Skip to main content

City Sampler Cushion [a finish]

I finished of my City Sampler cushion earlier this week, but I don't have a cushion pad big enough. Today I gave up thinking I would get that sorted this side of my holiday, stuffed it with other cushions and took the last few [bad] photos.

I loved making this project - every last step of it! I picked 10 of my favourite blocks from Tula's City Sampler block (nine for the front and one for the back), then picked out my current favourite fabrics in mint green and peach which just a hint of silvery grey. Piecing the blocks was so quick - I love the instant gratification of these blocks!

I added the grey sashing as my first act with my new machine. I then let the top sit for a couple of weeks until I built up the courage to free motion quilt on my new machine. I'd had a go in the shop when I'd first got the machine, and had issues with the tension. I felt I needed some time at home to play, and I quickly found the right speed and, most importantly, tension for me. Since then there has been no stopping me! I did bits of this cushion cover in between nappies and feeds, slowly. When I was feeding, or holding Mia whilst she slept, I had the piece hanging where I could see it so I could think out how I was going to quilt the next section. It was the success of this cushion that meant I could quilt my Nested Churn dash as I did.

This is the final bad photo!
It was the first project where I've free motion stitched in the ditch to define the pattern pieces. I'm not great at it, but I'm definitely getting better and it definitely makes a difference to the finished project. It's also the first project where I've quilted feathers in anger - I've only ever practiced them before - the block with the feathers is my favourite of them all!

I had a bit of an accident with the back of the cushion. I had enough of the grey dot fabric left to cut a 22" piece by the width of the fabric. I could then cut this in half, fold each piece in half and use them to make an envelope back. That was until I cut a chunk out of it to make the Big Stitch Swap basket. I totally forgot my plans for the cushion. I remembers just after I'd finished cutting. Ooops. I looked online, but it turns out there are quite a few different Essential dots in grey and I couldn't work out which grey. So I added in the green strip with the spare block (which was on course to become just another orphan block because I was lazy). And then instead of having the feature fabric on the inside, I used a good quality sheet to make the piece up to size.

The buttons were a stroke of genius - even if I do say so myself! After my success with Mia's dress there was no stopping me, and I found three buttons in my button box that matched the colours in the cushion! Miraculous!

The cushion cover finishes at 21.5" x 21.5". The fabrics are all from my stash: Botanics, Architextures, Fossil Ferns, Art Gallery Pure and Kona solids, Art Gallery Reminisce, Tula Pink, Art Gallery Floral Elements, Pearl Bracelets and Urban Chics from Moda. The sashing is Essential Dots by Moda. All of the quilting was done in an Aurifil light grey.

This is another Finish Along Finish!
Finish Along 2014

Comments

Lin said…
A great finish Jennie - love the colours and the way you have finished the back off too. xx

Popular posts from this blog

365 Quilt Challenge 2016 [A finish]

I can't believe I've just typed that heading! When I made the block for January 1st 2016 I could not have imagined the journey this quilt would have taken me on. So make yourselves comfortable and grab a cup of tea, because this blog post may get lengthy! I'd seen the 365 Quilt Challenge on Facebook. I think every quilter on Facebook must have been aware of it. Loads of my friends had signed up and it kept popping up as a "Page you might like" thing. In the end, in November 2015, I joined the group, had a poke round. Decided it wasn't for me. One of the things that really put me off were the fabric requirements: you needed x amount of dark dark fabric, x amount of medium dark fabric, x amount of dark medium, medium, light medium, light, background.... I just couldn't get my head round those requirements. I'd looked at the mock ups on the wesbite and couldn't bring myself to pick a colour. I put it to the back of my mind. But I had obvious

Hidden Agenda [A Finish]

This is very possibly my favourite ever finish - I know I've said that in the past, but this one is going to be hard to beat. This time last year, I attended a day long lecture/workshop with Tula Pink and it was inspiring. Having not really loved her fabrics in the past (but loved her patterns), I suddenly saw them in a new light, linked with my 2018 new year's resolution to try more fussy cutting). Fast forward 8 months and I confess that my Tula stash has expanded quite a lot. I found some UK shops with older ranges of fabric, splurged on a few destashes and found the odd piece of her fabric already in my stash. The plan was always (and remains) to make a Smitten quilt, but I'm well aware that I have plenty of fabric to make other projects as well! So when I saw the Hidden Agenda quilt pattern by Angela Pingle, this fabric sprung instantly to mind.... and we all know I love a rainbow! And what could be better than rainbowfied Tula? I was ably assisted by my friend Ti

February Embroidery Along [A Finish]

I've really been enjoying my embroidery this year, after not doing very much last year. One of the challenges I set myself at the start of the year was to learn to colour tint my fabric before adding the embroidery - I love buying the pre-printed panels, but I'd like to do this myself as well. And the opportunity to learn this arose in February. Meg Hawkey of Crab Apple Hill Studio hosted a stitchalong to celebrate National Embroidery Month, and the first step was colour your fabric. I bought the pencils she advises,  the blending stumps, something called fabric extender and the pigma pen. And I gave it a go. My first attempt ended badly. Because the one thing I didn't buy was a new, clean paintbrush. So when I came to add the fabric extended, it went all bleary and muddy as, despite cleaning the paintbrush thoroughly, it obviously wasn't clean enough. It was unsalvageable so I started again, and I was so much happier with the results. The practice piece was, in

Labels

Show more

Archive

Show more