Decisions, Decisions

The fabric arrived, and I had some time to make progress on the owls.  They've been trimmed and fabric added.

I had thought I'd make a cushion cover.  It would be a large cushion, but that doesn't matter.  We like large cushions, but then I had an idea.

What about a wall hanging?

 

Now, I don't know what to do, a cushion, or a wall hanging?  I have until the batting comes to decide.

Finished

It's difficult to believe that the starting point for this project was a card.  Thanks to Karen's class, it's developed from a study in colour, until I've come to this point,

a completed cushion. 

The flowers have been hand painted, as well as the "stitched" border.  I've added the purple fabric, and then done some basic quilting.

The back is a simple envelope style.  Once that had been sewn on, I then went around the whole cushion with another quilting row, just inside the outer edge.  This forms a bound edge.

 

This is a very large cushion, and as I'm pleased with the way it turned out, I may do some more, but smaller, and maybe develop some of the ideas further.

A Wondeful Way to Spend an Afternoon

A friend of mine had asked if I would mind helping her daughter to do some quilting.  They'd bought the new magazine, The Art of Quilting, and hadn't been able to make sense of the instructions.  Her daughter found it much easier to learn if she could see how to do it.

I was delighted to help and thought of ways to make it easier and more exciting for A, so she wouldn't be put off.  I gave her the choice of my red and white charms squares that I'd received in a fabric swap, told her how many she needed, and left her to it.  It didn't take long for her to choose which ones she wanted, and to put them in order.  Then the fun began.

A had never used a machine before, but in no time, she had pieced the the top.  We then made a sandwich with muslin as the backing, and after changing to the walking foot, she quilted the top.

Using a simple envelope backing, she made this beautiful cushion cover, all in just over an hour.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and so did A.  She spent the evening telling her mum how it was all done.  I'm out next Monday with Daniel, but the week after she is coming again.  Apparently, A was so thrilled with what she did, she's planning a quilt for her brother to take to university in September!

A Final Goodbye

This is a final goodbye to Amy's BOM.  There was one block left over from the main quilt, and it's now a cushion cover.

I quilted the front, and then added a simple envelope style back.

Now, when I use the quilt, I can have a complimentary cushion.



Silk Flower Cushion

The feather cushion pad I ordered came about a week or so ago, but with being so busy, and not feeling one hundred percent, it spent more time sat on the side than was intended.

Finally, I felt more motivated to get this cushion finished. 

The cushion pad is 16" so I measured 161/2 inches and marked my line for sewing,  I did a double seam, as silk does like to fray.  The double seam gave enough strength to the seams to give no trouble when turning the right way and sewing the final seam shut.

Finally, something is completely finished here, hopefully, we shall have another finish here this week, days out permitting!

Embroidery on Silk

There is something very satisfying about stitching on silk.  I just love the "pop" of the fabric, when I saw the pattern in Part Four of Discovering Needlecraft, I knew I wanted to do it.

All the flowers are stitched in satin stitch using Madeira stranded cottons.  I really enjoyed stitching this, and found it really relaxing.



This will eventually become the front of a cushion cover, I just need to get the cushion pad so I can finish it.