Upcycling Fun!

I've been AWOL from the blogosphere for a month at this point.  First there were two mini-vacations with my older grandchildren. I took each of them on a different Road Scholar Grandparent/grandchild adventure.  My grandson and I went to Vermont for some nature adventures and I took my granddaughter to Chincoteague Island where we learned about the tidal habitats and did a bit of crabbing!!

Then these three came home from the hospital -- born June 2, they are my newest grands!!

Throw in a trip to the spa for my computer and July was shot!!  

Of course, I've managed to stitch through all that -- mostly handwork -- English paper piecing and knitting.  I also have been working on the #100days100blocks2019 project -- simple blocks and my fabric palette is a cheerful one that I've managed to pull together out of my stash!  You can check out my progress over on Instagram -- I'm @hueymary 

This week I upcycled a garment for a friend into a fun cushion for her living room.  She has traveled to Costa Rica many times and on one of those trips she bought this dress with a handpainted panel.  When she offered it to my stash earlier this summer, I offered to make her a cushion instead.  The panel is too nice to be stuck in my stash.  

It's always scary to begin a project when the first step involves cutting something finished apart.

But it has to be done! 

My first thought was a band or two of flying geese (she goes to Central America to bird).

But in the end, I used fabric from the skirt to set the panel a bit askew.

While I was doing that, I had a quilting inspiration (thank goodness!!) to use several colors of thread and create a "pic-up-stix" style design on the black.  Another quick stash dive uncovered enough black Dream Poly batting which I always use for dark quilted projects.

I quilted with my walking foot and just let the design evolve adding random lines focused on framing the panel. 

I wasn't planning to quilt the panel but as the black flattened down, the panel started to puff up and so I echo quilted some of the details to flatten the panel without taking away from the artist's work.

The finished quilting is subtle. It breaks up the solid black while framing the painted design. 

I revisited my idea to bind the edges of the cushion cover rather than turning it and chose a bright green that will also act as a "piping" accent on the finished cover.

You can revisit my blogpost HERE when I did this (lazy) finish the first time!

So close, so close.  

Back to the cutting mat for six more inches. 

Here's the finished cushion (it's 22" square) snuggled into the corner of my couch for a quick photo shoot before I deliver it to my friend.  I love being able to share my skill with my non-sewing friends like this! 

One more thing to share with you -- a couple days ago, I listened to a podcast by Marie Greene of Olive Knits -- she is such a positive person!!  The title of it is "8 things that are more important than talent"!  I have practiced and preached that "work is more important than talent" for a long time so it was great to hear someone else advocate this concept.  I love the way she broke it down and wrote down her list to keep on my desk. 

She mentioned a few of my strengths and a few of my weaknesses!  Lots of food for thought!! 

If you want to give it a listen (even her voice is cheerful), click HERE.

Hope your summer is still pleasant.  Even though the kids here went back to school this week, we still have a good month of summer weather left and sitting out in shade in my back garden with some hand stitching is a very peaceful place to be right now!

Mary

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday which has a new hostess, Alycia Quilts!