Cushions

Today I thought I'd show you this cushion I made 13 years ago. You can see that my colour palette hasn't moved on much because this matches la passacaglia in my header which I started in 2015!

I didn't just stitch it, I designed it too! I've always said that I'm good at implementing other people's designs, but not good at coming up with totally original designs myself.  So I went to a course called Designers Guild Made Easy.  

We used to get the UK House and Garden magazines from the library and marvel at the opulence in some of those homes. Designers Guild featured a lot in those magazines and we thought their style was just gorgeous. Never mind that their products were way outside our reach, and wouldn't really have suited our lifestyle here anyway. We were free to dream. Remember, this was before you could just jump online and order anything from anywhere!

In case you're wondering Designers Guild made wall paper, curtains, furnishing fabrics, cushions etc. I've just done a google search and they are still going strong here. 

Kaffe Fassett Asian Circles

The thought of making a Designers Guild style cushion greatly appealed to me.  When I look at this design 13 years later I think my designing skills have improved because I would certainly make the flowers bigger these days, and I would put a lot more in the vase and have them overlapping. I think Kaffe Fassett was only doing knitting patterns at this stage so he couldn't influence me back then. If I was doing it again today I would make it more like this fabric above. Those skinny little flowers on mine look very lonely!

You might notice that I chose particularly fine canvas for this tapestry. Well, that was clearly driven by my wool choices. The fabulous colours of these Strand wools must have caught my eye, and nothing else would do. They are quite fine and because some are variegated, I couldn't use two strands, so I had to use fine canvas.

I still remember stitching this cushion. The best bit was that fancy border - I must have lifted that idea from somewhere else. 

This cushion is quite small which you can see when I place it next to my next tapestry cushion - the Peacock at Sunset by Ehrman.  

I'm really trying to be good and not start the peacock until I've finished some other things. In some ways I have to be good because I've now got the Celtic Snow on my roller bars while I put the beads on it. I want to use those roller bars for the peacock so have to finish the embroidery first.

In other news my crochet rug is still growing because I tend to do a few rows each night once my eyes pack up from doing beading. Yes, that does mean I'm virtually crocheting with my eyes shut. but I'm listening to the cricket too and have to open my eyes occasionally to see what all the shouting is about.