A 'Man's Quilt!'

One of DH's best friends is Mark. It's Mark's birthday next week and DH asked if I would make him a quilt - a 'Man's Quilt!' In fact, let me rephrase that sentence. DH asked me in a very manly and deep voice to make his best mate a quilt!! So, on Sunday after making all this loveliness, I looked through my fabric. I looked ... 'sigh' and I looked again. 

Now, let me be clear, I have a LOT of fabric. Some might say 'too much' but what do they know, hey?! But what I have a lot of is pink ... and flowers and butterflies ... and, oh, more pink!!

But, what do I spy there? Ah haaaaa! Perfect! I cut up some of DH's 'old' shirts last year. All are good quality, made from 100% cotton but were 'tired' and ready to go to shirt heaven until I washed, ironed, cut them into 6 1/2" squares and waited for the perfect project. And this is it!

Because the fabic was already pre-cut, I made the top really quickly but think I need to add a dark blue border:

And then I had a few squares left over so just had to make a cushion (pillow). I decided to set myself a challenge (will I never learn?!) I wanted to make a 'sealed' cushion and bind it with the same dark blue border fabric ... would that even be possible?? Only one way to find out ... 

I made two 9-patch front and back pieces. Because the cotton is a bit thinner than usual quilting cotton, I quilted some thick Vilene interfacing to each piece. Then, I machine stitched the binding on to 3/4 of the cushion, leaving an opening big enough to stuff that cushion through! I hand sewed down the back of the binding:

Okay, deep breath, here goes. Cushion in and opening pinned closed:

And to the sewing machine ... by now, I am chortling to myself because this does not look like it's going to work!! Ever the eternal optimist, I've sewn ... slowly, very slowly:

And do you know? It worked ... it's actually worked really well. I hand sewed the last bit of the binding down and here it is:

Love it! Please come back later in the week to see if I have finished the quilt :)

Update Wednesday 17th April 1852 - just added the border, basted and now it's ready to quilt ... FMQ stipple v straight line quilting ... who will win???

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced - WIP Wednesday :)