Two postcards, one floor cushion and a heck of a lot of weeds

 

I've got pinpricks and little scratches all over my fingers.  But it'll be worth it as I'm nearing the end of making my Chris English style scrappy quilt.  Just gotta get the binding sewn on and I'm done.  Am really very pleased with it, and think it's among the nicest things I've made.  It's well padded too, so I'll be snug as a bug come next winter.  

Apart from that I've been completing a floor cushion.  This dates back decades.  Literally.  

I'd seen an image on the front of a children's poetry book, and decided to try and recreate it in needlepoint.  Or at least my version of it.  After putting in a lot of hours, I finished the needlepoint but the canvas was stretched out of shape by my stitching without a frame.  That distortion would've been too obvious if I'd displayed the needlepoint as a wall hanging, which'd been my intention.  

So the needlepoint got bundled away and forgotten about.  Anyhow, I was having a clutter clear and found it, deciding to repurpose it as a floor cushion.  I sewed a backing fabric onto it, made a cushion pad and stuffed it with all my leftover fabric scraps, too small to use for other purposes and finally, this morning, I sewed the final stitches to close up the cushion and make it ready for use.  

So, here's a screenshot of the book cover I used as a starting point: 

(Apologies for not being able to name the illustrator.)  

And here's my floor cushion.  

If I was making it all over again - dear Lord! the thought of doing that! - I'd fill in a lot of the yellow background with leaves, flowers, bees, all kinds of insects.  But overall I kinda like what I've come up with.  It's certainly one of a kind.

Okay, what else can I tell you?  

Apart from the quilt binding and the floor cushion, I took the chance today to nip down to the allotment.  The recent rain has got weeds growing like crazy, but on the plus side the various soft fruit bushes are flourishing too.  Let's hope I get a good harvest of blackcurrants, blackberries and raspberries this year.  Most of the abundant dandelions have finished flowering and are blowing their seeds everywhere, and the creeping buttercup is creeping everywhere.  I pottered about the allotment to a chorus of birdsong, a lovely way to spend an hour or so.  

With regard to my '31 days in May' fabric postcards, here's Monday offering.  Just a simple rectangle of calico with embroidery thread quilted lines.  

The binding is made from scraps of calico dyed with cinnamon (brown) and curry powder (yellow).  

My Tuesday postcard is a wee bit fancier.  

You can't really see from the photos, but it's completely covered in quilting stitches.  I was hand-sewing it while listening to a podcast.  In fact, trying to avoid all the coronation coverage, I've caught up with an awful lot of podcasts over the long weekend.  I'm bang up to date with 'The Archers' too!

Any closet Ambridge fans lurking out there?  What do you listen to when you sew?