Busy time for cats - making new cushions

 

The last couple of weeks have been very busy for Otto. He has been supervising me while I made some new cushions. The supervision was necessary because it has been well over 20 years since I made cushions with zips in. I used a YouTube tutorial to refresh my memory. Here is a link to the tutorial that I found easy to follow.

Supervision is exhausting work for a cat. Otto had to lie down a lot to rest on the material as I moved it. Then he had to thoroughly inspect my cushion template and test it for size.

Examining the placement of every pin proved to be a lot of fun for Otto, as did trying to catch the scissors as I cut the material.

When the first cushion was finished, Otto insisted on testing it for comfort and promptly fell asleep! I took it that he approved and that the cushion passed quality control :o)

 

I chose the bird (blue-faced honeyeater) patterned material initially to make cushions for our new outdoor furniture. The material is 100% cotton canvas and was designed by Jocelyn Proust, an Australian designer. 

When I placed a finished cushion on the settee in our living room, I liked how it looked there with the cream throw rug and the dark brown leather of the settee. The background of the material is a pastel sage-green and the stalks of the plants are a light pastel dusky-rose. I decided to keep these cushions for the living room instead of using them outdoors. 

I made 3 of the bird cushions then decided that I needed contrasting cushions with a bit more colour to lift the room. So, I went back to the shop and looked at all the furnishing fabric options. I settled on the dusky-rose pink velvet material, which I hoped toned in well with the bird material. 

The shop assistant wasn't too sure of my choice of colour. However, I liked the colour combination and I asked several other customers what they thought. They said it was a perfect match, they loved the combination too.

I bought enough of the velvet to make three cushions. I have made one already and will make the other two over the weekend.

I am daydreaming about adding some smaller cream-coloured cushions, maybe hand knitted moss-stitch, or crewel work in cream-on-cream. Maybe one day :o) 

What do you think would go with my cushions? Any ideas?

Hugs, Rose x

More Spring surprises in my garden

 

Lords and ladies - arum italicum 

We found large round clumps of white-veined, spearheaded leaves sprouting up under the trees in our garden. We had no idea what type of plant they were. 

I thought that maybe they were calla lilies, so decided to leave them until they flowered. We didn't want to dig up flowers thinking they were weeds.

Then one morning dad called me to have a look at the unusual creamy-yellow flowers that had appeared. On seeing them I knew immediately that they were lords and ladies, also known as cuckoo pint, arum italicum. This is a poisonous weed that we don't want in our garden. We have a lot of work ahead of us to get rid of it.

Willow tree catkins

A more pleasant surprise was to find that the weeping willow trees were flowering. They had long yellow fluffy caterpillar-like catkins all over them. I haven't seen willow flowers like this before. The only ones that I have seen are the furry, silver catkins of pussy willows.

Ornamental quince flowers?

These coral-orange coloured flowers have grown over the fence from our neighbour's garden and are really pretty. The shrub has been flowering for over a month now. I think that it may be an ornamental quince, but I'm not sure.

Bugleweed - ajuga reptans 

The bugleweed has produced dozens of beautiful dark blue flower spikes with unusual square stalks.

Japanese maple leaves - acer palmatum

I love the new maroon-coloured leaves that have opened up on the Japanese maple. I am not used to new leaves being anything other than bright green, so was surprised when these ones unfurled from their tight little buds.

Another big surprise for me was to find that, what I thought was a dead, leafless olive tree, was not in-fact dead, nor was it an olive tree.

Over the past few weeks its new leaves appeared. I didn't look closely at them, I just thought that they were silvery-grey-green olive tree leaves. But when I decided to photograph the tree, to show you the olive tree that had come back to life, I noticed that the leaves were furry.

Most definitely not an olive tree! 

I have no idea of which type of tree this is, nor if it will produce flowers and fruit. Do you have any ideas about what this tree is?

What has been happening in your garden this month?

See you again soon.

Hugs, Rose x