One of my colleagues, Juliette, had commissioned me to make a memory cushion for her husband's birthday. I borrowed one of her wedding pictures, scanned it, formatted it to black and white, and printed it onto an EQ printable sheet. This was then surrounded by a collection of white and cream fabrics, and embellished with vintage lace and buttons, and quilted..... .....I added a zipper with a flange to cover it on the back, and used a half-inch finished double binding, made with 3 different fabrics for a scrappy look. Then one of my labels "made with the hand, given from the heart" was added to the back, and the cushion was finished! Juliette was really pleased with this cushion - it looks great!
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I've had a fantastic week away in Yorkshire, and will share all my pictures and stories on here during the next week, but firstly here is something that I took with me on my holipops! Last year I made Philippa a cosmetic bag as a small gift, and this year I decided to make her a cushion. I had already emailed her to see if I could "borrow" a picture that was on her website - it was taken by her father, when Philippa was 5 yrs old. I added the usual lace and buttons and lots of straight row quilting. This shows the back, with the binding sewn into place by hand, and a covered zipper. Oh and yes, one of my labels too... ...and here is the front of the finished cushion. It was such a beautiful sunny day when I left for Yorkshire, it was difficult to get a photograph without the sun getting in the way! Philippa was really pleased with it, and we had a super week on the course with her - I feel full of design ideas now - what a shame I've got to go back to work tomorrow - I could easily spend a creative week at home making crafty plans and putting all my new ideas together!
Here is the finished cushion that I made to celebrate our Silver wedding anniversary - I used a photograph from our wedding album, and used a mix of cream and white fabrics and some wide crocheted vintage lace for trimming and used an assortment of buttons for embellishment too. I also added a prairie point with a button, using some inspiration from a wall-hanging in issue 01/2013 of a Norwegian magazine, MyQuilt..... .....I used 2 different fabrics for the back of the cushion - some cream fabric that I just LOVE and also part of a an old duvet cover that had worn out but I couldn't bear to part with - this was an old Laura Ashley duvet cover that we'd had for a wedding present! I also inserted a zipper, using a flap to cover it with, as this looks neater than leaving the zipper exposed, oh and one of my "made with the hand, given from the heart" labels was added to the back too of course! Well today was the Handmade and Timeless indoor market in Ipswich, and it was super to be indoors in the warm, rather than braving the cold!! Alice came with me, and we checked out the "Handmade" room in the Corn Exchange first of all - and this stall caught my eye straight away - it was so bright and colourful! This stall was Scarlet-Sometimes, and it had a super selection of cushions and bunting and hearts. I really did have to be very strong-willed not to buy anything!..... .....after a browse among the other crafty stalls, we made our way to the "Timeless" room, in the Town Hall, where there was all manner of vintage paraphernalia, from clothing to records, from books to china, from linen to jewellery..... .....I did rather fancy this large pastry bowl - my granny had one, as did my mum - and there were some beautiful vintage linens on display too. All very tempting! After we'd ohhed and ahhed and looked at everything, we made our way back to the "Homemade" room for one last browse around then made our way home. Wonder when the next one will be? I was recently asked to complete a commission for a pair of 2 "Memory" cushions. I had already made a similar pair of these cushions last year for my niece to give to her sisters-in-law as they had lost their mum - they loved them, and one of the sisters-in-law, Lorna, asked me to do a similar project for one of her friends and her friend's sister, whose mum had recently passed away. So, I set too with my box of cream and white fabrics and threads and vintage lace and trimmings and buttons. I didn't want the cushions to look identical as I never make 2 projects exactly the same, but I did use some of the same fabrics in both cushions. A plump feather pad inside and they were completed. Oh and I added a small label to the back of the cushion too. Hope they like them! Last year I made several cushions on this theme using photographs - I printed the photographs onto special sheets of fabric (my favourite brand is EQ Printables) and added vintage lace and trimmings and buttons, and used a variety of old and new fabrics to give them a vintage feel. Simply ages ago I bought a beautiful hand embroidered linen laundry bag from a vintage market - and it had