Last week I decided to make a little present for my MIL, she always admired my bumble bee pincushions, but having stitched it three times already, I wasn’t sure I was ready to stitch it again just yet. I also realised it was also a lot smaller than many people realised – the bee is only about 2″ square!

Whilst I was having a bit of a sort out during lockdown, I found a lovely panel of a bumble bee in a furnishing weight fabric, together with a co-ordinating piece for the backing, isn’t it gorgeous! I bought it at a quilt shoe with the idea of making my mum a cushion,before I realised just how many cushions she had in her room at the time! It was perfect for my MIL.

I decided it needed some kind of simple trim such as piping, just to finish it. I found some thick piping cord in my stash and some smudgy dark drey/black quilting cotton. I cut some bias strips, covered the cord and stitched it round the front panel.

If I’m making cushions for myself, I often don’t put an opening in such as buttons or a zip, I just stitch it up and if it needs cleaning I unstitch it again. However as this was a gift I thought I ought to do it properly! I cut the backing piece in half so it would overlap, finnished the edges and then stitched the front and back together. I found some bee tape in my stash which worked really well for ties, I even managed to alternate the colour of bees across the three pairs of ties.

I had an 18″ cushion pad, so my bumble bee cushion was complete, ready for delivery in an afternoon…and she loves it 🙂