Imperfections

I love this blog (& this pillow especially) and read it regularly, Svetlana's style and use of colour really speaks to me. I was hitting a wall with the hand quilting on the "fenced in" quilt...too much of the same block and a bit of a sore wrist. I needed a break. I had been thinking about making a(nother) quilted cushion cover, they are such a quick fix. So I followed the links and picked up Tamiko's tutorial with printable template from here. I think I didn't resize it properly 'cos my inside square was the weirdest dimensions. Anyhoo, I stuck with it figuring I'd just fudge it if it wasn't big enough for my 16" cushion.

While paper piecing brings so much joy in the precise points, it creates a lot of chaos and waste. All that paper to be ripped off at the end and I still feel I am wasting fabric with the cut-larger-trim-after strategy.

I am an impatient paper ripper outer, so I thought my unpicker might speed things up a bit. It did. And it ripped through the fabric too. Arrrggggg! I had already put the whole shebang together.

Ooops!

So, I did a fix-it with a teeny tiny zig-zag and a little piece of material for reinforcement. It's a cushion, and it's for my house so no biggy. I think it worked out OK.

Here is the finished product posing nicely. Can't even see the boo boo. The centres are from a FQ of 'dandy kaleidoscope' for Alexander Henry that I got at the quilt show last year. Really had no idea what to do with it when I got it but I loved the big, fat and bright flowers. I thought it'd be perfect for this cushion project.I filled the rest in with scraps of this and that. It is sashed in a light denim/heavy chambray. Weird perhaps but I reckon it works. It's a nice weight. I machine quilted the chambray and then hand quilted the inside of the centre square.

The back is chambray and the envelope close is a smaller version of the fussy cut prints. I am so pleased with how it came out. Even with the little tear.

Oh, and a little off kilter. Imperfections...make me human. I am embracing it, overall this is a great little cushion.

Some more detail. I can't even see the repair job. Glad I didn't unpick the whole thing and do it again which I thought about doing for about......a microsecond.

Lastly, this is morning tea for today. we had some very dear friends come and visit us from the city this morning. Luckily my boy had me up at 445 (am!!!!!) so I was able to bake a batch of almond macaroons and a butter cake with vanilla icing. The kids loved the cake icing on the cake.