Comfortable Cafe Cushion

The Cafe de Paris cushion is finished!

It went together fairly quickly in the end, especially as I decided to do some simple straight line quilting rather than any fancy, complicated FMQ type stuff :)

Cafe Cushion quilting

I used my Hera marker to draw out the lines before quilting, and it was definitely easier to see the marks when I was sewing in the daylight!

The plan originally was to space the lines evenly around the centre diamond but a slight muck-up (sorry design decision!) early on meant that the spacing was irregular at each side. Fortunately, I actually liked how that turned out so went with it and mixed up the measurements on all of the sides!

The cushion back is an Envelope back with binding as in the pattern, but I am not sure about having an envelope back on such a large cushion. The cushion cover is 20.5" x 20.5" as in the pattern, and I think if I was making such a large cushion again I would go with a zipped or button closure.

I didn't have a big enough cushion insert when I finished this and had to go out and buy one. The cushion inner is 50cm x 50cm to give that stuffed look that I like.

The cushion pattern is from this book

There are several more projects in the book that I would like to make, but I will be checking the instructions carefully as there were a couple of errors in the measurement instructions for this cushion. The instructions lead you to cut the pieces for the back to be 20.5" wide but the cushion front is trimmed to 21" x 21" and the measurements for the solid strips for the top and bottom of the cushion front are 17.25" long when they should be 17.5". Neither of these were a particular problem for my cushion, but might be an issue if you were fussy cutting the squares for the top left and bottom right corners and then had to shave 0.75" off to make the pieces fit.

Apart from those minor blips the cover went together really well.

Not only is this a finished project so I can link up to Crazy Mom Quilts




but it is also my first finish for Q3 in

and my first project to link up for the Craft Book link up at



                    
and finally because this project is actually for me

So many birds with one project :)

If I had actually been to Paris on holiday I could even have made it my contribution to the

Sadly I haven't, but if you have and haven't decided what to do for the competition, to be in with a chance of winning some of that gorgeous fabric that's been posted about recently, then this might just spark off an idea or two.

All Tripped Out!

Well our eldest son has been and gone and guess what he took back to London with him?

A finished Scrappy Chevron Quilt!

It was a bit of a rush job at the end but I managed to get this quilt finished in the nick of time. I am thrilled to bits with it, I have never managed to complete a quilt this size (60" x 60") this quickly before. Fortunately, he is pleased with it too. I was a bit worried that there was too much lilac in it for him, but he didn't mention it so I didn't ask :)

There was no time for fancy quilting so I echo-quilted the chevron pattern as you can see above, and better below.

The backing fabric I had was just a bit too narrow so I added some leftover strips to give me the extra width I needed.

I discovered the perfect purple fabric for the binding, and again as time was an issue I machine bound the double-fold binding using a zig-zag stitch. I will call that a design element to echo the chevron quilting :)

I really enjoyed putting this quilt together and I am encouraged to find that it doesn't need to take months (or even years!) to make a quilt, definitely something New to Me!

Speaking of which, if you have tried something new this month there is still time to link up here to

The Link up will stay open until midnight (GMT) June 30th.

This Scrappy Chevron quilt is also my first (and possibly only!) finish for Q2 in

Linking up this finish to

Crazy Mom Quilts

 

 

Backed and Basted!

In the words of the song, "the weather here is frightful" so there has been lots of incentive to stay indoors and crack on with the projects on my long to-do list!

Top of the list is the In Color Order HST BOM  quilt that I optimistically listed as one of my finishes for Q1 

       

So, in the midst of yet another snow and hail shower I got down on my knees with my curved pins and got the top basted.

I really do not enjoy this part of quilting, especially in the winter when spray-basting outside is not an option! Still it is now basted so might even be quilted and bound in time to meet the FAL deadline for Q1.

One part of quilting I do enjoy is taking part in swaps, and I have recently been the very lucky recipient of some fabulous goodies and scraps from the Modern Scrappy Bits Flickr Swap.

This fabulous fabric basket came filled with all of these wonderful goodies from Pam, who is the lovely owner of uberstitch, a great fabric shop on Etsy. It is definitely worth checking out if you haven't come across Pam's shop before.

These scraps came my way too when I signed up to the 2013 Umbrella Prints Trimmings Challenge. I am hoping it will not be too long before inspiration strikes for these, although my mind is completely blank on them at the minute :) I am used to that now thanks to the Star of Africa Bee where this happens on a monthly basis :) This months theme is trees!

So this is how my WIP list is looking now:-

• In Color Order HST BOM - Backed and Basted!
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted
• Tsatime quilt pieced, backed and basted COMPLETED
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 18 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (only 2 more to go!) 
• Sunday Morning Quilt Bee blocks received
• Sunday Morning Quilt2 Bee blocks sent (on schedule)
• Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (back on schedule)
• Friendship Bag Swap - Bag made ready to be filled COMPLETED
• Modern Scrappy Bits Swap 3rd Round COMPLETED
• Triple Zip A Long pouch  COMPLETED
• Fancy Feet Challenge signed up COMPLETED
• And And Sew On BOM - first block completed (one block behind schedule)
• Just my Type paper-pieced block  COMPLETED
• Everything but the Kitchen Sink SAL - 2nd block sewn
• Crafty Cooks Apron and Recipe Swap  sign ups completed and partners allocated
• Umbrella Prints Trimmings  received   

Linking up to


 


Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hopeful Finishes

In line with my resolution to finish projects before starting new ones I am linking up to Leanne's 2103 Finish-a-Long at She Can Quilt.

When I listed out the projects that I would like to get finished this year I had over 20 of them, but in an effort to be realistic I have decided to list only 3 finishes for this quarter, in the hope that getting these done will spur me on to even greater efforts next quarter!

The Time for Tea Quilt that was originally meant to be for my mum's birthday last June! 

In Color Order's HST BOM quilt which needs sashing and borders added

The SMQ Bee Block quilt from Round 1. December's blocks arrived yesterday (thanks Wendy!) but I am still waiting on a couple of the earlier blocks to arrive, and I want to add a couple of my own blocks to it to make it slightly bigger.


So there you have it my list of finishes for this quarter. There are a couple of big WIP's lurking in my cupboard, but they need working up to so will be put off (again!) for another few months :)

The next round of the SMQ Bee has started so in keeping with my new finish before starting attitude I have been knuckling down to get them out of the way before tackling the first block of Quiet Play's And Sew On BOM.

Tangled Threads wanted a block of low-value strips with one bright red strip, so I hope this fits the bill.

Whilst Seaside Sewing asked for a slab in blues, aquas or teals to make the Splash quilt from the book. Hopefully, this will fit the bill too.

I don't think I have ever had my Bee blocks for this Bee in the post so early in the month before. Let's hope I can maintain this level of organisation for the rest of the year.

Linkng up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced