Jubilee Crafting

I hope you are all having a lovely Jubilee Bank Holiday - I've managed to get in to my 'haven above' for a few hours today to make a couple of things that I needed to make my space a bit more me! I bought this Minky mini ironing board but hated the cover so I set about making a new one with some Cath Kidston duck cotton I had in my stash. This is a heavier weight cotton fabric which was perfect for the job. I think you will agree it looks much better now!

 I also needed a new cushion to match and decided to make one incorporating different techniques - patchwork, quilting and free-motion quilting. Firstly I cut out the fabric and arranged them to make sure I would like the finished effect - after a bit of juggling I decided on this configuration and stitch the blocks together.

The design is based on a design I saw on Edwina Mac's  blogspot 'Work in Progress' and features folded fabric to the right. I wish I could have matched the fabric print on these folded sections but unfortunately I only had a limited amount of this fabric so just had to work with what I had.

Once I'd made a sandwich of batting and calico backing I set about quilting the design on the Mega Quilter. When quilting - especially free-motion quilting/embroidering I use quilting gloves which enable me to grip the quilted fabric and have more control over the design plus it helps to keep the fabric clean.

I quilted using a contrasting thread - Gutermann Hand Quilting thread which works brilliantly in my machine. It is slightly waxed and quite a heavy thread which stands out - this was a pale denim bluey grey.

 I kept the stitch lines quite close together but put plenty movement into them. I absolutely love the stitch quality on my Mega Quilter - as it is a dedicated straight stitch machine the stitch is not compromised.

This is the quilted panel completed - I stitched 1/4" tramlines across the patchwork blocks. The finished cushion has a simple flap opening which is quick and effective and no messing about with zips.

This is the finished cushion - I am very pleased with the overall design and fabric/colour choice plus it's very plumpcious - I'm sat on it typing this!!

Enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday.

Donna x