TOTALLY TROPICAL
Brighten up your sofa with a brightly billed toucan cushion – add a flash of neon stitching to really make those shapes pop!
Brighten up your sofa with a brightly billed toucan cushion with flashes of neon stitching
NOTES
■ Seam allowances are ¼in throughout, unless otherwise noted.
■ When paper piecing, always press seams to the side, unless otherwise noted.
■ Templates include the seam allowances around the outer edges only.
■ For templates, see p86.
■ RST = right sides together.
■ FPP = Foundation Paper Piecing.
■ For FPP, shorten your stitch length to around 1.5.
■ All fabrics and thread supplied by
Fat Quarter Shop (fatquartershop.com)
FABRICS USED
■ Print fabrics are from Basics, Pigment and Snap to Grid collections by Cotton+Steel, and Daisy Chain by Annabel Wrigley for Windham Fabrics.
■ Thread is Neon Yellow by Sulky for Cotton+Steel.
CUTTING OUT
1 Cut the fabric pieces for each section of the FPP templates, making sure that the pieces are at least ¼in larger than the section they will cover, all the way around.
2 From the backing fabric cut:
■ Two (2) 16½in x 11in rectangles.
3 From the fusible batting cut:
■ Two (2) 16½in x 10¼in rectangles.
■ One (1) 16½in square.
PIECING THE TOUCAN
4 Find Sections A1 and A2 on the Toucan Section A template. Place the Section A1
COMBINE COLOURFUL SCRAPS OF FABRIC TO BUILD UP THE FOUNDATION PAPER PIECED BEAK
fabric on the unprinted side of the template, with the wrong side against the paper. Make sure it covers all of Section A1, plus at least in all the way around. Pin in place.
5 Place the Section A2 fabric RST with the Section A1 fabric, aligning the raw edges on the side where Sections A1 and A2 meet. Check that once sewn, the fabric will cover all of Section A2, plus in all the way around. Pin in place.
6 Set your stitch length to 1.5 and, with the printed side of the template facing up, sew along the line between Sections A1 and A2. Fold the paper back along the seam and trim the seam allowance, being careful not to cut the paper. Unfold the template and press the fabric open.
7 Repeat steps 5–6 to piece the remaining sections of the template, working in numerical order. Piece the Toucan Section B–E templates in the same way.
8 Arrange the pieced Sections A and B, with A on top. Pin together, carefully matching the block edges. Return your stitch length to its normal length for piecing and sew together along the template line. Remove the paper from the seam allowance only and press the seam open (Fig 1).
9 Sew together the pieced Sections C, D and E, as you did in step 8 (Fig 2).
10 Sew Section AB to the left of Section CDE, making sure to line up the top of the toucan’s bill with the top of the toucan’s head (Fig 3).
11 Press the block well and trim along the outer dashed line. Remove the paper templates from the back of the block.
MAKING THE CUSHION
12 Following the manufacturer’s instructions, fuse the 16½in square of fusible batting to the wrong side of the pieced Toucan block. Quilt as desired. Susi used neon thread to outline the toucan and feathers, machine stitching approximately ¼in away from the seams. Use black embroidery thread to sew the eye.
13 Take one piece of backing fabric and fuse one 16½in x 10¼in rectangle of fusible batting to the wrong side, leaving a 1in gap of fabric at one long edge. Press under ½in of fabric on the unbacked edge of fabric. Press this folded edge over to the batting and fuse (Figs A–B), then topstitch in place (Fig C).
14 Repeat step 13 with the remaining backing and batting piece.
15 Lay your pieced cushion front right side up. Layer one backing piece on top, right side down, aligning raw edges at the top and sides (with the stitched hem across the centre). Layer the other backing piece on top, right side down, aligning raw edges at the bottom and sides of the cushion front. Pin in place.
16 Sew around the outer edges, backstitching where the pieces overlap. Turn right side out and push out the corners.