Tinga Tinga inspired Cushion Covers

 

This happens to me nearly every year. My sister-in-law's birthday creeps on me and suddenly it is the day before. True to the tradition I was up early to finish off her present in order to put it in post and hope for the best. In most cases I ask her what she would like to have. She is very obliging to wish for handmade things. As you might know, I am not much for buying things. I hope there is still scope for a few years of presents and surely then we can start from the beginning as the first ones wear down...

This time she asked for a cushion cover for her sofa. Of course I can only make these things in pairs, so she was gifted with two. She said that she would like to have reds, oranges, maybe pinks and even blue. Now I know that the picture hanging in her living room is very similar to this with a bit of pink instead of blue and it was a sort of "known" point in the scheme.

I made the bird cushion using the painting loosely as a model for my bird.

We have another Tinga Tinga painting which I used as a starting point for the beast. I didn't go an see the painting, just used my memory of it in order to let my own imagination work. I think I achieved the same as the painting; you cannot really tell whether the beast is a leopard or hyena or maybe a spirit animal.

For the edges and backing I used some lovely handmade batik from Tanzania. I had this in my stash and although I did not need to, I decided to patchwork it to add a "folky" touch. I also wanted to do the top-stitching in the colour of the background in the middle.

The animals were machine stitched onto the background, without bondaweb or such. I then hand embroidered the embellishing. The bird has some recycled beads on it. Bear with me while I am drowning you with my pictures!

Happy Birthday S!