Perfectly Pleasing Hooked Pillows

Aquatic, 14 1/2" x 25 1/2". #8- and 8 1/2" -cut wool on linen, pillow.  Pattern designed by Martina Lesar.  Hooked and constructed by Marita Friedman, Moraga, California, 2010. 

Pillows are the perfect medium for displaying hooked designs and creative workmanship. It's fun to learn a few tricks of the trade, adapt them to rug hooking, and add them to our hooking toolboxes. Whether your design is primitive or traditional, floral or geometric, fine or wide cut, this easy technique for shaping a knife edge pillow pattern will enhance the appearance of your hooked pillow.
 
A knife edge pillow is given its shape by sewing together two pieces of fabric; each piece is cut to the same size, and the corners are cut at right angles (90°) or squared. The overall shape of the pillow can be a square or a rectangle, and many details can be added to this basic pillow shape: cording, fringe, ruffles, flanges, buttons, tassels, insets. In this article, we will focus on improving the conventional pillow shape, reviewing techniques specific to hooking that improve shape, and discussing the basic construction of a pillow.

This article is from the March/April/May 2011 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.