Making a Safari Cushion

The real joy of embroidering is when you can make a special gift for someone you love and this project has been supremely joyous in every way. I wanted to make a gift for my sister and brother in law who have recently done a bit of a make over in their living room. As they have just got new sofas, I felt a cushion was a good option and In thinking what to make, I thought of the holiday of a lifetime that they went on a few years ago, on Safari in Africa and decided on this as a theme. Yumiko Higuchi’s beautiful (aren’t they always) book of embroidered animals is just so gorgeous that it is easy to get drawn into her world of spectacular sewing and feel inspired to have a go. The fact that you can’t understand Japanese doesn’t matter a fig if you are an embroiderer, you can find your way easily with the diagrams and stunning photography.

I have a small stash of thick felted wool fabric that I bought in Stockholm a while back and it is a deep raspberry red colour, which just happens to match the backing fabric I wanted to use - William Morris’ Strawberry Thief by Liberty’s. So I roughly planned my idea - choosing a giraffe and a zebra as the central design. It is always hard to know how to get these images on to something like wool and I photocopied the tracing diagrams and cut them out. I made a few holes around the images and used quilt pounce to mark the outline and then a chalk pencil.

The chalk rubbed off the wool easily so when I was happy with the final outline, I used a marking pencil for a more permanent image. I drew the pattern on the giraffe freehand using the book for guidance.

Once I had this beginning outline I was ready to stitch I popped the fabric in the hoop. It is quite hard to get thicker fabric in a hoop but it is worth it to keep the tension of your stitching good and for me it is just habit - I am not sure I could stitch without a hoop now.

I used perle cotton thread to stitch this giraffe and was worried it might not sit right on wool, but I wanted a more luminescent look than if I had just used wool which can sometimes be a bit lacklustre and indeed it worked well enough. I loved seeing my little giraffe come to life. I used a teeny tiny button for his eye and was sure to add the giraffe’s trademark eyelashes.

The zebra was next and here I deviated from the suggested stitching in the book. I think that interpreting embroidery designs to suit your fabrics and ideas is perfectly fine once you have some experience in stitchery and you can always unpick if you feel it isn’t working.

Once the animals were done, I thought about the background and wanted to add a few landscape details to set the scene. I turned to this wonderful book for inspiration - Margaret Light’s embroidery is, like Yumiko Higuchi’s, another level entirely and just what I need to push myself. Her floral motifs and botanical style is perfect for this project and I used a few ideas from this book, coupled with looking at some images of the African countryside.

As I was nearing the finish line, I took an hour or so off to make up the cushion back so that it was all ready to be made up. I quilted the back of pillow with just a criss cross traditional quilting pattern and the richness of the William Morris fabric just looked so delicious, I knew already the project was going to be lovely.

It has turned out to be a special gift….I hope they like it…..