A balanced pair
Remember these bold cushion covers I’ve been making? I know it’s been a while, but here’s part 3 of the design and making process from start to finish. This stage is all about the quilting. If you remember, at the end of part 2 I had 2 cushion fronts pieced and ready to prepare for quilting.
I already knew how I’d do this, it’s just something I could see in my mind’s eye as I worked on the patchwork. I started off by making the quilt sandwich then outline quilting around the flowers, so now they really stand out. I used two colours to do the quilting, a white and a tangerine orange.
Outline quilting of the lilies
Once I’d finished this section I made a freehand drawing of the lilies in pencil in the bottom right corner of the cushion. I wanted to pick up the motif and break up the geometry of the patchwork. It’s very simple and stylised, but works really well. I love the way it flows over the different colours of the patchwork, but is unfussy and ‘quiet’ too.
free-hand quilting detail
The last part of the hand quilting involved some simple ‘in-the-ditch’ quilting, which just means sewing along the seams of the patchwork. I gave it some interest by varying the colour of the theads.
Stripey patchwork and quilting (sorry about the stray thread in the photo!)
After about 4 hours of quilting on each cushion cover I was finally really happy with the results. It was a pretty free-flowing design process, which is what I like best. Making decisions as I work means I don’t always know when I’m going to stop and declare something “finished!”, but this is an intrinsic part of the process for me and ensures everything I make is unique.
Ureka, it's finished! Well, the creative quilting bit is any way.
So, once the cover is at the final stage of quilting (like it is in the picture above) all that remains is to sew the back together and attach the binding, which is all done now. I’m especially pleased with the binding I made, it really adds some zing to the overall design. They look so funky I can’t wait to show them to you, but the weather ‘s been awful (either raining or really dull and grey) and I’ve not had a good opportunity to photograph them. So come on sun, put in an appearance pleeeeease ‘cos I’m getting really impatient now (stamps foot like a five year old)! The best news is that I’m going to put them into my Etsy shop From The Loft, woohoo! I’m really excited about this bit. I think the shop’s been looking a wee bit bare since the last patchwork cushion sold and went off to sunnier climes in Australia, where I believe it may even be taking the frown off a certain grumpy young lady‘s face as I write! Perhaps these new ones will add a smile to someone else’s face elsewhere in the world – it’s lovely to think how far and wide they might go 
Back soon
love Stephie x
