life is a bowl of cherries

I love needlepoint. Just the plain tent stitch type, not necessarily any of the fancy stuff. It's not something that I can see myself attempting in the near future as I already have enough on my plate but whenever I see a nice piece of needlepoint at the thrift store I snap it up.


I bought this piece of needlepoint at the Goodwill store in the University district here in Seattle. It was actually framed so I'm sure that it was made with love by someone who was very proud of it. I, however, didn't really want to hang it on the wall so I took it out of the frame, gave it a quick wash and made it up into a cushion cover. For the back I used some of the leftover black velveteen that I used for the yoke of my floral-printed black velvet skirt and also the zip salvaged from said skirt. Yes, I brought myself to sew in a zip. The greatest advantage of having done this is that I definitely have to go out and get myself an adjustable zipper foot. You know I love the accessories.

I made a very simple cushion insert from a decorator fabric sample - just tore out a square twice the size of the needlepoint cover, folded it in half and sewed up three of the sides. The fabric came in a grab bag of decorator fabric samples that I bought some time ago at Value Village. I bought that bag for only one of the fabrics (which I haven't yet used!) but I did use another piece to make some covered buttons. The stuffing came from a small cushion also purchased at Value Village. I bought it because it was covered in dozens of shell buttons which I promptly removed and have used since on a couple of projects that needed buttons. Today I actually cut it open and used the stuffing in my cushion insert. Total cost? Umm, the needlepoint was $4.99 and the rest really came from stash, so yes, cheap cherries!