At this month’s Leeds MQG meeting we had a taster of one of
the workshops on offer at Festival of Quilts and we were being guinea pigs for the tutor so he could check instructions, timings, etc. The class is to make a cushion
from scraps and an old shirt. The sleeves and back of the shirt are stitched
with the scraps to make crumb blocks and a porthole added using reverse
appliqué. The front of the shirt is then used to create a button opening
cushion back.
I bought a bright checked shirt from a charity shop and
decided to use some of my blue and green Liberty scraps for to make the crumb blocks. There was
lots of cutting and pressing and trying to be random but progress was made,
albeit slightly disrupted due to us having to leave the building mid morning because of a
fire alarm.
I got the crumb blocks and porthole done on the day, but my
little machine struggled a bit with the top stitching around the porthole.
Once home, I redid the top stitching around the porthole and
used the same thread to quilt the cushion front with an increasing spiral pattern.
The button front of the shirt is used to make the back of
the cushion. All you have to do is place the cushion front over the buttons
(and remember to open a few so you can turn the cushion to the right side after
stitching!).
I’m still not sure about crumb blocks, but using an old
shirt for the cushion back is a great idea if you don’t like doing buttonholes
or inserting zips.
