Been busy sewing!

Which is nice, of course! After my pathetic list of finishes for February I felt the need to get some smaller and quicker items ticked off my March to do list. I have a habit of just spending every sewing moment I get piecing quilt tops and so actual finishes can seem rather rare indeed!

When I was sorting out my lonely blocks for Alison's Soy Amado appeal one was claimed by my eldest daughter. Actually she claimed the whole Lucky Stars quilt months ago when I was working on it but she always loved this block the most of all. Could be the colours, perhaps? I had offered to make it into a mini quilt for her wall, but she didn't fancy that. She wanted a quilt, but that wasn't going to happen from one block, so I suggested a cushion.

We aren't really cushion people in this family. My husband hates them on the sofa and so they always end up on the floor. And as for on the beds - well it's enough of a battle getting everyone to just pull their quilts up so they dog can't sleep on the pillows, never mind adding extra bed making hassle! It's a shame really as cushions/ pillows are such a great way of using up a lonely quilt block, or trying out a complex or fiddly block or technique without embarking on an entire quilt.

This awesome flying geese cushion is by Kelly from Jeliquilts. You can find the pattern in edition 5 of Love Patchwork and Quilting.

Paper pieced flip flop block which I made into a cushion as a gift for a friend.

But eldest girl has really taken to them and seems to be building a nest of cushions in her bedroom. When I was expecting the baby we booted her out of the nursery and decorated her a new - at her request - pink fairy bedroom and  I made her a couple of reasonably sized (about 24" I think) QAYG cushions from lots of lovely pink scraps.

Since then she has added in a random crocheted cushion from a brief dabble with yarn crafts and of course the orange pinwheel cushion that I made last month.

I finished the Lucky Stars block off with a couple of matching borders to keep it looking clean and simple. I really enjoyed the wonky straight line quilting that I did on the Soy Amado blocks so I repeated that here, again in grey 50wt Aurifil but this time with slightly denser lines, just a presser foot width apart. Then I made a quick envelope back from some organic Cloud 9 Koi cotton. I had toyed with binding the pinwheel cushion but didn't so I decided to try that out this time as I wanted to add a little pop of purple. It was very easy and no turning required - always nice not to have to poke out corners! But I did machine the binding down on the back which never gives my neatest finish. My stitch ditching on the front is perfect (if I say so myself) but I think I must always stretch and warp the binding somehow during the process and so the line on the back is far from straight. If it was to gift I would have handsewn the binding as I much prefer the look of a hand finished binding but I just needed to get this one done.

I've made a couple of envelope backs now and I'm not entirely satisfied with them, they seem to bow in a little. My zip insertion skills aren't perfect either but I think better than this. Both Sew Mama Sew and Crazy Mom Quilts have great resources for all sorts of cushion related tutorials. There are millions more of course, but these are the ones I used this time around.

Anyway. Big girl is delighted and it looks very happy with its cushion friends. Except I am still waiting on the pillow form so the orange one missing for now. I will add it in when it arrives.

I've done more sewing this weekend, a little dabble with dress making, but I'll blog about that in a separate post, soon.