The Orange Tree

Last year at the Festival Of Quilts in Birmingham I bought a gorgeous kit to make a cushion, The Orange Tree, designed by Lynette Anderson. The kit included all the fabrics needed (Secret Garden, also designed by Lynette, for Lecien) and a hand painted button to embellish the cushion. The front of the cushion was soon pieced together, and then I traced the design using a brown coloured Pigma Micron pen...

...I made a start on the stitchery while I was staying in Birmingham for this year's FOQ (I needed something to keep me occupied in the hotel in the evenings!) and it wasn't long before the stitchery part of the cushion front was completed. DMC embroidery threads were used for this project...

...next was the applique - I'm really not a fan of needle-turned applique, but I'd watched Lynette and Teresa using this applique paper at FOQ and thought I'd give it a try. I ordered this from Patchwork Chicks after I'd returned home from FOQ - the shapes were traced, cut out, and fused to the wrong side of the fabric. I used a glue stick along the edges of the fabric, then turned the fabric over very carefully. Lynette uses apliquick rods for this method of applique. A couple of dabs of glue held the shapes into place whilst I slip stitched them into place with a neutral coloured silk thread and finally embroidered the lintel over the door and the windows...

...the cushion front was quilted very simply (stitch-in-the-ditch was perfect for this) and the hand painted button was sewn on as a final flourish. I made the back of the cushion using the fat quarter that was included in the kit added with some fabric from my stash, as I prefer an opening with a zipper. Single-fold binding covered all the raw edges (I hope Lynette approves of my changes to her gorgeous design)...

...and here is the completed "Orange Tree" cushion - as you can see, it has pride of place in my sewing corner in the garden. I really have enjoyed stitching this, and can't believe how much I've enjoyed this method of applique too!