Having finished the final yarny chapter of my Mexican blanket I’ve started thinking ahead to my next new non amigurumi crochet project. I have a few ideas cooking up at the moment but firstly I’m on a mission to use up those leftover squares and odds and ends that are the inevitable result of having a badly organised mind with a habit of getting carried away!

Not wanting to waste these pretty little squares I decided I would put them to good use and make a teeny weeny cushion. So with the pleasure of lounging on the parent project I started on the baby project.

I found it fairly tricky slip stitching such little motifs together with reasonable accuracy so abandoned this method in favor of sewing them together instead. As the colours are all different the joining yarn was showing through at the front quite distinctly with the crocheted join, particularly at the corners, but was much less pronounced when I oversewed the edges with a tapestry needle.

I laid all the squares I already had into a scheme, making sure no squares of the same colour were touching. There were a few gaps in the colour palette here and there so I quickly hooked up what was needed. The little squares remind me of Elmer the Elephant, so despite its diminutive size this dinky pillow is now known as the elephant cushion.

It’s small scale makes it a very portable project too. Maybe I should make more of these itsy bitsy cushions, especially with the holiday and festival season nearly upon us. They’ll look so pretty in the tent while also being a great size to take with me for the odd snooze in between bands!

Even just at home with the unpredictable weather it’s been great to quickly transport this little roll up travel case to and from the garden, on the bus, the car, in the park, or even in the car park! (Did I ever mention I like to crochet everywhere!?)

The cushion progressed, sometimes in the evening sun with a cold glass of white wine (hooray for summer!)

And sometimes in the lounge with a cup of tea and some toasted teacakes, watching the rain batter against the windows with the wind howling down the chimney (where’s my summer gone?!)

Ah, but we can still dream of festivals and pray that we won’t end up in a mud bath!

Back out in the garden again to start on the panel for the back. I used the same size hook as for the front (4.5 mm) but up sized to Aran weight yarn which gave a nice sturdy fabric and was a bit quicker to crochet. This is the start of the continuous Granny Square that forms the other side.

After joining the front and back I made the same fringe as for the Mexican blanket.

Now the whole thing was finished I just needed a cushion pad. A quick scoot up to Dunelms and…. I couldn’t find the right size. Well, I did say this cushion was a little on the small side.

Not to be deterred I bought one that was the correct width but twice as long. No problem I thought – I’ll just cut it in half and sew the seams closed, then I’ll have two. However, I hadn’t reckoned on the mischievous qualities of duck feathers in large quantities! Thankfully my playful cats were nowhere to be seen at this point.

Needless to say, the feathers escaped and got everywhere, even without feline intervention! I managed to eventually wrestle them all (mostly) back in though, and a bit of hasty pinning and meticulous, tiny stitch sewing later I had my mini cushion pads all good to go. Now to put the first one to good use… as a deluxe cat comforter. Aww, how sweet, that Mojo likes my handiwork so much.

Well, that is until I take a few snaps of him all blissed out on crochet. He soon recovers his sense of scorn when he finds he’s being photographed and adopts his ‘so what, it’s not all that, it’s just a cushion’ attitude.

But I’ve caught him cuddling up to it since when he thinks I’m not looking, and Tigger too, so it cant be that bad. In fact, I reckon there’s some serious cushion envy going on here. Good job I’m planning on making a few more. The cats can have one each, and maybe I’ll even get some for myself!

It was a fun thing to make and took just a few hours over a few days so there’s no excuse not to make a couple more at least. I still have the sample piece I made for the Mexican stripe basic stitches post. It just needs a back and a border and I’ll have another piece of comfyness to add to my growing collection of homemade crochet furnishings.