Home

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Happy 1st birthday William

Today is baby Will's first birthday and as promised in the last post I am going to show the cushion that I made for him, but first I must show something unusual that I saw yesterday.

Tuesday is my 'Bedford' day to look after Will and with the Spring sunshine so warm I decided to take him to the park where he enjoyed a swing and walked about on the children's adventure equipment. Afterwards I took him down to the river bank that is a beautiful feature of Bedford. The daffodils were out, birds of all sorts were sitting around in the Spring sunshine, Bedford School's rowing teams were going up and down on the river with trainers on bicycles rushing along the path beside them and in the distance a couple were feeding the ducks.

As we got closer I took a photo - 

 and there in the middle was a black swan, that is NOT a native species to the UK. They come from Australia but were imported to this country for their looks and though I have seen a large flock at Leeds Castle in Kent I haven't seen one in the wild before.

Anyway back to the cushion. I have shown you the pictures of 'Charlie' and 'Lola' in the making in this post and the books I used
Charlie 
Lola
I had to decide what other pictures to make and you can see from this picture what I chose and and the embellishment that I used.

I made 10" finished blocks (25 cms) and then sashed between them before sashing all the way round. I always use wadding and an inexpensive fabric (this time it was calico) on the inside of the front of the cushion and I quilted each square 'in the ditch'. The back then had a zip inserted - remember to leave it partially open - before sewing the sides together. No quilting on the back at all.

I had trimmed the wadding and backing back from the edge as I didn't want a great thickness because when the cushion is turned through I don't want it too thick. I always iron this outside seam as flat as I can because it gives a sharper edge for finishing off. Personally I don't use piping or ruffles to give a neat edge, I use a fancy machine stitch around the edge to give a crisp finish.

Front


Back
The cushion pad is the largest that this store stocks -about 25" square (63 cms).

Finally wrestle the cushion pad into the cover (not easy!) and there you have one floor cushion to give years of service, completely washable, suitable for dragging around by a toddler and often used by adults as a large backrest or pillow

4 comments:

  1. Well, your electronic free weekend seems to have be most productive! Lovely cushion for lucky Will

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great looking cushion carol. Looks like you had a great time without electronics!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. enjoy your time with William, they grow so quickly....1 year already.. I love your cushion, and so will he

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cushion is really nice.......Like Bedford by the river reminds me of my childhood.

    ReplyDelete