Wedding date cushion - with applique and embroidered letters

Tom and Jess only wanted handmade presents or donations. So, of course, it was an excellent opportunity for me to make a huge cushion! I used lots of the left over bunting scraps to create the letters, which I appliquéd on using what my machine calles 'patchwork stitch'. It turns out some of the bunting material, and the yellow backing was perhaps a bit thin, so I had to do some hand touching up afterwards.

I printed out letter templates, cut them out and pinned them to material, ready to cut round. A fiddly job with some of the smaller letters, but here they are ready for sewing.

I should have realised at this point that the base material was perhaps a bit thin - you can see how easily it's creasing.

Sewing the letters - you can just see our adopted black cat Blur, who likes to help. For this cushion, I wanted to have a go using the fancier of the letter stitching options on my machine. Here's the practice run.

And here's the real thing - only a wee bit wonky!

Almost done- adding the zip using the zip foot on my machine.  Most places suggest you tack round zips to hold them in place as you sew, but I usually find that as long as the hems are well ironed, you can just hold it in place as you sew it in.

And finally, a couple of green heart shaped buttons I couldn't resist - these are from Our Patterned Hand on Broadway Market.