Quilted Piano Bench Cover

 This is a project that I completed a little while ago for a challenge at my local quilt guild.  We were given three  black and white fat quarters and a crayola marker.  We could add as many black and white fabrics to the ones we were given, but only one fabric the color of the marker.  My marker was black, which I learned was wild so I could add any color I liked.  I chose red.

When I saw the black and white I immediately knew that I wanted to do something music themed.  I had a lot of help along the way.  I had an idea of what I wanted this to look like and my wonderful husband drew the keyboard and swoop out to scale for me.  My friend Eileen picked up music themed fabric for me during her travels.

The white keys are just pieced strips, but for the black keys I knew I didn't want raw edges as this piece would be sat on.   I used my 3/8" bias tape maker to create turned under edges and zig-zagged them down with invisible thread.  The treble clef is fused down raw edge applique.  I did a dense satin stitch to protect the edges.

My girls wanted the notes to be an actual song, not just random notes the looked visually appealing.  They also wanted it to be a "Daddy" song - one that would be blasted through the house when doing dishes or on a long road trip.  I was fine with this as long as I didn't have to decide.  Kyla drew out the melody and I thread painted the notes in at the end of the quilting.  (Any music readers able to figure it out?)

I used two layers of batting to give it extra loft - one Quilter's Dream Blend and one Quilter's Dream Puff.  I am really pleased with the end result, but I was thankful I left it extra big before quilting as it shrunk up more than I was expecting!

I added three sets of ties to attach it to the piano bench.

I didn't win the challenge, but I am very pleased with the end product.  If you are interested in checking out what my other guild members did, check it out on the Crocus Quilter's Guild Blog.