From cushion covers to reading pillows & other ramblings

Hello my blog land friends and how are you all doing as we enter into week 7 of the madness that is our world.   

Everyday I take the same route to work at the hospital and as you are all aware the clapping for keyworkers has been taking place every Thursday at 8pm. This week I took my usual route and look what the children of the local farmer has made. Aren't they fabulous. I love the fact that they are obviously an old pair of their wellington boots and have the R & L written on them so they knew which foot to put in which boot when they were little. It seems the sign of the times that they are dressed in their masks and gloves ready to clap. 

Thank you all for the lovely comments here and facebook and instagram about my sewing journey. Today I thought I would show you a few of the things I have been making since I first sat at the sewing machine two months ago. 

I was advised to start with small projects and if you're going to sew you are always going to need a pin cushion aren't you. I use the top one everyday when I sew. The bottom one went to a friend for her birthday. 

One of the reasons I wanted to get behind a sewing machine was to learn to make cushion covers. Ours are in desperate need of replacing.  I'm not quite at the stage of putting in a zip by myself although my friend tells me that's lack of confidence on my part not my lack of skill. Not sure I agree as she helped me to put the zip in the Let's Sew cushion, baby steps as they say so these were all made using the envelope finish.  I am my mother's daughter for cutting out by eye with a little help from a tape measure.  The two tartan cushions are now residing on my sofa but the third cushion in the patchwork fabric was made for another friend's birthday. 

At the beginning of my sewing journey just two months ago I said I wasn't quite at the stage of making a reading pillow. Well in just two short months that has all changed and I can tell you there is no one more surprised or proud of my achievements than me. There have been a number of birthdays in the last eight weeks and this reading pillow was the latest present to be gifted.  The pocket is made from a cross stitch by Anchor from the Newton's Law collection, called 'Keep calm at all times' and as the the recipient is a nurse it felt it was most in keeping considering where we are.  I had already decided on the cross stitch as her gift but hadn't quite got as far as how I was going to finish it off and present it. I did consider framing it within an embroidery hoop or making it into a cushion but then the idea came to me to try and make it into a reading pillow.  After face timing with my sewing guru she convinced me that if I had been making cushion covers for my sofa that I would be able to make a reading pillow I just had to remember to make sure everything was facing the right way when I sewed everything together.  I have to confess it took me the best part of the day to pull it all together. I think I was so nervous that I was going to make a complete hash of it.  But I worked my way through each stage, from adding interfacing to the cross stitch to protect it and then adding lining to reinforce the inside of the pocket so that when books were put in the pocket it gave that extra layer of protection.  Believe it or not the rose fabric used to be part of a duvet cover and what was left has made a number of scrubs bags and the calico coloured fabric was purchased for £1 from a fabric sale that I attended at the beginning of March and has made several projects so that was definitely £1 well spent.  Needless to say the nurse in question was over the moon with her present and hadn't even noticed that the wrapping albeit gold with white stars was leftover from Christmas as I didn't think popping out to buy wrapping paper would be considered an essential journey.  The photograph is one she sent me when she got home so I could see that it now resides in pride of place alongside the Winters Tale throw I made for her birthday last year.

and of course with all these birthdays you have to have cake don't you?  And nobody even noticed that the board was from Christmas and so far has been used for all three birthdays of late.

I don't think we have any birthdays in May but I don't think you ever really need an excuse to eat more cake do you.

Well that's me for another post.  So it just remains for me to say, look after yourselves and stay safe.

Mx