It's a Hoot Zakka Cushion Finished.

You might remember the tiny It's a Hoot Scrap Quilt I was making? I decided to make it into a cushion in the end. I also wanted to try out my beautiful new Japanese Linen in a little project, so i combined the two and made a Zakka inspired cushion.

The squares were 2 1/2 inches left over from a quilt made with a Jelly Roll and Layer Cake, and just too cute to not use. They were sitting behind my sewing machine for a long while….

There were 81 in total, which made a nice sized cushion top. (Dolly thought so too.)

 Do you ever iron open your patchwork seams? I have been doing it more and more often, specially when there are lots seams. I find it really makes the finished piece smooth and gives a good finish.

Quilting in progress - top.

This was a hand quilted project. I always use a quilter's hoop for hand quilting, it just helps me keep the tension even.     

Quilted back - It would have looked nice as a quilt too.

The top was trimmed back and I used that nice oatmeal linen for the back. 

It was just a simple envelope style back, which I finished with a groovy little row of stitching to fit in with the cushion front.

And here it is, proudly sitting on the couch with some other nice cushions….

And here it is, in its real home amongst the casual stylings of a 15 year old's bedroom. She actually liked this project, what could I do?

I've been sewing with MoMo's new fabrics, Oh Deer, too and just finished another very easy quilt made from a layer cake, but that's a subject for another day.
Do you prefer hand or machine quilting?
Till next time - happy sewing,
Ann.

Southern Jewels Cushions

 Happy Mothers' Day!

I decided to make my Mum a cushion to co-ordinate with the Southern Jewels Quilt I made for her hospital stay. Her little unit needed a spread of rich Australian colours.Unfortunately I didn't have any of the original Warratah Under the Australian Sun fabric left for the big panel, but I used some of the new range featuring Banksias. I did still have some of the light gold and green  gum blossoms, so that tied it all in.

I made a purple one for my ex-mother-in -law's birthday too!

Here they both are, sitting on top of the fabrics in the range.

I made the cushions by using Leesa Chandler's Southern Jewels pattern and adapting one corner. The back is just a simple envelope style - no zippers or even buttons but you could do whatever you wanted there. You can get the patterns from me, or Leesa's website.

Have a great weekend,

Ann ♥

My Comfy Chair Just Got Comfier, Again.

Another cushion for the comfy chair!
I made this one while I was a t the Mapleton Quilt Show a couple of weekends ago. I realized I'd forgotten to prepare anything to do/sew while I was sitting at my stall, so I opened an extra large Yo Yo Maker, a pack of Moda Charm Squares and a skein of Sashiko thread, and started hand sewing. By the end of the weekend, I was giving demos on how to use the Yo Yo tool ( which I'd never used before...it's that easy!)
I'd been dying to use these Sugar Pop fabrics for a little project and this turned out to be it.
I finished the cushion with some chocolate solid fabric as a backing, a scrap of lime for the border and two different sized rick- racks.
I like the jumbo one on the edge as a finish.
Anyway, I thought it was very cute and intend to make a quick a pattern for it. Meanwhile, feel free to come in and try it out when you browse the fabric shelves!
This weekend is the inaugaral Quilt Show of the Maleny Arts and Crafts Group to be held at Maleny Show Pavillion. There will be some amazing quilts there as there are some very tallented quilters in the group, so make Maleny a destination this week end.
See you there.
xo xo Ann.

My Comfy Chair Just Got Comfier.

Just wanted to show you...

Here is the cushion I finished a couple of days ago - finally after months of it sitting in pieces waiting... It didn't really take that long to sew the final bits together, quilt minimally by machine, and add embellishments. And it looks so cute, feels so good, on my comfy shop chair.
This is my comfy chair. Everyone loves sitting in it and gazing around at the fabric shelves. They can even browse from the magazine rack. Once they relax and take a load off, they can discover all sorts of pretty things they need... and want to sew with!

xoxo Ann.

Rainy Maleny

Maleny has been living up to its nick name, "Rainy Maleny" lately. We had a huge downpour today, the rain falling in sheets from the sky, thunder and flash flooding while I was in my shop fiddling around with a little quilt I started last year. I had to dash out side to take some photos to share with you!

When I went back in and surveyed my progress... OMG... It took a while to work out what the problem was, but I'd sewn the bottom row on the wrong way. (You can see the dark halves of the log cabins are all on the wrong side of the blocks.) Did it matter? The piece was only destined to be a cushion in the end, to make my shop arm chair more comfy. I spent way too long deciding that it DID matter, and reluctantly unpicked the row. Lucky it was small...

It does look better now! I went home and finished the top later and will show you in the next post. It's very cute - even if a bit fussy.

xoxo Ann.