Okay, here it is! Not the best photo, but we've not had any sunshine, so I had to use the flash and it's washed things out a bit, but you already know what the design looks like, right?! I must say, it turned out larger than I was expecting, and I think it is actually the largest design I have finished on my own.
I'm pleased with how it turned out, but I must tell you it took the better part of Sunday afternoon and then Sunday evening to sew this! I'm not a skilled seamstress and discovered how completely out of practice on the sewing machine I am. I had cut everything carefully and started sewing only to discover things were slightly off. The first fabric strips were not entirely straight and when I started to add the green strips they weren't the same size. The more I looked at it the sloppier it seemed and I knew I wouldn't be happy with it after so much work on the stitching.
So, I picked it all out and started it again. It was not fun and I was feeling stressed over it, but now I am happy I did so. I took much more care the second time around. I recalled that in the past I pulled a linen thread out of each side in order to act as a sort of guide (does anyone else do this? I can't remember where I learned that). Then I used my quilting pen to drawn lines on the backs of my strips to make sure I was leaving the right amount of material on each side. Although I am happy now with how it looks, if you were to open it up and look at the back you would see what a mess it is! My quarter inch seams are completely off and I will have to be careful as there are a couple of places where I'm not sure what is even keeping the fabric together (I shouldn't share this, should I). But looking at the front I don't think you can tell, and as it is only for display I think it will be okay. And do you see how it even matches my bedspread? I'm not sure where it will live permanently, but at the moment it is on a shelf. I need more display space. All in all good practice but using two colors for the cushion is much harder than using only one, and I didn't even do anything fancy like use complementary colors on the corners (like a quilt square)!
I've also finished another smaller cushion and will share when I can take a decent photo, and am in the midst of finishing another. I even have two more designs ready to finish (all things from my bin that were stitched ages ago). It's fun having new things to display, but I have to say I really prefer finishing projects by hand when I can do so. Am I the only person slightly intimidated by a sewing machine?
My first semi-large (really more medium-sized) finish of 2010! While I'm going to enjoy working on some small projects for a little while I am contemplating what large-ish design to work on next! And I don't know about you, but all I can think of is, yay, some new design to share (as much as I like looking back over my progress I am ready for something different to look at here).