Trillium Cushion

tril·li·um

[tril-ee-uhm]  

noun

any of several plants belonging to the genus Trillium,  of the lily family, having a whorl of three leaves from the centre of which rises a solitary, three-petalled flower.

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The Forest Quilt-Along has produced some AMAZING (and free) paper pieced blocks!  I have so far stitched two of my favourites - the Feather block by Joanna/Shape Moth and the Trillium block by Teri/Craktpot.  I still want to make the woodpecker, the snail on the flowers and Aspen grove.  For my feathers, I used some of my green scraps - the itty-bitty ones I have saved for ages!  Ha - I knew they would come in handy one day!  I have not made this block into anything yet - I am waiting for some inspiration!  Oh how I love green...

As I am Canadian, I couldn't resist making the gorgeous trillium flower block.  When I was a kid, we would take walks in the local forest/woods and spotting a trillium was a very special occasion.  I recall that in school we were always taught NOT TO PICK THEM.  They are our provincial flower and come in a variety of colours and shapes but the white one is the one I remember from my childhood.

Once I completed the block, I knew I wanted to make a cushion from it.  Look how nice it looks with my King Kong Wonky quilt!  

For the yellow centre I used two different shades of my precious Oakshott cottons and stitched some small french knots to give some texture.  I hand stitched the Oakshott green leaves with Aurifil 40 weight (my favourite) and gave the white petals some texture with free motion lines to echo the shape of the flower. 

Each tip of flower has an off-white fabric with tiny little white pin dots which ever-so-subtly contrasts with the white Architextures cross hatch fabric used for the flower.  I used green linen for the border and I tried a technique that I have wanted to try forever -- I added a flange!  I wanted a tiny border to separate the grey from the green linen and a flange seemed the best option and I am quite pleased with the effect.  Not too shabby for a first attempt, though the picture below makes it look all wonky!

I added a tag to the side to add a little extra detail.  The front of the cushion shows "hand made" and the back of that label says "with love".  I love adding these little ribbons!

So there you have it - my Forest QAL Trillium Cushion.  Linking up to the party over at Shape Moth.
Linking to TGIFF over at Pippa's Patch.