Reading time and a little bit of comfort

 

Good morning from a wet and rather windy Leicestershire.  The clocks have gone forward so Spring has now officially sprung, although if you looked out of  my window this morning you wouldn't think so.

Like a lot of us my projects and photographs this one has ended up on more than one social media site and a lady from one of the cross stitching groups I belong to recently asked me how I put together my cross stitch reading pillow as she would like to make something similar for her son.  I know I have shown you all this Newton's Law cross stich before but I didn't write a post on making the pillow.

Now as you all know I am very much a novice and I am learning as I go along and tell myself only I know where the imperfections are.  Anyhow rather than trying to add details to a facebook post I thought I would write it here and then anyone can find it should they wish to and I can put a link in the post for the lady who asked me to follow.  

So here goes.  Firstly it doesn't have to be  a particular type of cross stitch that is used. You can use any cross stitch big or small as long as you can make it fit to your cushion.  You can also use any type of cross stich fabric whether it is aida or evenweave. With this cross stitch I used the 14 ct. Aida that was supplied with the kit. What I always recommend if you are using a cross stich to make a pillow is that once you have completed it and have washed and pressed it that you add an iron on interfacing to the back of your work.  This will hold your stitches in place and protects your cross stitch.  I have written about this and you can find the details under  my hints and tips section here  

Although you don't need to line the whole cushion I do recommend that you line the cross stitch area as this is going to form the pocket of you reading pillow and is going to get the most use with books or a kindle being placed inside on numerous occasions and again this will protect your cross stich. 

In this instance I made an envelope cushion so the next steps are really about making sure you have your all your pieces and then the construction of the cushion.

If you are making an envelope cushion once you have measured out your cushion you should have:

1. The front pocket of you cushion in this case your cross stitch.  Now this cross stitch wasn't quite big enough to fit across the cushion so I decided to put a border around it and again this will  give it a big of extra protection but I did this before adding the lining as you will want the lining to cover the whole of the inside of the pocket. 

2/You will have your front piece which is in this case is the floral material.

3. Your two back pieces to make your envelope remembering that the bottom piece will be longer than the top so that you get our envelope.

From the picture above you can see I have sewn the bottom of the piece of the back and the bottom of your pocket to the front piece and the sewn the top of the front and back pieces together.  Now you can add a bit of the contrast fabric along the top of the bottom back piece as a trimming  to finish it off but you don't have to. This fabric had quite raw edge that frayed so it needed something covering the edge to prevent it from doing it.

So you should now be able to see how your cushion is going to come together you just have to make sure your pocket is placed correctly or if like me on a previous project I found the pocket was inside out when I turned it all through.  As you can see by doing it this way that my pocket is the right way around. 

And as a second check I will pin everything together so I can make sure I am happy with the overall look before turning inside out  re-pinning and sewing together.

Hopefully at the end of all your efforts you should end up with a reading pillow that looks like this.  

This particular reading pillow was a birthday present for a friend and colleagues birthday and the squeals were very loud when she opened it and it now sits in pride of place in her cottage along side her blanket I had made for her a couple of years before. 

You don't have to make an envelope style cushion its really whatever you prefer.  At the time when I made this one I wasn't that confident in putting in a zip I always had a fear that I would break the needle. I have since now conquered that fear too and quite happily add zips to my cushions.

These two were Christmas presents for my partner and son in law this year. The fabric I bought off Amazon as a fat quarter and I cut the fabric so that I could make a pocket and top piece and I added a bit of ribbon as a trimming to finish off the pocket.  Now what you can't see is that the top piece of the fabric is joined to a plain piece to make the inside of the pocket so that once the pocket is placed it looks like one continuous piece of fabric.  Its 100% cotton but I still lined the inside of the pocket due to the wear and tear its going to get with all the books that will be put inside it.  

I think they make great gifts and even though we are only just coming into spring time I don't think it is ever too early to be thinking a head about  birthday or Christmas presents.  Dare I say I am working on a few things already for this year. 

Hope some of you will find this helpful 

Mx

NB:  I tend to use an 18" cushion for my reading cushions. 

