Do you remember this quilt? I finished it in November 2011 and I have been promising matching cushions ever since. I had various bits and bobs of fabric left over, and felt confident that I would be able to puzzle them all together to get a good half dozen cushions out of them.
Jill asked for 2 bolsters, so I had to ponder that for a while, and had a go at making one in different fabric. It worked out well and Elizabeth no has it on her bed. There were a couple of fat quarters left of the Japanese fabric, so these were put aside to use for the bolsters.
Then I spent a fair while working out how to turn the small odd sized bits into 3 matching cushions (by a fair while I mean a few months!).
Finally it came to to just knuckle down and sew. My geeky Internet craft group decided to hold a challenge on Anzac day; Set yourself a sewing task and finish it in 24 hours. Most of the girls picked a quilt (because we are a quilting group) but I picked the bolsters and cushions as my task. I started shortly after brekkie and spent 8 hours sewing (with various breaks). In that time I got the two bolsters completely finished and nutted out the cushion fronts and backs.
The cushions fronts actually look like scrappy pieces, but apart from the central block (which were left over from the quilt), the 3 cushions are identical. For the outer border I stitched together all the last remaining random bits of Japanese fabric and then cut them into 3 strips- a strip for each cushion. So if you look carefully you will see that each cushion has the same exactly the same scrappy sashing, orientated in the same way around central blocks.
The touches of purple here and there are where I have introduced left over pieces of the backing fabric from the quilt. I used a bed sheet for the backing- and boy can you really notice sewing with a polycotton compared to nice quilters cotton! It was only after I finished the bolsters did I realise how much they looked like giant cigarettes! I think its an ironic touch to have a giant cigarette on the bed of a staunch reformed smoker!
During the Anzac day I was foiled from completing my 24 hour challenge because I FORGOT TO BUY ZIPPERS! I mean, how stupid is that?! Considering I only sewed for 8 hours on Anzac day before the zippers were required I could easily have finished the challenge! The next day, I went straight to Spotlight bought 3 grey zippers and finished the cushions off.
My kids being silly:
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