Wednesday 21 May 2014

Tinga Tinga inspired Cushion Covers

 

This happens to me nearly every year. My sister-in-law's birthday creeps on me and suddenly it is the day before. True to the tradition I was up early to finish off her present in order to put it in post and hope for the best. In most cases I ask her what she would like to have. She is very obliging to wish for handmade things. As you might know, I am not much for buying things. I hope there is still scope for a few years of presents and surely then we can start from the beginning as the first ones wear down...

This time she asked for a cushion cover for her sofa. Of course I can only make these things in pairs, so she was gifted with two. She said that she would like to have reds, oranges, maybe pinks and even blue. Now I know that the picture hanging in her living room is very similar to this with a bit of pink instead of blue and it was a sort of "known" point in the scheme.

I made the bird cushion using the painting loosely as a model for my bird.


We have another Tinga Tinga painting which I used as a starting point for the beast. I didn't go an see the painting, just used my memory of it in order to let my own imagination work. I think I achieved the same as the painting; you cannot really tell whether the beast is a leopard or hyena or maybe a spirit animal.


For the edges and backing I used some lovely handmade batik from Tanzania. I had this in my stash and although I did not need to, I decided to patchwork it to add a "folky" touch. I also wanted to do the top-stitching in the colour of the background in the middle.

The animals were machine stitched onto the background, without bondaweb or such. I then hand embroidered the embellishing. The bird has some recycled beads on it. Bear with me while I am drowning you with my pictures!




Happy Birthday S!

3 comments:

Sandie said...

The cushion covers are beautiful! They pick up the colour and style of my tinga tinga painting perfectly and are the finishing touch to the living room in our new house.Such a lovely present that I can appreciate for many years after this birthday...Thank you! x

Ivor said...

I'm always amazed by your creativity and ability to turn your innovative thoughts into reality. Fantastic as always. x

Mama Elf said...

Iv- Thanks Hubby!
S-"Journey!"- you are welcome. Luckily textile things do wear out, so I can do repeats. And no, you are not allowed to hang them on your wall, they have zips!