A work colleague of mine has just made the big move to an island in the Outer Hebrides, an enormous change from the busy city life in Leeds. A friend suggested as a leaving present it would be nice if we could give her something more personal, such as a seaside quilt…I gently pointed out how much I would want to sell my seaside quilt…maybe a cushion instead!
I decided to enlarge the cottages block from my seaside quilt and machine embroider it. The seaside quilt design is in a book of the same name by Kathryn Whittington of Patchwork Katy This is the original hand embroidered one on my quilt….
It wasn’t as easy as it looks to enlarge it, especially the cliffs bit. I drew it out and then traced it onto the bondaweb. To fix them onto the background, the ones at the top of the hill need to be attached first as they all overlap slightly. It was only when I got to the last house, the one at the bottom, I realised that my cliff wasn’t too steep! In order to lower it slightly I added some steps to the bottom house!!
I’m quite pleased with my set of steps! The cliffs aren’t so great, but I added some waves with a shiny rayon thread.
With the basic panel made to about 10″ square, I needed to add some borders to make it a useable cushion size. I added a 1″ red border and then a 2″ dark blue border. I found some dark blue batik which worked well for the backing, I made a button closure with some wooden buttons and the cushion was finished.
It was her leaving do last Friday and she loved it, it will hopefully remind her of happy times and friends in Yorkshire.
thecraftycreek 
The cushion looks lovely – great combination of colours.
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What a gorgeous gift.
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I like how the personal hand-made gift was left entirely up to you ^^
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To be fair I did a small collection for the materials 🙂
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ah! pleased tp hear that!
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What a lovely and thoughtful leaving gift! Thank you for sharing it with us, Margaret.
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A cushion cover is a great idea, Margaret, and the colours in this one are so vibrant.
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Lovely! Everyone needs a cushion, and one made specially for you by a friend is especially welcome, I think. But your seaside quilt? Yeah, no! (as they say here).
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People have zero appreciation of how long it takes to make something. Your colleague will treasure this for sure.
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That is so lovely. I like seeing faces when you people them how much your ‘craftyness’ is actually worth. 😁
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