Wedding gift cushion

Wedding season is upon us, and I'm sure I'm not the only one swamped by invitations over the next couple of months. I know most bridal couples these days prefer gift vouchers, but I almost always deviate from the list and do so for several reasons. Firstly if you can do homemade it helps bring the cost down slightly (cost so far of attending one wedding this year with flights, hotel, car hire etc. is nearly £1000!!) and secondly my absolute favourite part of a wedding is picking (or making) a gift, and without that opportunity I actually get quite grumpy.

So there you go, first wedding of the year is the weekend after next and I knew I wanted to part-make and part-buy the present. The purchase part was easy, I got them something we had when we were married which has been an enormous success, it's a 25 year Christmas journal that you get out every year and write in. Ours has only been going for 5 years, but it's fascinating reading it every year.

The homemade part was trickier. Alongside a bought present, a quilt was going to be too much, so I had a vague idea of making a cushion. I saw this on Flickr which got me thinking about some sort of cushion personalised to the couple, but I wanted something subtle. So after a lot of thinking and not much sewing I eventually came up with this...

Originally I was just going to have the surname, but in a rare moment of creative input, my husband suggested adding their initials, and he was so right! The letters are appliqued, the red ones which are felt are attached with a straight stitch  and the white lettering (which is cotton) is sewn with blanket stitch. I would have liked to have used the same grey linen fabric on the back but I didn't have enough and I have no idea where I bought it from (!) so the back is made from the felt used on the front, I just hope it wears ok...

I added a layer of batting to the appliqued front and quilted around the large letters then lined it. I think if I do it again I'll skip the quilting stage, it looks good, but it's unnecessary extra work and just made the whole cushion a bit bulky.

Anyway, this is one rare project that turned out so much better than I was expecting. I love it and I just hope the bride and groom feel the same!