Saturday 4 October 2014

Third cushion finally finished.



This is my third finish for the

Finish Along 2014


Back in July I submitted my list of projects I hoped to finish this quarter. I only managed to finish three items. A fourth is nearly finished: I'm quilting it now, and the other two didn't get much of a look in, I'm afraid.

My living room needed three cushions, and now it has three spanking new ones. The last cushion cover put together and washed yesterday evening.



Most of this was finished more than a month ago, but I was really stumped as to how I was going to quilt the outer border of the top. I thought it should echo the chevron design of the patchwork, but thought FMQing chevrons was too risky - all those inevitably wobbly lines and uneven angles!

I spent most of September in Portugal, without a sewing machine, but with lots of inspiration from all that Moorish architecture (some genuine, but a lot of reproduction!) A restaurant floor provided the answer: Greek keys - angular and continuous. (I didn't have to go to Portugal for that, any Greek restaurant in Holland has the same design everywhere!)

Greek Keys, or waves
(inevitably wobbly - but who cares?!)


the overall effect is not so bad ...!

The back is the same design of envelope closing as the other two cushion covers, following Elizabeth Hartman's mod mosaic floor pillow tutorial here.




The two panels are a simple loopy pattern I've used before on the underneath section,



and McTavishing on the upper, or outer, section. I was very lucky to win a copy of Karen McTavish's new book in a give away held by Karen Miller, and it arrived in time to get me fired up for the back of this cushion.


first attempt at McTavishing.


Here are all three cushions together:




I'm linking up to the Littlest Thistle for the Third Quarter Finish Along Party.


Happy sewing

Marly.

5 comments:

Lisa J. said...

Your three cushions look great together Marly. What a good way to practice fmq and have something beautiful and useful as a result.

Vireya said...

Lovely! They look great. Love the Greek key quilting - it makes a textural border.

Vera said...

Nice one and a great inspiration for using FMQ on the back!

Ruth said...

Love how they look! I haven't tried the Greek key yet but it looks really good!

Béa said...

Wonderful quilting !