WISH Quilt, 2 Dresses and a Cushion!

Last Night I went to my first WI St Helens craft class, which is an introduction to quilt making. There are ten of us in the group and we're being led by a lovely lady called Val. I made my first simple quilt at Christmas using a fleece blanket as backing, but I'd love to know how to make a proper quilt with layers and binding. Hopefully through the class I will pick up some new skills. Val has provided each of us with enough fabric to make two blocks that will be put together to make one group quilt that we will all have helped to make. I think the idea is to raffle the quilt within the group at the end of our sessions so one lucky person will get to take it home, but we'll all get to learn new skills so that we can go on to make more quilts of our own.
The material chosen is red, white and blue, a favourite combination of mine, so I was very happy.
Val talked us through the instructions, gave us our fabric and sent us on our way to make our two blocks, at home before the next meeting in two weeks time. I decided to make my two blocks today while the instructions were still fresh in my mind. I think they turned out alright, I'm hoping they have! It's totally different when you're making things for other people.

All that's left for me to do is embroider a little motif on each one to identify them as mine.
Making the blocks left me in the mood for sewing and the blocks hadn't taken very long at all. So, inspired by the colour theme of the WISH quilt  I decided to make a Union Jack cushion, which is something I've been meaning to have a go at for ages. I went through my fabric stash and did have some reds and blues but I wasn't really happy with them. Then I remembered that there were a couple of school summer dresses lurking in the girls bedroom upstairs. They somehow dodged the last charity collection and now I'm glad they did!
That then reminded me that I'd been keeping a dress that someone had given me for my girls, but sadly it had a stain on it that I could not get out. It was red polka dot and I loved the material so kept it with the intention of putting it to use in a craft project one day. Today was that day.

Two dresses ready to be up-cycled

Both dresses had full skirts to there was plenty of fabric so I'm pleased to say I still have some left.
I had a cushion pad from Ikea (I always have one spare) I cut a square of the blue gingham from the school dress and strips and two pieces for the back of the cover from the red dress. I also cut two tinnner strips from some plain red fabric.
I was making all this up as I went a long as I had no pattern to follow, so it was trial and error.

I simply ironed the edges on both sets of strips before sewing on to the gingham and used red thread to coordinate.

Simple slip opening for  the back

The Front

I was quite pleased with how it turned out. It didn't take long to make and it didn't cost anything either! After I made the cushion I saw a post from CaraFreckles all about up-cycling. There are some wonderful ideas in it and I keep thinking of all the things I could make from the children's outgrown clothes.
Today was a good day on the making front. I made my Quilt pieces, up-cycled two dresses into a cushion and topped up my stash with the left over fabric and buttons. I also cut out some hearts but I think I might save those for another day.