been laying on my bed, with a feather cushion inside, with the top of the laundry bag turned over and was using it at a cushion. It's really old, and some of the linen had started to fray at the seams, so it was time to perform a little bit of surgery on it and breath new life into it..... .....with a few slices with my rotary cutter, a bit of stitching with my sewing machine and a zipper, and here it is as good as new, albeit a little bit smaller!! Looks fab piled on my bed with all the other cushions! It's that time of year again, and I needed to make a "Secret Santa" gift for a work colleague. As soon as I pulled her name out, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her!! I had great fun making this bag! I machine appliqued a vintage photograph of a VERY saucy lady on the front of the bag, and trimmed it with some cream cotton lace along the bound edge so it overlapped the applique. Then I added the zipper..... .....I've stitched an assortment of cream and white fabrics together for this bag - and quilted the back of the bag in a cross-hatch design, and the front of the bag in straight rows..... .....I decided to attach my label underneath the zipper, at the same time as I added the binding to the raw edge. I think I might do this for all my smaller bags, as it looks really neat, and they won't get caught in the zipper either..... .....and here it is - the finished cosmetic bag, complete with saucy photograph on the front!! I think my friend will really like this - and no I'm not telling you who it is for yet, just incase she sees this on here before Wednesday, which is when all the "Secret Santa" gifts are handed out!!! (If you click on the pictures they will enlarge and you can see them in much more detail). A few weeks ago, I was in Cyprus with Mr F and lots of his family to celebrate our niece's wedding. Michelle was one of my bridesmaids, and now she's all grown up and as you can see from this photograph, she was a beautiful bride. I really love this photograph of them, and wanted to make a very special present for them - so I set to work with fabrics and thread and lace and buttons..... .....firstly I edited the photo into black and white to give it a vintage feel, then I printed the photograph onto inkjet fabric sheets, by EQ Printables, and added all my usual bits and bobs to make a truely unique gift. I used some vintage lace to trim this cushion, and some old buttons. Once the back and front had been completed, I machine sewed around all four sides about one eighth of an inch away form the raw edge to keep everything together, then added the binding..... .....I used a double-fold binding, which was attached to front by machine and then hand-stitched in place to the back - I like to finish off by hand, as this gives a lovely neat finish. One of my labels as a final flourish? Of course!..... .....congratulations to the happy couple Simon and Michelle! Thank you for letting us be part of your wedding celebrations! Hope you like your wedding present! My daughter Beth has asked me to make a cushion as a birthday gift for her boyfriend's grandmother as she'll be 80 years old. So I set too with the usual assortment of cream and white fabrics and trimmings and buttons, and the lace trimming is the very last piece of lace that was leftover from when I made Beth her Christening gown, 20 years ago! Beth and her boyfriend were very cunning and managed to get a photograph of Hazel emailed me to me ready to print onto fabric. The printable fabric that I prefer is the inkjet fabric sheets by EQ Printables. The photograph they chose was one that had been taken on Hazel's wedding day. I just love these vintage photographs - they look great teamed with lace and ribbons and buttons. I was amazed at how much Beth's boyfriend looks like his grandfather. And his grandmother looks absolutely beautiful..... .....well what do you think? I emailed a picture of it to Beth, so she could see how I was progressing, and Beth was really pleased with it - I hope Hazel will like it too!! A few weeks ago one of my friends commissioned me to make a cushion for her mother-in-law's 90th birthday. So I gathered an assortment of fabrics and lace and zippers and labels and threads and buttons together, then I played around with layouts and colours, and printed off a photograph of her mother-in-law using a sheet of EQ printables fabric..... .....and here is the result. There is a zipper on the back, and I've sewn one of my labels on the back too! I'm really pleased with this, and think it looks fabulous. I've made several of these vintage" style cushions now, and they seem to be really popular among friends and family, and I think I'll make a few more of these as Christmas gifts. I wish I had time to make some for myself!! What do you think Julie? Do you think the birthday girl will like it? |
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July 2023
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