More portholes…

13 Jun

After the excitement of the birthday Sunday was a quieter day; a quick trip to the car boot in the rain with Leah, breakfast with friends and then the rest of the day to relax and get our minds in gear for the return to school.  Obviously it became an opportunity for me to get some sewing done.

Inspired by Lu’s workshop on the FQ weekend I fancied having another go at making portholes, this time using some vintage sheets.  I mentioned on Facebook recently that I had quite a pile of strips of fabric left after cutting lots of charm squares for my shop.  So I thought I would start by using some of these.

I used the templates from the workshop and added a larger one too.  I planned for the finished cushion to be 18″ and the blocks I made with Lu were 12″.  I used a plain vintage sheet for the solid and then a patchwork of strips for the other pieces.  I offset some of the holes just for the fun of it, it’s not so obvious but Bethan did ask if it was supposed to be wonky! I added some wadding and backing fabric to the top and quilted around the portholes purposely not in a perfect circle (I find that too hard).

IMG_7272

The backing is a piece of fabric from a lone pillowcase I found at the car boot.  I love this print and also have it in pink but love the blue much more and thought I’d use it for this and then I get to see it every day.

Back of vintage portholes cushion

As usual I used this tutorial to insert an invisible zip (that was once I’d hunted high and low to find the invisible zips).

I’m delighted that maybe despite appearances I did pay attention in Lu’s class and was able to repeat the technique at home which must say something about Lu’s skill as a teacher or my ability to remember!

I’m entering this project in to the Summer Sewing Contest:

Ellison Lane Quilts

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8 Replies to “More portholes…

  1. Your cushion looks great.
    Thanks for the link to the Ellison Lane Summer Sewing Contest – I have just entered my first machine-stitched quilt! I’m afraid all the quilting purists will have forty fits when they see it but I enjoyed experimenting and making it, that’s the main thing for me.

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