Earlier in the year one of the blogs I follow (Granny Maud’s Girl) featured a quilted map of Australia, just nicely cushion size, each state was created in a different colour, I decided that when it came out as a pattern, I would make one for my OH.
Roll on a couple of months and Granny Maud’s Girl published the pattern on Craftsy I immediately purchased the pdf.
Roll on another couple of months and this week I decided to make it. I raided my scrap box for bright, colourful prints, the leftovers from the Kaffe Fasset quilt I made over winter came in very useful! I eventually had little piles of green, blue, red, orange, yellow, teal and purple.
The pattern is made using foundation paper piecing, it went together beautifully, the instructions are straight forward and it’s easy to work out what colour goes where as each area is colour-coded. I made the 12″ version, though the pattern also includes a mini version too.
After a couple of evenings I had a collection of brightly coloured shapes, looking a bit like a colourful jigsaw!
I stitched them all together, following the instructions. The only one that jumped out at me was the plain green! I haven’t used many plain fabrics in my quilting so it didn’t twig that it would stand out so much. Trying to remove and replace it just wasn’t going to happen so I pondered over alternatives. I thought about embroidering it, but again it would stand out too much. In the end I decided to bondaweb a patterned square over it, leaving a very narrow border. It did look much better, all I had to do was make sure I quilted enough over the top of it.
To make it more standard cushion size I added three borders, a narrow yellow, a wider blue and a white in-between, it sort of reflects the blue skies and sea and the golden sand. It was now about 19″ square.
I sandwiched it ready for quilting and initially my thought was just to meander a quilting line over the square, however trying to find a thread that would look OK over the white and the red and blue proved tricky, I didn’t really want to be swapping threads all the time. In the end I just quilted in the ditch around the shape and round each state. I then echo quilted round Australia until I had enough quilting on the piece. I used a variegated light blue/grey Gutermann thread. It’s turned out OK but I think if I was doing it again I might just outline and then stitch an overall wave pattern instead.
The green square…Quilting patterns I thought of weren’t going to cover it sufficiently, I decided in the end to stitch the letter ‘M’ over it as my label, it nicely covers quite a lot of the square and I don’t think it jumps out any more!
I used a leftover length of batik fabric in blues and greens for the back and made it up into a cushion simply by hand-stitching one side closed. My final touch was to stitch a button for each place he lived in or where close family were, he was born in Melbourne, lived in Brisbane and family live in Sydney.
As soon as I had finished it I gave it to him, I think he’s well chuffed with it 🙂
Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, follow the link to see what everyone else is hand-stitching.
thecraftycreek 
Who knew about solids in a quilt? A lady in the quilt shop explained it to me. She says prints provide motion and solids stop it. Sometimes you want the eye to stop and sometimes you don’t. That finally made sense to me! You solved your problem brilliantly!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh, that’s interesting. I’m not sure I want anybody’s eye to stop and look too closely at my quilting stitches so I’ll carry on with the patterns 😉
LikeLiked by 3 people
Sorry , can’t help but chuckle at your reply!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh, thanks for explaining that Kathy, it does make sense now 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That just crystallized it for me!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like the fabrics you’ve used a lot; it was particularly appropriate using the Kaffe Fassett Aboriginal Spot in your NT block and those jungly prints in QLD 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Kate, the Kaffe Fassett prints worked well, though it was pure chance that the spotty one went in NT!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so glad that Tasmania features, Margaret. So often we are left off world maps and we have such a unique island and astonishing cultural heritage. The cushion looks amazing!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Prue, we visited Tasmania briefly on a cruise a couple of years ago, I’m hoping to go back for a bit longer sometime.
LikeLike
That is so cool! I love the rich colours you have used, and I agree wth Kate that the dot print in the NT and the lush green of Qld are perfect. The borders really make it all pop.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, I’m pleased with it, thanks for a great pattern 🙂
LikeLike
A great gift for you husband – and chuffed he should certainly be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, it’s taking pride of place on his chair 🙂
LikeLike
It’s just wonderful, I bet one of the UK would be good too….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Cathy, UK would be good too, but can you imagine all those tiny counties down South!!!
LikeLike
Your cushion is beautiful! Love those prints, and your quilting is just perfect!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you 🙂
LikeLike
Great save on the solid patch, the pillow is wonderful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Carole 🙂
LikeLike
Wonderful pillow! I like the way you fixed the solid green square problem…it looks intentional now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Gail, it does blend in nicely now fortunately!
LikeLike
What a great cushion! I love the colours, and the idea of not quilting ‘Australia’ has worked really well.
LikeLike
That looks awesome! well done on the green square, it looks perfect like that!
LikeLike
Awesome!
LikeLike
A very cool idea!
LikeLike
Pingback: A Good Day at the Show. | thecraftycreek