star cushion

If you saw an earlier blog post this year, you might remember I took part in a birthday swap on Instagram. I had quite a while to wait for my partners birthday though. I was given the lovely Sally aka @chasing.tigers on Instagram, to make for. I was both thrilled because she has become a close friend online, but also anxious since she is such a talented maker herself.

 

 

Anyway, I chose to make this cute fussy cut cushion as her main gift. The cushion design was featured on her inspiration board, and with a bit of quilty maths, I worked out the measurements to make it. I was struggling to find coloured fussy cuts in my stash, so did a bit of fabric swapping to get enough. I also purchased this cotton and steel tiger fabric, as I just knew it was the perfect centre to personalise the cushion. Both me and Sally had purchased this low volume fabric, so I was pretty confident she would like it.

 

 

After my meadowland quilt experience I hate flying geese, so why I chose to do this cushion with 16  geese, I do not know! I wasn’t looking forward to sewing them, however, they went surprisingly well. I did simple straight line quilting 1/2” apart and made one of my concealed zip backs(tutorial for that here). Once I had sewn my cushion together, I added top stitching to the edges. I think this gives a nice finish to the cushion without the need to add binding.

 

 

The entire thing came together quite quickly and I love how it turned out. Thankfully my partner has received her gift now and loves it!

 

This is one of my finish-a-long projects. Even though this was technically made it in Q3, I hadn’t yet gifted it to be able to share so I am including it for Q4 instead. Read about my list here.

Mx

My Christmas stocking

For a few years I have seen a Christmas stocking sew along on instagram. It is hosted my @sunnydaysupply and all the stockings they feature are fabulous... I just had to make my own!

I was going to join in last year, I even started, the plan for my patchwork soon changed though and that patchwork turned into a cushion that was gifted to a friend.

Fast forward to this year and although I had too many projects already, I started my stocking again. This time I wanted to try something different and just have some fun sewing. I decided I would use the scraps I had left from cutting out a quilt. It is some heather Ross sugarplum fabrics, with cute mice! I then chose to patchwork using the quilt as you go method. I have seen it lots on instagram but not found the right project to actually try it... til now.

It was so much fun to just add pieces and quilt, although I did consider fabric placement a little. I did end up with a white patch on one side, but I still think it looks ok especially since its only the one side. I wasn't planning to do both sides, but I was enjoying sewing and had scraps left, so I figured why not?

I finished quilting both sides of my stocking and trimmed to the same size. I cut out the matching check lining, which was a big  piece left over from the same quilt.

Once I had sewn it all together, I still felt like it was missing something. I decided I'd add a pom pom trim... I have kept buying them without a project and they seemed like the perfect finishing touch for this. As it was my first time sewing pom poms, I went for a simple straight top stitch in the middle of the band. I did have to change to a zipper foot on my machine to get past the pom poms. Part of me wishes I had taken the time to hand stitch them in place, however, I think it looks neat enough to be happy as they are.

This was a lot of first times and I am so pleased with how it has come together.

If you want to see more great stocking inspiration, visit the #sunnystockingsal on instagram.

Mx