Mushroom cushions

My friend Karen (of John Deere tractor card fame) recently commissioned me to make her a pair of cushions to give to a friend as a wedding present. The theme was 'mushrooms and fungi' as this particular friend works with mushrooms. It was the first time I've been asked to do something like this, so it was pretty exciting coming up with a vague plan, looking up pictures of mushrooms online, drawing my felt mushroom and deciding on fabric. I decided on the striking Amanita muscaria mushroom, since it would look good against the brown wool background and is a well known mushroom, leaving less room for people to look at the cushions and wonder what the amorphous brown blob in felt is.



All in, this project probably took about 4 hours. I've had the week off for Easter, so I've been at home trying to get some studying done. It's been a nice break, doing the odd hour here and there on these cushions and I'm really pleased with how they've turned out.



It's funny, sometimes being given a theme for a project makes it easier to come up with a plan than if you've got all the options open to you. If Karen had just asked for cushions, I think I would have been a bit lost, sometimes you can be paralysed by choice. Do you go with florals? Polka dots? Plain? Modern? Vintage? Bright colours? Muted colours? The list could go on forever.



Sometimes I find this when I get the urge to sew something for myself. Do I use my small amount of precious sewing time to have a go at altering some of the vast trunk of clothes I have under the bed? Or do I go for something simple that's guaranteed succes, like a zippered pouch or cushion cover? Do I want to push myself and learn a new skill, or do something easy that I can do whilst watching X Files? Do I want to use some cheap, not terribly nice fabric in case I botch up (then if it works, not want to use it because it's nasty material), or go straight for the lovely stuff but then what if it goes wrong? Sometimes you can have so many choices that by the time I've decided what I want to sew, it's time to get back to studying.



Another nice thing about this project was it was all from stash material or buttons. Remember the buttons that Karen gave me? Well, some of them are now gracing these mushrooms, ready to start the next stage in their lives on a newly-wed sofa ♥