line along the pillow.

i started by laying out the ribbon in the position i wanted.

 then i took my white quilter’s pencil again and marked slash lines

and then snipped along those lines with my scissors.

 i took a large safety pin, attached it to the end of the ribbon, and threaded it through the snips.

 so cute, right?!

i liked it so much that i added another string crossing behind.

 i stitched the ends down to keep the ribbon in place on the back side.

 i wanted to do some top stitching on the main body of the lantern, but i wanted to strengthen the felt a little more, so i just used the original piece that i had trimmed out of the middle of the 18″x18″ piece.

 i pinned some imaginary lines to figure out where i wanted them.  when they were just right i used the pencil again and traced over the pins.

 i kept a couple pins to hold the pieces together, but removed the rest of the pins to reveal the white lines to sew over.

 after i finished the top, i attached the backside to it, adding a zipper to make the cover removable, and added an 18″x18″ pillow.

 would you like to make a pillow like this?  the felt pod is offering a set of felt pieces to one lucky reader to make your own pillow, or whatever you can think of.

please go check out the felt pod shop, tell me what colors you’d choose, and an idea you have for another project that you’d try with felt.

the winner will receive 2 sheets of 18″x18″ felt, 2 sheets of 8″x12″ felt, and one roll of 1/2″ felt ribbon.

and the felt pod has also offered my readers 5% off all your orders using code “pleatedpoppy” at checkout (code valid during the giveaway only).