Practically Paper Pieced Potter and a {GIVEAWAY}!!

I've really enjoyed seeing all the amazing paper pieced projects during Kristy's Practically Paper Pieced Blog Hop... and today it's my turn to show you what I've pieced!

I decided to make a coordinating cushion to go with the Harry Potter quilt that I made for my son's birthday..

There are some great Harry Potter paper pieced patterns available from Fandom in Stitches, so although I received a copy of EQ7 for my birthday I just couldn't work out how to put my own paper pieced Harry Potter pattern together in time and went with what was already available!

The original pattern, which I then cut in half and trimmed down so I could enlarge it.

I decided that I wanted my block to be ~10 inches though, so I had to blow up the pattern using Phillipa's fancy multifunction printer's copy function. Perfect! I also coloured in my pattern so that I could keep all the pieces straight... 

The original size versus my enlarged (coloured in) version.

My fabric choices - scraps from the Harry Potter quilt, a gorgeous black swirly fabric I bought for the August QCA Bee block, and some charm squares from one of the rainbow swaps.

... but I forgot to take into account that the pattern would end up backwards and I had to unpick and redo the blue section (because my husband was insistent that I couldn't just swap the Hogwarts crest around.. Bean would notice!).. once I'd fixed that up though it was relatively smooth sailing with only occasional unpicking required when I was being a bit too stingy with my fabric... it really does pay to be generous and then trim back - taking "short cuts" and being "thrifty" NEVER works with paper piecing!

Block complete.. So in love!

With the block complete I decided that I wanted to add an additional ~1" border in the black so that it made the crest stand out a little more. To make the cushion cover I wanted a 15" front panel, so I used 3" strips in the blue mosaic print from the Harry Potter quilt to border the Hogwarts crest (this gave me plenty of room to trim back). 

Using plain white homespun as backing fabric, I then quilted with a simple outline/ditch quilting around the "H", the crest (Aurifil 50wt #2130) and between the black & blue fabric (Aurifil 50wt #2620 - which I also used to piece.. I love this colour, it's so versatile for everything). 

I made a simple envelope backing (2 panels 15" x 10" - both lined with the white homespun for strength and one with pretty binding, incase you wanted to know) for the cushion using the blue feedsack from the Harry Potter quilt. Simple, but effective. Not to mention that it helps coordinate the cushion with the quilt!

The cushion turned out beautifully - Bean is so excited and wants to have it on his bed straight away, which kind of scuttles my plans to give it to him for Christmas! So much for planning ahead. I guess I'll just have to learn how to use EQ properly so I can make him another cushion (it looks so lonely by itself!) as a surprise. I think I'll attempt to design a Gryffindor crest of my own.. but we'll see!

The cushion and the quilt meet for the first time.

So there you have it! You could make a cushion like this with any stray paper pieced block, all you need to do is add a border to make it the finished size you want.

Oh.. I mentioned a GIVEAWAY, didn't I? It just so happens that next week is my 1 year blogiversary, AND I'm about to hit 100 followers.. all of which coincided beautifully with The Quilting Gallery's Blog Hop Party!

So to celebrate, I'm offering up an AURIFIL Thread Colour Card.

Image Source: Aurifil.com

To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment. About anything really, but you could always tell me what kind of fan-related paper piecing you would love to try.

For bonus entries (which are entirely optional) you can:
* Follow my blog
* Follow me on Facebook or Twitter
* Tweet, Blog or share my giveaway and leave me a link.

The giveaway will be open until Tuesday, September 4th at 7pm Western Australian Standard Time. International entries are welcome.

If I manage to hit the 100 follower mark, I might even throw another giveaway on my actual blogiversary date :)

Meanwhile, back to the Practically Paper Piecing Blog Hop.. don't forget to check out the other projects still to come:

27th August - Fiona from Celtic Thistle Stitches

28th August - Anorina from Samelia’s Mum

And you can find the list of the other blog hop stops at Kristy's PPP page :)