This hand embroidery pattern available for free download would make a perfect decorative pillow top. I’ve only embroidered two pillows in my life – one was all satin stitch, in a very ornate entwined knotwork design, worked in silk on white linen with a royal blue velvet pillow back, finished with hand-made cording and tassels. And I still think it’s one of the prettiest projects I’ve ever stitched. I made it as a gift. Where it is now, I have no idea! The other pillow top was not quite as successful – in fact, I think it was a dismal failure. Unfortunately, I know where that one is!

So every time I clean up a design that looks like a perfect pillow top, it reminds me of those two pillows. Both of them were pleasurable to stitch, despite their varied outcomes. I’m convinced that a beautiful hand embroidered decorative pillow in the home is the perfect accent. Someday, I’ll make another one.

In the meantime, I’ll share this pattern with you. I think it’s a neat one – and you can probably find other uses for it, too!

That’s how I see it as a pillow top – but the pattern itself is actually turned 45 degrees. So it looks like this:

Either way works!

I can see the design worked in one color, in multiple colors, in white on white or ivory on white – many possibilities! It might even make a neat quilt square, done in a twilling technique. It might be a little complex for that, but I bet it would work. Reduced in size, on fine fabric with fine threads, it could make a pretty embroidered ornament of some sort. Or a box top! What do you think? How would you interpret this pattern in embroidery?

Here’s the PDF download, which you can print and enlarge:

Free Hand Embroidery Pattern: Perfect Pillow Top (PDF)

If you like it and use it, I hope you enjoy it – and I’d love to see a photo!

You can find plenty more free hand embroidery patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread! And more to come in the future….