Embroidered cushion Mk II - Complete

I finished the embroidery on this cushion a couple of weeks ago, it just took me a while to get the zip in and finish the sewing. I've completed this just in time too, I'm moving house soon so everything is in packing chaos and I've found so many UFO's I'm being buried by the pile! I fixed the zip issue with this one by using a 59 cm long zip rather than a 61cm one. The pillow fits well in the case and is just squishy enough. It goes nicely with the first one too (which you can just make out in the background). I still haven't bought a walking foot so I'm not going to try sewing gorget again anytime soon.

I'm really happy with how some of the squares turned out. I'm especially happy with the argyle sort of one (top left), the check (upper right middle) and the circles (lower left). The design I'm most happy with is the spiral (image below). I got the idea from Dimity's Fibre Adventures, a blog I stumbled upon when looking for examples of button hole stitch. Her spiral was made with buttonhole stitch and beads. I didn't incorporate the beads, lord knows I have plenty) because I don't want bead patterns on my face when I nap on this cushion. I also like the texture of the larger stitches and I didn't want glass or plastic interfering with that.
I made my spiral by sewing the spiral in running stitch. Then I went back and made each stitch a square U shape and placed a long stitch between them.

 

Though I've got to finish some items from my UFO pile, I'm thinking of making more experimental cushions.  Suggestions are always welcome!

Embroidered cushion Mk II

 

Japanese fabric (?) I found on flicker, so simple and effective.

Since making the previous mint cushion, I've been pondering more cushions. Ideally I'd love to have a pile of them to flop on in front of the heater. As I had plenty of mint green bed-sheet left over after my previous cushion attempt, I decided to make another green cushion. This time I've taken my inspiration from two sources, a blog by ArtisticFingers who makes the most beautiful embroidered items and the image above.

I started by cutting out section of cloth with 5cm allowance on each side. Then I divided it into squares with coarse stitches. Since then I've been filling in the blocks in alternatively with whatever pattern appeals to me on the day I start. I have completed five squares so far. I'm not entirly happy how some of the patterns turned out, but I also don't dislike them enough to unpick them. I am really loving the texture of this cushion so far.

 

(The fabric is a little crumpled, because I took it to Bairnsdale on Friday so I could work on it between classes.)

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Additional:  I'm down to four more squares and I'm running out of ideas. Generally, I'm trying for geometric patterns. I even unpicked a sort of star field because it didn't really fit the theme. Suggestions are welcome!

Mint cushion

Last night I completed another cushion for my collection. I'm aiming to make a pile for in front of the heater for winter napping and book reading. The idea for the cushion originated from my lovely bottle green georgette saree. The fabric wasn't period but I loved it because it draped so nicely. This year at Pennsic, when I tried it on, I noticed a couple of stains on the pallu. To make matters worse, I sampled the dimsims from the Australian Grill place and dripped soy sauce all over it. Three washings later, I've had no luck getting the stains out and since they're in a rather obvious place when I use my standard drape I can't really keep using this sari.

One of the reasons I liked this sari so much is the embroidery. It's done in simple colours and while it has some sequins, it's comparatively understated. I always thought it was machine embroidered, but now I've had a really close look, I can see it's aari work and hand stitched. I couldn't throw away the embroidery, so I backed it with a light green and added it to my trim stash. The main embroidery on the pallu has a beautiful plant motif, with sequins. There's not really enough to do anything medieval with but I really liked it. So I made a cushion out of it.

 

How to cushion it up:

Step 1: Purchase a cushion insert and a zip from your local craft store. I had a 61 cm square cushion insert left over from my embroidered cushion UFO.

Step 2: Cut one 63cm square (if you are overlocking the edges, use 65cm instead), This is the back of your cushion.

Step 3: Cut one 65x63cm rectangle. This is the front of your cushion.

Step 4: Pin and sew one side of your trim to the front of your cushion, right side to wrong side.

Step 5: Use the extra 2 cm to make a 1cm fold at the base of your trim. Machine sew one side and handstitch the other down, securing the edge of the trim with the fold..

Step 6: Place front and back right sides together, sew the zip side with widely spaced stitches. Open and press.

Step 7: Pin the zip to the back of the new seam and sew.

Step 8: Unpick the seam over zip.

Step 9: Pin front and back right sides together and sew. Open and press.

Step 10: Trim corners for neatness, stuff in cushion insert, zip closed, plump and enjoy.

Things I learned: When sewing a 61cm cushion, use a 59 cm zip. If you use a 61cm zip you end up with really messy corners. Also, gourgette is hard to sew neatly as it's more slippery than the poly cotton (ex-sheet) I used for the main body of the cushion and tends to bunch.

UFO - Embroidered rainbow cushion

So this UFO has been around for about 9 years, I think I started working on it when I was living in Briarwood. This started as a practice piece so I could try some different embroidery styles before working on a quilt project in the planning. I browsed a number of embroidery dictionaries and attempted some of the stitches that I liked the look of. The embroidery has been complete for years, the two things holding up this project were the zip, and a cushion insert. I've never been very good at zips and it's only in the last few years that I've had a zipper foot for my machine. So this cushion has been buried in one of my unfinished project boxes for quite some time. I unburied it during the giant fabric sort of 2012 and have FINALLY finished it. The UFO originally had a border of calico with coloured corners but didn't fit the insert I bought from Spotlight so I unpicked it. The back is plain calico. I stumbled upon a zip tutorial via Pinterest which inspired me to finally finish this one...

Weave Stitch otherwise known as Queen Anne Stitch. Sewn on an angle to make following the curves easier. Each block is counter changed (i.e red with blue or green).

Blanket Stitch and Feather Stitch.

Simple herringbone stitch and St Georges Cross Stitch.  

The finished cushion - yay!

addendum: I probably won't make another embroidery cushion. This one leaves the oddest imprints in my face when I sleep on it.