I asked Joan to describe how she finished the pillow, and this is what she wrote....
First, I had to make my own cording because I could not find anything close to the colours I was searching for. Then I sewed the cording onto your needle work by hand to get close enough to the edge of your work. I was able to round the corners and come very close to your sewing by pushing my cording down with my fingers and then with the point of my needle I was able to insert in right into the corners. My stitches were quite close together and small so this allowed me to round the corners. Wool stretches too so that helps. I then put the backing on; right sides together sewing not only into my backing but again into the cording stitch line. This gave it strength and ensured that I was on the very same stitching line. I then trimmed the fabric and corners, steam pressed the seam allowances to one side and then turned the pillow to the right side through the 8 inch opening that I had left for this purpose. Because the pillow was not an exact square (this was my fault - sorry Joan!), I decided to stuff it using some quilt batting. I then closed the opening using a blindstitch. Because the pillow was so beautiful on it's own I didn't want to add tassels but I did want to do something special to it so I asked Cathy (Henning, of Towers and Turrets fame) what she thought about me adding some type of beading to one corner and she thought it would be an excellent idea and showed me a piece she had done adding beads. I invited her to come with me to Michael's and help me find something appropriate. It was there that she mentioned to me that Jean (AJ) had done this to one of her pillows and it was very effective. It took us a while but together we found some beads I was going to experiment with. It took me most of the evening to work out how I was going to arrange them so they would look nice and not spoil or detract from all of your needlework.
I asked Joan how she made the corners rounded....and this is what she said: I forgot to mention that because my finished cording was quite thick it would not make a pointed corner no matter how I tried so I really think that was why they turned out rounded. When the pillow was finished I really didn't mind the rounded corners. I told myself this gave it character. I was hoping you wouldn't notice them. My neighbour was over for coffee today and she admired our pillow. She's a knitter and she actually said it reminded her of Kaffe Fasset's work. When I told her that the idea and colors did come from an early book he publish we both laughed. How cool is that!!!!!
I cannot tell you how happy I feel now that this project is finally finished. Thank you Joan for making it happen - and so nicely, too! ;-)
