Happy Valentine's Day!

These are for my sweetie, so that we may share many more tea times together. Four mini quilt coasters.

I started making these as a way to practice machine quilting before I dive into a wall quilt I need to quilt. As is typical of me, I didn't want to just practice and then throw away perfectly good fabric and thread. And we have been in need of coasters. I found a lovely tutorial on the blog flossieteacakes for making fabric coasters. As is also typical of me, I altered the pattern a wee bit. I made them four inches square ( so a little bit smaller), and I free-motion quilted them.
I chose these rosey prints. And then later added some leaf green fabric to make a solid 4. (It was becoming apparent to me that these were to be a Valentine's day gift.) It was a really good way to practice quilting. Thank you, Flossie.
I finished the binding by hand, wrapped them up for my hubbie. . .
I put them with a box of his favorite cookies. . .
Later we shared tea and cookies, and each other's company. I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day, too.

P.S. Check out the blog Lily's Quilts (lilysquilts.blogspot.com/). She has made an amazing hexagon quilt out of Sherbert Pips. And she is having a give away.

Some Cush for My Tush!

As though I needed any encouragement, I can sit forever it seems on my new and improved sewing room chair. It can definitely be called over-stuffed with 2 1/2 inches of foam and a few more of fiberfill. When I found this chair at an estate sale years ago it was upholstered in white vinyl. About a year ago that began to split across its top and now I am finally getting around to doing something about it.
I had some old red fine-whale corduroy from my grandmother's stash. I don't have many things of her's, but I charish all that I do have. I also used some of it to make a Christmas tree skirt which I decorated with some of her old shell buttons, and to make my girls their stockings with some more of her buttons.

To make the cushion, I cut out a piece of the fabric as big around as the plywood that I had salveged from the old seat and added 1" for the seam, by as tall as I wanted my cushion plus the amount that would curve around its top, the inch to staple it to the base, and the inch to create a drawstring closure at its top. In the spirit of my Granma I reinforced all raw edges with a zigzag stitch. I sewed this into a loop and stapled it onto the particle board which resisted those staples like the dickens (to use one of my Granma's old phrases).
At a certain point I decided that they would just have to do (nobody would see them anyway), and I turned to stuffing the form.
I began with the salvedged foam and then stuffed it firmly with fiberfill.
Next I cinched up the top with some cord. Because the fabric was so thick, I was left with a hole the size of a quarter right front and center. So, I created a patch out of some of my daughter's old velvet pants and some cardboard-like interfacing. I used the turned-edge applique method (which can be found on Purlsoho.com's blog, The Purl Bee) that uses another type of fabric to create a nice, even edge.
Then I sewed it over the hole using the ladder stitch. I also stuck one more piece of interfacing between the two to help the patch hold its shape.
I went around twice for good measure and because it wasn't easy to catch all of those folds of fabric with the first go-around.
And YAY! I love it to look at and to sit on.
I kind of feel like Little Miss Muffet or something whenever I sit upon it.
It's kind of tuffet-y, don't you think?