Fat Quarter sunshine AKA adventures in sewing Part 1

OK, maybe not sunshine as such but that's what these Dresden blades pieced together remind me of. Almost like a child has drawn a sun. I remembered earlier I had bought a Dresden blade quilt ruler a while ago. I knew I wanted to sew today but didn't want anything to difficult or big to do, but something new to.  Like any sewer I have a very interesting little collection of Fat Quarters. I am still hooked on these from my quilting days almost 16 years ago. Such prettiness to admire and dream of using one day in the perfect project. Does that perfect project ever arrive I wonder?

I chose just 2 Fat Quarters for the front of the cushion and cut out 10 blades of red and 10 of blue. It's hard to see in this light but they have little bits of glitter in this fabric. Glitter that doesn't spill everywhere like the half sequins I am still finding everywhere!

Very simply I sewed one of each colour together in pairs, with a 1/4 inch seam allowance then pressed the seams towards the blue side as it was darker..

Then sewed each pair to another pair, pressing in the same way. I carried on until I had all 2o forming a ring with a hole in the middle.

To cover the hole I cut out 2 pieces of material bigger that the hole in circles and sewed them right sides together.

Carefully making sure I had only one side of the circle I cut a slit.Turned the circle right sides out and pressed.

And I even impressed myself it still looks like a circle. Simply needed to pin the circle over the hole and chose a buttonhole type stitch on my machine and machine appliqued carefully around the edge of the circle attaching the circle over the hole. It took a bit of concentration and slow going in places but it did go on in the end.  Thankfully without the need of a stitch ripper.

As you can see I used red thread to highlight it a bit.

Not having another 2 of these FQ I struggled to find a contrasting 2 that I liked, so after auditioning a lot of fabric I decided to back the cushion in black needle cord fabric, logic was it probably is going to get a fair bit of use with children sitting on it on the floor or even in the garden so may as well have one hard wearing side.

How it has been left is smoothed out and pinned right sides together ready for my next hour I can sneak in to finish it, and while I consider the best way to finish this. Will update you in next day or two on how I finish the cushion off.

So until I can sneak off and sew again

Take care

Jules x