Introducing Hanako!

Remember this exotic lady?  I didn't actually showcase the whole of her when I completed the appliqué and so on back in late Feb/early March as I wanted to save her and display her in situ.  Well, the scatter cushion cover she was made up into was finally finished on Wednesday, shortly after my posting the feather finish.=)

She's worked on white fine cotton lawn fabric, which was backed with another similar piece of white.  The appliquéd fabrics are Japanese imports bought in a fabric market in Taipei, Taiwan.  They were sold in either fat quarters or rolls about an eighth of a fat quarter in area for patchwork and quilting (which seems quite popular in both countries).  The background to the hands and face was painted using Colourcraft's fabric paints and all the outlines were put in using good old anchor stranded cottons.

Sewing this one up was almost as bad as all those trousers! I think it was too much at one time.  It was also the most complex scatter cushion cover I'd ever done, having a border with mitred corners on, plus piping.  It was my first go at mitred corners and three of the four came out very well.  The fourth just missed, but the gap isn't really glaring, so I decided to let it go and put that down to experience.=)

So, what do you think?  Was she worth the five month wait?!!

Here's the top corner of the back so you can see the pretty backing fabric.  I actually used the same one that appears in Hanako's obi.

I think I'll send a photo to the 'Inspirations' magazine team , because I got the outline for her from a back issue and they may be interested to see what I've made of it.  I'm considering sending a shot or two of the ring cushion to Helen M Stevens too.=)  Have you ever sent photos of your work to the designer?  What happened?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014