The inspiration behind this cushion came from an A-Z quilt in one of my mother-in-law’s crafting books. I’ve still never made a quilt and have not used blanket stitch before either so I thought I’d practise on a number cushion first. If I was going to do it again I think I would make the panels slightly smaller and border the lot before backing it but in general I’m really happy with the result.
Here are the steps I took to create the piece:
1. My cushion was 18 inch square so I cut each individual square for the patchwork to 7 inches allowing for a half an inch seam on all four sides.
2. I traced the letters back to front onto bondaweb and fused it to my fabrics with an iron.
3. Each number was cut out, placed in the centre of the individual squares and fused in place with an iron.
4. I blanket stitched each letter in place for decoration and security using two strands of embroidery silk in various colours.
5. I machined the patchwork doing a row at a time then stitching the rows together making sure that I ironed the seams open each time.
6. I cut a piece of yellow fabric 19 by 22 inches and split it somewhere along the longest side to create two rectangles each with a 19 inch side for the back panel.
7. I pinned the two rectangles to the front of the numbers, one to the top and the other to the bottom. Then folded the inside edges back to make the edges tidy but leaving an overlap for fastening.
8. I machined all four edges then turned the cushion cover the right way out.
9. I attached three poppers to the overlapped edges on the back to create a secure fastening to the cushion case after putting the cushion inside to ensure that they sit right when the cover is all plumped up.
Here’s a closer look at some of the parts:
