Saw this pretty cushion made from a velvet fabric and knew a certain somebody would like it, a somebody with, (a bit of a clue here, dear reader but don’t let on), a name with a first initial the same as mine. So, I decided to personalise it with an appliqued letter and add a tassel for a bit of frou-frou fun. For information, the cushion cover is removable (has a button up back).
How to do:
1. Measure the area of the cushion to attach the letter to.
2. Select a font that will be reasonably easy to cut around and, more importantly, stitch around. Increase the size of the character so that it will fit the cushion and print it out onto a piece of stiffish (say, 160 – 220 gsm) paper.
3. Cut out the letterform.
4. Turn the letterform over so that it is mirrored. Trace around the letterform onto a sheet of that stuff of wonder, Bondaweb. I get mine from Hickeys and a pack costs around €3.70ish, I think.
5. Place a damp cloth over and iron the Bondaweb onto the wrong side of your chosen applique fabric. Remove the damp cloth and cut out carefully.
6. Place the fabric letterform onto the cushion cover (or whatever you want to applique to) apply a damp cloth over the top and iron onto your cover.
7. You could leave it at that, but if like me, you just know that the edges will start to curl up like a British Rail sandwich after a few washes, stitch around it and fix that mother down!
No hassle tassel:
I unpicked the middle of a seam at the bottom, tucked the tassel end in, turned it inside-out and stitched it up again.
The Vase
Now, to the vase. I picked the vase up in a charity shop for €9.00. It’s big and heavy. On the bottom it has the letters W.Germany and some numbers with a logo of two little houses. I did do a bit of research (Google? Yes.) and believe it is a Carsten Tonnieshof Chimney Vase (thanks to GinFor’s Odditiques website) http://www.ginforsodditiques.com/wgermanmarks.html for being a treasure trove of information there. I would like to know if it is worth more than I paid for it. Not because i want to sell it on but I have a tin of light grey Stone Effect Rustoleum and intend to spray it very soon… but would hate to ruin it if it was worth much more than I paid for it.
If you know and wouldn’t mind sharing your intelligence, please drop me a line. I have already been outside in the cold with a tin of brilliant white Rustoleum and sprayed a really gorgeous toilet roll holder /dispenser and tealight lantern that I bought from TK Maxx yesterday. The toilet roll holder is not a tealight lantern, you understand, despite my impoverished means of describing them. They are two separate items that happened to be bought from the same shop. I’ll take a picture when they’re dry if I ever get over the fumes. Think I’m buzzing my t*ts off here.
Not long to Christmas Day now. The shopping days are flying past and, don’t know about you, am heartily fed up with the host of TV cooks, chefs and kitchen people urging us on to ever more adventurous recipes and exotica of ingredients. If you remove the Christmas dinner and wild expectations of the perfect dinner from the minds of everybody – well us mum’s and dinner hosts, really – the stress virtually evaporates.
Me, I couldn’t care less about the big dinner. Have mentioned this before. I like a small dinner. A little bit of turkey, a few veg and a roastie, maybe. BUT give me a good serving of Christmas pudding. Lots of custard or cream and I am very happy. Very, very, happy.
Have bought gifts within our means – haven’t maxxed out the credit cards (in fairness, I haven’t touched a credit card in ten years or so – might sound holier than thou but I save for everything these days) – in the cold light of January, the sparkle and glow of gift giving will have worn off. Dress up small things to look fabulous and give with a happy heart.
Hope you’re more organised than I am and have got your Christmas together – but we’ve got the best part of a week, so take heart!
Have a lovely day.
H
