... and a Cross Stitch Cushion Cover

I discovered Cross Stitch a couple of years ago. I was immediately hooked, but I must admit there are a lot of patterns out there that are... well... just not me. So when I found these African sunset ones, I knew I would love doing them and I would be able to offload give them as presents to my mum (who is from Kenya and has a her whole lounge room dedicated to the continent).

These two pieces took me about 4 months to complete (what with all the 50,000 projects I also had on at the time because I can never focus!) and I had been thinking a lot about how to finish them off. I didn't want to frame them and have been trying to improve my sewing skills so decided to make cushion covers. I have only done one so far, but wanted to share with you as soon as possible!

The completed pieces are only 20cm X 20cm and I was able to find small (30cm x 30cm) square cushions for £3.99 each! The "fabric" is a fleece blanket that cost £2.99! I had read somewhere that it is an easy material to sew with. Although I now realise that the post referred to hand sewing and I admit I struggled with the machine!!!

I decided to make a frame from some pieces for the front panel by overlapping them in a symmetrical pattern. It was really hard to press a straight line. I need to practise this!

I sewed these pieces onto the aida making sure that they retained the "spiral". As you can see the stitching is not totally straight as the fleece material kept bunching. I decided to stick with this as I had a feeling it would look less terrible when stretched over the cushion... I hoped!

For the back I decided to do an envelope opening and as there was a nice blanket edge, I took advantage and cut the pieces out from this. I cut two pieces and made sure they overlapped when pinned to the front piece.

I sewed these pieces all the way around the four edges (right sides together) and turned the whole thing inside out. And it looked OK!!

I then crossed my fingers whilst stuffing the cushion in... YAY it fitted!!! You can still see the wonky stitching but it's not as bad, and I have decided to keep it as a record of my first ever cushion cover. I will try and learn from my mistakes for the elephant piece...

Mum just needs to decide which sofa it goes on! When I do the elephant one she can have one on each!!

In the background of the shot above you can see a painting I also gave to my Mum. This was my first painting I had done for about 14 years and thought I would share... And this is the Stained Glass piece I did last year. No more African presents for Mum now!!