Twit Twoo

My sewing machine is fixed (I hope) and today I got her back. But why go all the way to a patchwork shop just to pick up a machine and come home again? Why not do a class whilst you're there? I made an owl cushion!

The owl is raw edge applique, the fabric is Buttons and Blooms by Whimsicals for Red Rooster and the pattern is from the book to go with the fabric. The colours aren't my normal selecton, but I love the background fabric with the buttons on and the owl is so cute! It's good to try other fabrics sometimes - you might surprise yourself!
Although I really pleased with the finished cushion, I've learnt a few more things today:

• In my opinion, no cushion really needs wadding in the backing - it's cosy enough without it and it just means that attaching the binding is hard work.
• A "stretch stitch" - number 3 on my stitch menu - is a really nice stitch if you want the stitches to stand out more than just using the regular straight stitch.
• Programming my machine to do text isn't very difficult, and I should do it more often, but the second font option on my machine has an odd i. But this first attempt was not quite good enough to show off, so I've tucked it on the inside!

• No matter what the pattern says, I want a bigger overlap of the two backing pieces, so that my finished cushion doesn't gape. At the moment it is held together with a safety pin - I need to pick up some press studs next time I'm out.

And today I found out that I had won one of the random prizes in Megan's Festival of Half Square Triangles for my Chevrons Cushion! $25 to spend on fabric... heaven.... Thank you Megan!

Hope you're having a good weekend