The Ramblings of a Creative Mind: How my cushions are born...

I've been asked to write a blog about the processes used in making my cushions, by the lovely Anne from Martisanne on Etsy. You should definitely go over and check out her work. Lovely Items on there!

So here it is, I'm gonna go over how I create my cushions from start to finish, hoping not to bore you too much along the way :)

Inspiration

My Little Lime Green Bible...

This can come at any point so I always keep my trusty little Lime green notebook with me where ever I go, to scribble down sayings or advice that I hear that I think would work great on a piece. It always gets pictures stuck into it of great colourways or anything I like generally.

Design Pages

Design Illustrations and samples...

For commissions especially I create a design sheet which has a drawing of the piece along with fabric samples and a 'winding'card of the threads I will be using. The more of each colour I put on the card the bigger amount I'll be using of it in my making - I hope that makes sense :) Once I've got all this right and I'm happy with the colour combinations e.t.c. I'll move onto my favourite bits, going crazy on a sewing machine! hehe

Making

All my pieces are Hand Printed using individual letters which are printing blocks, I picked up a while back now. I tend to not bother with making sure the lines of my sayings are straight as I like the way they turn out without all the measuring rubbish.. hehe... When dried, I set up my sewing machine in my chosen colours and go mad for a bit. This design of my stitchwork is NEVER planned as it's meant to look free-flowing and thats how I like it... again it would make it too formal, if it were designed :)

These finished pieces are then made up in cushions, tea cosies or whatever takes my fancy!

Designs being born...

Each cushion takes me about 2-3 days from designing to finished cushion to complete... obviously I create a few pieces at a time, otherwise that would be silly don't you think? :P

Right well now you've seen the love and amount of work that goes into my creations, why not check out my Etsy shop and see the pieces in action!