FAL Finish: Bargello Cushion

In June last year I went on a Bargello workshop run by my talented friend Beryl at her teaching studio and a month later I added the resulting project to my Finish-Along list.  It's been on every list since, including my current one, and I'm thrilled to be able to say that it's finished!

This is how it started:

Four FQs and half a metre of Kaffe shot cotton (tip: if you're using this, starch it well - it likes to move and stretch!)

After quite a bit of sewing and cutting, I had sets of strips of varying widths (Daddy (wide), Mammy (medium) and Baby (narrow)!):

Dreadful photo, sorry!  Still, at least you won't have to see it again after this!

Once I got started again (it sat in a bag from July 2014 until last week!), it didn't take me long to get the panel complete, even though I had to unpick three strips (two because I hadn't double-checked my seam allowance when I started and one because I made a daft mistake).

The grey pieces towards the top right corner aren't puckered, it's just the way I plonked the panel on my bed!

The strips were joined onto the wadding in a stitch and flip/QAYG style which meant that once the panel was complete, it was only a hop, skip and a jump to a finished cushion:

It finishes at 15" x 19" and was stitched with Aurifil 50wt 2600 (dove grey) throughout.

I had originally intended to do a button closure but my button tin only had three suitable buttons and I was determined to finish this without buying anything else so I rummaged in my zip tin and found a suitable candidate.  I'm rather pleased with how the back turned out and how (some of!) the lines match up!

The cushion was supposed to be bigger than this (and square!) but, despite them all being bought in the UK, two of the fat quarters (the dots) were imperial, rather than metric, FQs so I didn't have enough fabric.  Then I made a daft mistake with the first strip, discovered far after I was willing to unpick, (it was supposed to be a 'mammy' strip but I used a 'daddy' strip instead, which left me short a 'daddy' strip and no fabric to make another one.  In the end, I trimmed all the 'daddy' strips to 'mammy' size and made a narrower panel) so a smaller cushion it was.  I had just enough grey to cover the zip and just enough of the shot cotton to bind the top and bottom edges à la Sheila. To be honest, I think I prefer it as a smaller cushion as this way as it nestles nicely in the centre of my 'settee of friends'!

Cushions made by (clockwise from front left) Sarah, me, Karen and Trudi, Leanne, Yvonne, me

I think I'm going to have to fill the other settee now!


A few weeks ago, I tweeted Aurifil about a problem spool (the thread kept slipping off the spool and getting tangled/knotted and then snapping in my machine as a result of the tangling) more to let them know than to complain and, as well as replacing the offending spool, they sent me this lovely parcel:

I can't fault their customer service!  I've long wanted a thread colour card (rather than the printed one I have) and I must say that it lives up to all expectations - I quite want to put it up on the wall!


Archie has been holding a 'lie in' - his demands are more biscuits, more patches of sun, more biscuits, more biscuits...and, have you guessed yet?, more biscuits.  I have given in to a certain extent, just don't tell him he'd have been getting those biscuits anyway!!

I'm going to lie here until I get a biscuit and I don't care how long it takes.

I'll be linking up to Adrianne when the time comes!

Thanks for popping in, I hope your FAL projects are also going swimmingly!