A little while ago I wrote a Sunday Scribble about the things that inspired me. This piece comes from many hours spent staring at Ordnance Survey maps whilst we were on holiday and using them to plan walks.
When you look at a map there are lines to show the contours of the ground; they show where hills are as they show increasing heights above sea level. The gradient lines are drawn for every 10m increase in height so the closer together the lines, the steeper the gradient. I was inspired to make this quilted cushion cover from the images on the maps. I think I’ll be able to use it in my classroom as a teaching aid when we study mountains later in the term 🙂
You will need:
- Scraps of felt to make the tops of the ‘mountains’,
- 2 pieces of cream material slightly bigger than your cushion pad – I used a calico,
- 1 piece of wadding slightly bigger than your cushion pad,
- 1 piece of material slightly bigger than your cushion pad – I used black because I knew this was going to be used as a floor cushion.
- cushion pad,
- cottons in colours matching your pieces of felt.
Cut out shapes to form the tops of your mountains and pin these through a fabric sandwich made from two layers of calico with the wadding in between. Pin around the edges to hold the fabric sandwich together – I forgot ok, was too lazy to do this and I paid for it later!
Sew the felt shapes on using a matching coloured thread. Sew the loose ends through and tie together on the reverse side to keep everything tidy.. There’s going to be a lot of thread on this project so it’s important to keep it all tidy or you’ll get in a horrible mess!
Sew around the outside of each shape using one colour of thread – I used blue to start off with. Continue with sewing round each shape with colours until you get to the stage below. If you look where the arrows are pointing, there’s no room for the lines to go through anymore.
Now you need to look carefully and decide where your lines are going to go – you may need to go around the outside of two shapes at once. Make sure you fill in the gaps in the middle if you can’t get to it from the outside. If you look at the arrows in the picture below you should be able to see what I mean.
Place the right side of the quilted side against the right side of your fabric for the bottom of the cushion. Sew around the outside leaving a gap for turning the right way and to insert the cushion pad. Sew up the seam by hand.
Keeps Me Out Of Mischief! 
What a neat design! I’ll have to try this out for myself. Great idea.
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Thanks!
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What a nice cushion…I love the idea!
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Thanks! Got halfway through and wished I’d never started, but it was definitely worth it in the end!
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