What do you do with a Christmas-themed charm pack? This one is called Merry & Bright and is by Sandy Gervais for Moda. I'd had this for simply ages, and it was perfect for this project. The stitchery design is by the Australian designer Leanne Beasley (the pattern is called Santa Wears Red Pyjamas) and has 3 different designs in the pattern). I traced this onto one of the charm squares with a Micron Pigma pen, fused a square of weaveline onto the back, and stitched over the lines with 2 strands of DMC thread. 16 squares were stitched together randomly. This was then layered with some Quilters Dream wadding select weight, and a piece of muslin for the backing and spray basted together ready for quilting...
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...this was quilted very simply using straight rows, half an inch apart, using the edge of my walking foot as a guide. I used a Mettler quilting thread for this project, in a pale brown shade. The back was made with 2 different fabrics - "Garden Pindot" by Michael Miller fabrics, and "Winterwonderland" by Bunnyhill Designs for Moda. The zipper was inserted using a concealed zipper method - I don't really have a tutorial for this (I was shown how to do this years ago when I did dressmaking at school)...
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...the binding was made with red/white spotted fabric and was made with a couple of 2.5" strips of fabric joined together with a mitred seam, and attached using the double-fold method. I pinned the front and the back of the cushion together, then machined them together an eighth of an inch all round before stitching the binding into place stitching through all the layers. This was then hand sewn into place on the back of the cushion using ladder stitch, and a red Aurifil thread. This shows the back of the cushion, and shows how smart these are with a concealed zipper...
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...and here is the finished cushion, ready for Christmas. I've made a pair of these, but only had a chance to take this photograph before it started raining!
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