After a bit of a detour, I wanted to get back into my free-motion quilting practice. After last time, I thought it would be nicer, and more realistic, to make a cushion out of an oversized star block. The cushion inners that I like are feather ones from Ikea, at 20″ square. That made for some quick calculating to upsize a regular star block. I had picked out some red toned masculine prints for DH, and although they get a little lost on the busy outer newsprint fabric, I still love how it turned out. However, don’t be fooled, this still took me nearly 6 weeks to finish, working on it with what little spare time and energy I’ve had! What made all the difference though, was making my half square triangle blocks a little oversized, so I had room to trim them down, and also using spray starch, right from the first press of my fat quarters of fabric. I never thought that it would make much of a difference, but boy was I wrong. A new rotary cutter didn’t hurt either of course. But seriously, if you don’t spray starch, give it a try – I finally had points to be proud of!
After stitching in the ditch around the entire star, I decided to quilt the outer newsprint squares in a pebble pattern, and each section of the star got it’s own meander or stipple. I mapped it out so that I could move from one section to the next without having to stop and break thread. Made up, once again of a calico backing and two pieces of batting pieced together to make up the correct size.
Finished off with a home decorator weight cotton, love this retro graphic print. It was on a discontinued bolt and I think I’d better go back for some more! And 2 seriously funky vintage buttons just to finish things off. Doesn’t it look fabulous on our new chairs?
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Carol
That looks absolutely amazing!! I love the newspaper print, and I can only imagine how long that took to do. Brilliant.