Pineapple Welcome

Welcoming Summer and friends new and old with a quilted pineapple door hanger. This easy project combines two applique pieces: pineapple and prim stitchery.

This pineapple applique is from Rag-Spun.  It comes in two parts: green top and yellow bottom. We used the medium 4"x5" sized Rag-Spun pineapple. You could use wool or felt shapes, a fussy cut pineapple, or an iron on patch. Even a card stock pineapple will work, if you plan on never washing door hanger.

I auditioned a lot of background fabrics for this project. This tropical blue wicker print gives a summery attitude to the project. All you need is a 10"x7" scrap.

Start with glue stick and tack pineapple pieces in place with the green part roughly in the center of background scrap.

Create a quilt sandwich (layer top over batting and backing). Secure layers with pins or basting stitches, or my favorite quilting tool, Spray Basting.

Quilt diamond grid all over. I used 3/4" grid to match the size of the wicker background print. Anything 1" or smaller will work. Just quilt right through the pineapple applique to secure it in place. No need to outline or edge-stitch. Recommend machine stitching and regular foot for quilting over Rag-Spun appliques.

Alex stitched "welcome" on muslin scraps. Replacing the "L" with cross stitches and stitching some of the letters in miss-matched floss gives a  primitive feel to the words.
Any idea how pineapples came to signify Welcome? I believe it started as a colonial era tradition. Guessing that's why primitive accents go so well with pineapples.
Alex used dark brown and gold floss. Center welcome stitches above pineapple and stitch around word in an oval shape. Trim muslin to follow stitching line, leaving a 1/4" margin.

Square-up edges. Finish with traditional quilt binding. One yard of binding will do. Attach a 10" or 12" scrap of ribbon for a hanger. Tuck ends of ribbon in top binding edge on back and tack in place.