January/February Reads

 

Good afternoon to you all.  I realised last night as I turned the last page of my latest read that I have been sharing with you the books I have been reading since the start of the New Year.  With the house move etc towards the end of last year I lost my reading mojo a bit as life was just so crazy.  Anyway now things have settled back down and we are into the New Year I downloaded a book by one of my favourite authors Amanda Prowse only this time it was in collaboration with her son Josiah Hartley.  

Amanda is not just a writer she regularly appears on radio and is a panelist on the Jeremy Vine Show, she is such a lovely lady but you do have to beware that if you have an unusual name like mine then you could potentially end up in one of her books.  Not me personally but the use of my name.  All that aside its very true that none of us knows what is going on behind closed doors do we and someone can appear the life and soul of the party for the most part and this I think has been very true of Amanda. 

Little did any of us know at the time that Amanda's son Josh had been suffering with depression to the point that he didn't believe his presence on this here earth was worth while and contemplated finding away out.  As someone who has lost a member of my own family to suicide I could totally understand how this made Amanda and her family feel.  The Boy Between is their account of how they dealt with what life threw at them and how they have now come out of the other side of those dark days.  It is an interesting read seeing both their prospective on those times.  Josh is very open about how his depression encased him and how he didn't always feel that his family and friends got it. And for Amanda well as a mum you always want everything to be rosy in your garden don't you and when its not we do that mum thing of trying to fix everything when in reality there are times in all our lives not just those of our children when there just isn't a big enough tube of superglue to hold everything together.  

I would certainly recommend this book especially if you know of someone who is currently in the same situation as a family or in supporting a friend who may be going through this. 

My next read was The Burning Chambers.  I belong to a local crafting group and we used to meet up every couple of weeks but obviously with COVID we have not been able to do so since last summer. After Christmas we decided it might be nice to add into the mix a book club to our endeavor's so names of books were thrown into the mix and the recommended book was a Kate Mosse novel The City of Tears which was due out mid February. Then I discovered it is the second in a trilogy and if course my OCD brain said I should read the first in the trilogy first. I didn't intend for the whole group to do this but none the less they all decided we should start with the first book which we did, some are still reading it where as others have already got to the end but no matter we will all wait until we are done to start the second one.   Kate Mosse isn't normally one of my go to authors but sometimes it's good to take yourself out of your comfort zone isn't it.  Her books are so well written and she has a way with language that others do not. The books are set in the sixteenth century and French history, not something I know a whole lot about.   Essentially within all the conspiracies, betrayals and the adventures of war the underlying story is that of a love story between a young catholic girl, with a secret to her past and a young Huguenot convert and through all the advertises of life their love remains.  There is obviously a lot more to it than that as the book was just under 600 pages split into three parts and essentially a very good read.   To my surprise I did enjoy this book and I am looking forward to reading the sequel but I definitely made the right decision in reading this one first as it gives you a lot of background to the characters, of which their is a list at the front of the book to help keep track of them all, and of their story which may leave you at a disadvantage if you were to go straight to the second book.  It has also been one of Kindles 99p deals which is always appealing in itself. 

Lastly was another of my favourite authors Dani Atkins. She is not the most prolific of writers but when she releases a book I always know its going to be a good one and will cause me to have many late nights as I loose myself within the pages or in this case into my kindle and in doing so I loose all track of time and then glance at the clock to see that I have read way too long and have to be up at 5am the next morning for work.  Her latest offering again has been on the kindle deals at 99p.  A Sky Full of Stars is the story of a young couple and their son. They are a very close knit family and Connor is the centre of their world.  Lisa goes off to work one morning and is involved in a fatal accident leaving her family bereft. Alex is trying to deal with his own grief whilst trying to comfort his young son and finds it hard to keep on top of things.  The one positive from Lisa's death is people she was able to help as a result and the bond that is formed with one particular recipient of that help.  Each chapter alternates between Alex and Molly and tells their stories around those people that Lisa helped and how their lives have changed for the better since.  It is a beautifully written book and I would highly recommend it but with a definite mascara warning attached.  And of course chocolate always helps. 

So there we are those are my offerings for January and February and I will let you know how I get on with the sequel to The Burning Chambers next month if I have managed to finish it as I think it may be another 500 page novel from Ms Mosse.  

Take care & stay safe that light is surely coming around the corner at the end of that tunnel. 

Mx