New cushions

My previous cushion covers although practical and went with my room, at the time my mum made them for me, needed to be changed and so I set myself another project to do just that.

I bought new feather pads and then found ways to cover them with scrap fabrics etc.

This one is made from the length waste of a pair of Ikea curtains and a small piece of floral.

A patchwork cover made from an old French linen sheet I purchased in France in October for 2 euros, not good enough to keep as one piece but the monogram has worked out well. Mixed with some Irish linen and again good old Ikea curtain fabric.

 I'm really pleased with this one; its made from an old jumper that I got from car boot fair for £1 especially for the purpose of felting. The left hand side is the polo neck part. Just some buttons and lace added.

I also got a round pad which has been the most awkward to deal with. Covering it with fabric was above my sewing skills, so the obvious choice was to crochet the cover for it. Instead of wool, which wouldn't be as hardwearing, I chose a craft cotton (basically string) and crocheted both the back and the front the same in half trebles. I wanted to keep the stitches pretty close as I didn't want the pad to show through too much. 

Although quite nice, it was looking a bit boring. I didn't want anything too colourful or bright and so my final decision, after a lot of messing about, was to weave in different coloured wools. Pretty pleased with it actually.

Bertie doesn't like the new cushion as much as the old ones as she has learnt very quickly that she can't snuggle up on them. So as it stands there is still one old cushion in my living room just for her, spoilt or what!

no touching the new cushions!

After a couple of minutes sitting nicely she's off anyway to annoy Arthur.

Finished quilt

Rhiannon has given me some photo's of the finished quilt, a bit creased but pretty I think.

A present for Rhiannon

I've been wanting to make a patchwork quilt for a long long time and finally got around to it this year (oops last year now), as a Christmas present for Rhiannon.

I brought the fabric, oh way back in June, but got a bit scared about cutting the squares so kept putting it off. 

It's funny how quickly the weeks can go by and you suddenly think crumbs it's two months later and I still haven't started, so at last one day I just got on with it.

But then came the bit when I realised that I don't have the right foot for my machine, so my squares are what I would call a bit rustic, not exactly matching up as they should do, but hey it's homemade and I just hope nobody looks too closely at it.

So with all the squares sewn together it was time to purchase the backing and wadding. It's about November now, cutting it all a bit fine for Christmas! I decided to buy an Egyptian cotton sheet for the backing as a cheaper option and also used this for the border, a bit boring but everyone has to watch the pennies nowadays.

So with top quilt finally finished it was time to make some room, shifting all the furniture around to find a spot I could lay it all out flat to layer up. That was easier said than done too, there is no room in this house to swing a cat, let alone find a large working space. I really do have to stop the auction purchases, it's beginning to look like a warehouse in here!

Anyway eventually I got there and spent the next couple of hours sticking pins through the layers to hold it all together.

Then it was decision time, do I hand quilt or use the machine? In my wisdom I decided to hand quilt, to add to the whole hand made look. Not the best decision, in stead of taking hours on the machine it took me days and days..... The only place I could work on it was on my bed, which looking back was quite a good option really, as I could huddle under the quilts and keep warm at the same time. 

With only hours until Christmas day the quilting was done and the binding added. No time to run through the washing machine and no time to take the final pictures. And so I am still waiting for Rhiannon to provide me with photographs of the finished quilt in situ and might be waiting a while, so watch this space and i'll update when received!!