Something’s fishy …

While in Houston last month, I saw an adorable pattern by Appliqué Elementz and couldn’t pass it up. In fact, there were so many cute ones that I had a hard time deciding which one to get! I decided to make this into a throw pillow to be given away to someone special, and I’ve just finished it, though it’s not a Christmas gift. I fused the appliqué pieces in place, but then I stitched them down through the background, batting and backing, too, for extra security. Next, it was time to play with the quilting! I did some streams of bubbles, some feathers to tie in with the fish fins, and then some ruler work — just diagonal lines — around the edges. Actually, I’d made the piece quite a bit larger than needed, so there was a lot of that ruler work that went into the scrap heap. Still, the extra practice was fun. 🙂

To make this into a cushion cover, I did an overlapping closure on the back, and the final step was a bit of stitching to make a sort of faux border/edging all the way around. This second photo may show the quilting a bit more clearly. The last step will be to mail this, but that can wait until the Christmas rush is over!