Simply hand-stitched.....

These 3 hand-stitched cushion covers have been freshly added to my new shop/label "Inez & James" which is all about simplicity, those all important small details, vibrant colours and quality fabrics.

 The charcoal grey cushion has 5 hand-stitched sets of 3 decreasing circles in different shades of Perle cotton. I seem to have a thing with circles at the moment as they are appearing frequently in my work.

  The aqua cushion has this playful "noughts and cross's " design that I think would look good anywhere but may be particular suitable for a child's room...

I think the green one is my favourite just because I love this shade of green. It has 6 simple star designs in 6 different shades of the Perle cotton. All 3 cushions are made with quality 'shot cotton' that has a beautiful vibrant deep colour and a almost natural linen look to the weave.

 These are my new labels which are hand-stamped with specialised textile ink for longevity. 

 All 3 have a generous envelope back enclosure and are finished with a 1/4 inch edging. You can purchase them here or customise your own by switching around the colours and designs. Oh and more designs and colours to come :-)

Hand embroidered cushion designs...

Just added to my Etsy shop are these hand-embroidered cushion designs that I've been working on for a couple of weeks now in between other bigger projects. The front one is my favourite with the two "lovebird" centred flowers plus I love the colour combination of aqua blue and grey. It looks quite at home on this chair too ;-)

 I've had a bundle of Kaffe Fassett prints in my stash for a while now waiting patiently for that perfect project to use them in.  Each print is so unique, colourful and bold, that I decided to just add some simple hand-quilting in a variety of colours using some Perle cotton threads to compliment the colours in the prints.

A simple wave pattern was added to this bold tropical flower print which I think is enough to add texture but not too much to take your eye away from the print. While the hand-quilting does take a little more time and effort it does give me something to do at nights while watching TV :-)

Each cushion has a handmade button and loop enclosure on the back using some of the featured print from the cushion fronts.

These cushions are now available for sale here in my Etsy shop

A custom order.....

About a month ago now I agreed to make a friend some cushions to brighten up her her couches for an open home. It was a Friday afternoon and she needed them by lunch time the next day (no pressure :-)  I like a challenge and a deadline is always good for motivation. She had given me a clear idea as to colours (bright) and design but otherwise trusted my creative intuitions :-) I was immediately drawn to my stash of colour saturated Balinese batiks thinking they would work well with some modern contemporary designs. Two hours into cutting out, at about 5 pm, I decided to have a break and get dinner on but no sooner had I started, the power went off and didn't come back on till 10 pm so no sewing got done but I did get all the cutting out finished before it got too dark to see. 

So the next morning I worked hard to finish them in time but not to how I had originally envisioned them to look like. I made my friend promise me she would give them back to me after the open homes so I could do more work on them. They looked fine to her but I knew they could look much better. I added the hand-quilted circles to the above circle cushion along with a thin layer of batting on the underside.....

....then to these woven designs I added a line of stitching down each fabric strip to not only reduce fraying on the raw edges but to add a little texture.

Then on the back of each one I added a handmade button and loop enclosure.

To see how these handmade covered buttons are made, the tutorial can be found here on Michelle's blog.

Busy, busy

 

I think I started making these to cushions a couple of weeks ago maybe but had to put them aside for a custom order of 3 cushions covers for a friend so this past weekend I finally got to finish them. I love how they both turned out but I'm particularly pleased with the union jack design. 

 I've been wanting to make a union jack cushion for a while now but wasn't quite sure how to go about it but in the end I decided to just appliqué the pieces on using Visoflex and finishing them off with a machine embroidered blanket stitch. Quite quick and easy once all the cutting out was done.

And this bright floral cushion reminds of all the colourful spring flowers blooming in my garden at the moment. This one is quilted with some wavy lines that intersect each other randomly breaking up the straight piecing and giving it a modern edge. Both these cushions have an envelope backing using a strip of a print from the cushion fronts and some fun ric-rac. These cushion covers are now listed here in my etsy shop :-)

And a bit of progress has been made with my first re-upholstery project. It now has a double layer of all new foam rubber and is so much nicer to sit on now. I felt ridiculously proud of myself when I finished stapling the foam on and made sure my girls noticed what I'd done. 

New cushion cover designs....

 I started these cushion covers a couple of weeks ago now but they had to go on the back-burner for a week while I worked on Amelia's ottoman in my last post. The blue/purple/green 'brick' design cover is just a simple pattern I have wanted to try for a wee while now. It is made up of some scraps leftover from making these memo boards for Caitlin's room. It always feels good to use up leftover scraps doesn't it. The big pink flower design is an idea that came to me while doing some design doodling one evening and I decided to make it while the inspiration was fresh in my mind. 

 The centre of the flower is made up of 3 different sized yo-yo's with button centres. I do seem to have a thing about yo-yo's I think :-) and yes they did take a little while of sitting in the sun to sew them all on.

 The blue brick design cushion cover is just simply quilted with some fairly random wavy lines to break up the straight lines of the piecing.

The backs are a simple slightly off centre envelope enclosure using some of my favourite buttons on each.

Available in my shop from tomorrow :-)

The Ottoman....

