Set design

The last block I made for the skill builder sampler, Double Star, came out a bit on the small side.

Rather than try to force it to fit for my quilt, I chose to use it to make a cushion cover.

Although, I have made cushions before, this particular cushion held a couple of firsts for me.

My first time quilting.

My first time making and stitching binding.

To say that I am thrilled with the result doesn't even come close to how happy I was when I finished making this cushion. I absolutely LOVE it!

I added a 2 1/2" white border to my double star block to make it bigger and to make sure that the block wasn't lost in the binding. I quilted 1/4" on each side of the horizontal, vertical and diagonals on the block itself, and then I quilted concentric squares 1/2" apart on the white border.

It's easier to see the quilting on the progress picture below.
For the binding I chose straight rather than bias as it won't be getting a lot of heavy usage. I machine stitched to the front and then hand stitched the back. For binding width, I found some people used 2 1/2" whilst others advocated using 2 1/4".

I couldn't decide so split the difference and used 2 3/8" which worked perfectly well. I do think that in the future I would use 2 1/2" though, simply because that width of fabric is more commonly used and any leftovers can be more easily re-purposed.

It's not perfect, but it is far better that I had dreamt it would turn out. I can certainly live with it, most happily!

Now, would you mind going back up the way and taking a peek at the first picture on this post. (go on, I'll wait here)

Now, see the flowers on the right, they are Hollyhocks. Because of the lack of sunshine here in Scotland this summer, they are only now coming into bloom. Sadly thanks to some strong winds earlier in the week, the hollyhocks now lie nearly horizontal.

But horizontal does not make for a prettified picture.

So, dear (long suffering) husband Stuart was roped in to hold the hollyhocks in an upright position whilst I took pictures of a cushion. And then I cropped him out!

Here he is uncropped.
It was our wedding anniversary on Tuesday, nine years!

You know you have the right man, when he is willing to hold hollyhocks up for you whilst you take pictures of a cushion and he does it with a smile on his face.

Love you honey x

Sadie x