Continuing with colour

Silverpebble's Splash of Colour project has started something here I think.  All the sewing I've done this week has been saturated with colour.

I've made two brightly coloured treats for the shop. 

First came a notebook cover, using what may be my last piece of this gorgeous Phillip Jacobs floral fabric.  It holds a Muji or a Moleskine notebook and has a little pocket on the front for a couple of pens or pencils.  If I still worked in the City I would so LOVE to take this into meetings as a zingy counterpoint to all the standard-issue office stationery. 

I've also made a patchwork cushion in one of my all-time-favourite colour combinations of bright red and pastel blue.  It has a touch of pink ricrac too, because I never need much of an excuse to add ricrac.

I used a dark green polka dot cotton for the back of the cushion and added a little patch of the Cath Kidston strawberry fabric which I'd included on the front.  I really love the blanket stitch settings on my machine, which I've used here, because I always found appliqueing with a zigzag stitch a very knotty and messy business.

I have a real cushion obsession at the moment. 

Since finishing C's birthday Swiss cushion, I've finally got round to remaking the cushion covers that I sewed for O when I was pregnant with her, nearly nine years ago.  I hadn't learnt about the envelope back closure back then and they were fastened with a giant flap and some very unsatisfactory velcro.  I've been desperate to re-make them and O finally agreed but instructed me to "keep them saggy" because that's how she likes them.

Despite the small blow to my pride this caused, I did as instructed and kept them "saggy".  I unpicked the covers, tutted at the shoddy understanding of seam allowances I had nine years ago, and re-made them with a few small additions of other panels of matching fabric, and some ricrac.

The cushions originally had the red-and-blue gingham on one side and the red-and-blue paisley on the other (both Ikea fabrics).  Because I added in some extra panels, I had a little of both fabrics leftover after re-modelling the cushions.  I used some of the gingham on the (puffy, not saggy!) cushion for the shop and with the very last scraps of the leftovers I made O a small patchwork quilt for her Clothkits dolls.

This corner of her bedroom now has all the colour I could wish for on a grey November day.  The Clothkits gang are all tucked up under their quilts, O's strawberry quilt is folded up on the bed, and the cushions are all lined up against the wall.  It looks like a cosy pink, red and blue fabric nest!