A few weeks back I posted a teaser of what I was working on....sorry about the delay in revealing exactly what it was I was making! My eldest daughter, Amelia, has just turned 16, making me wonder where all those years went so quickly :-) I have wanted to make one of these Ottoman's for a long time so I pulled out an assortment of mostly aquamarine blues to go with the predominate colour in Amelia's bedroom. As you can see from the above photo it has been given the seal of approval from Caitlin's cat who decided to rub up against it just as I was taking a photo.

I've had the large white pom-pom trim for a while now just waiting for the perfect project, and I love the element of fun it adds to this piece. 

Some aqua and white polka dot piping frames the bottom perimeter perfectly. As you may be able to tell it is quite a decent size. It took 54 5" squares to complete and an enormous amount of polyester stuffing to fill it properly. Amelia's cat in the background took no notice whatsoever in my photo shoot, seemingly more interested in taking in the view from her 'throne'.

Amelia celebrated her big birthday with a sleepover with 3 of her good friends,watching movies, chilling in the spa that I got going just for the occasion and eating lots of junk food as you do when you're 16! For her birthday cake I made her a 'red velvet cake' with cream cheese icing and sprinkled with pink coloured coconut, a recipe on my 'to do' list for a while now.
I have just this past week finished making a couple of items for my shop so hopefully I can find the time to show them here tomorrow :-)

Happy Mother's day....

So this cushion that I was working on last week wasn't actually for my shop :-) I had to tell a tiny white lie as it was my Mother's day present for my Mum and she reads my blog so I didn't want to give away the surprise for her. I chose 16 florals that I thought she would like, some have been used before in other projects I've made for her. She has long admired this cushion that now resides in my downstairs window seat so I knew she would like this design.

The centre came out nearly perfect but good enough for me with all those points to match up. I actually meant to sew on a button but completely forgot :-( 

On the back I did a scalloped button enclosure which seemed to go down well with Mum as she likes this side more than the front??!!

Anyway I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's day like I did. We were blessed with a beautiful clear sunny day here and my girls spoiled me by giving me a set of  champagne glasses (I might have dropped a small hint earlier) and some dark chocolate. My day was made perfect with a walk along the beach and an ice-cream.

Sewing on a wet Sunday afternoon....

What better way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon than sewing together some pretty florals whilst listening to some favourite music to drown out the thunder. One of a couple cushion cover ideas for my shop.

New cushion designs......

 

 For the last couple of weeks I've been working on these new cushion designs for my shop but I kept getting interrupted with 'life'. I've had these designs floating around my head for a while now then I drew them out in a sketch pad and that was as far as I got for a while until the time seemed right to actually make them. 

 I'm really pleased with how they finally turned out and how they evolved further as I made them. I like how the grey background makes the prints pop out. The addition of the little buttons on both these cushions was not in my original design but not a surprising addition since I love buttons in general, you know big, small, new or vintage or whatever....

I did my favourite pebble quilting on this one but instead of circles I did ovals to echo the oval applique's. 

Then on this design I just did random loopy squiggles.  The fabrics are a real mixture of prints but I did start off with some of Sarah Feilke's fabric line "On the Pond" she designed for Spotlight.

And my usual handmade button and loop enclosure teamed with some pretty ric-rac :-) on the reverse.

Little birdie cushion....

So here is what I've been working on this week which I actually started 2 weeks ago. Yes it's just a cushion cover not a quilt but that would be because the bird fabric that the circles have been cut from was just a very small piece. I would have loved to have had more of that fabric to make a quilt because it's so cute isn't it. Anyway I've had it for a very long time, you know waiting for that perfect project as you do :-)

I really wanted to make the most of the small amount of the bird fabric and cutting out circles seemed like the best idea although before I quilted it I wasn't quite sure whether I liked it but that pebble quilting has to be one of my favourite ways to free-motion quilt. It really makes those birds stand out don't you think...

For the quilting I used a machine embroidery thread which has a nice sheen to it which I think helps make the design stand out more.

To keep with the circle theme I chose some spotty and dotty fabrics to frame it using a traditional log cabin.

The back is my usual off centre button enclosure but this time I used the handmade buttons and loops that I've been using on these bags and these compendiums. Oh and a little bit of ric-rac too :-)

I kinda like these buttons which I think add a bit of  interest to the back. If you're interested in learning how to make them let me know and I'll do a wee tutorial. I learnt them from a blogger who no longer keeps a blog so I can't give her any credit.

My little birdie cushion cover can be found here for purchase :-)

Reminding me of summers to come....

 

I started making these cushions over 3 months ago then life events got in the way taking away every spark of creativity inside me so these cushions were put on the WIP pile waiting for me to find some creative energy and time to do the things I love which is to create pretty things for my home and for my online shops.

You may remember in this post I was inspired by these pretty tea-towels which I thought were far too nice to be drying dishes with although they would make for a pretty kitchen accessory.

 

I came up with the idea to make some 3D flowers inspired by the ones on the tea-towel fabric layering them with yo-yo's, felt and buttons.

 

I added some embroidered stems and some hand-quilting with perle cotton for added texture.

I did my usual button enclosure with a collection of different but same sized buttons and a strip of fabric from the front.

I'm not sure which one I like best, the green one here with the rambling vines of flowers or...

....this pretty pink one with the row of flowers. What do you think???

 They are newly listed in both my Etsy shop and Felt shop.

For now they are looking quite at home sitting in my newly re-decorated window seat and are reminding me of happy blooms in a summer garden, a far cry from the torrential rain we have experienced here this week.

Edited to add: Both pillows are now sold.