The Cathedral Motif

Happy New Year!
Early in December I saw a post on Instagram from poppyandbliss of a cushion she had made using the cathedral motif... it was lovely and I fell in love...
So I tried to find it (preferably for free!) It is available on Ravelry but not for free however I eventually found it on a blog by lostsentiments.
I decided I would like to cover my old footstool with it, so with that in mind I choose the colours of mocha, meadow, grape, gold and parchment in Stylecraft Special DK.The footstool measures 21" x12".
This is where I lost the plot and somehow... no idea how...I estimated I needed 48 squares! Now this is a small footstool so my alarm bells should have been ringing...but they were silent and off I went and made 48 squares! They took a while!

Such a very pretty motif!
Then I found I only needed 15... seriously... I need locking up... I could have cried!

All joined with parchment with the join-as-you-go method which is a little different with a solid granny square.
Ooana has a good tutorial on YouTube

Blocking before I start the border to fit the stool. You know how much I love to block!

This is where I thought I might have trouble making it fit and look nice.
On the first round I decreased at the corner by 3 stitches and this gave a really great corner shape... so happy!
Then decreased each row starting with every 5th stitch, then 4th, 3rd and 2nd which made a super fit.
Just to make it secure and not get rucked up by bottoms, feet or cats, I made a long chain and threaded it through the final row and fastened it tight with a bow.

Ta'Dah! So pleased with how this turned out and have enough squares left over to make some matching cushions... which is of course what I always intended...

xxx Eirawen

And here they are :)

 

Cushions are the easiest and quickest things to make and I will tell you how I made these.                                 

Each cushion needs 18 squares... 14 x cathedral motif and 4 x  three round solid grannies.

This makes the cushion have a different design on each side. There are 9 squares on each side and I have joined them in a continuous join as you go. If you are stitching them together or some other crochet join you need to add a round of trebles to both the cathedral motif and the solid granny. 

This is the pattern for the solid granny square:

4ch, sl st to join ( or magic circle)
1. 3ch 2tr, 2ch 3tr, repeat twice more until 4 corners, sl st to join.
2. 3ch, tr into each tr, 2tr 4ch 2tr in each corner, sl st to join.
3.Repeat round 2
4 Repeat round 2 (OMIT THIS ROUND IF JAYG)

Once all the squares were joined I added 2 rows of trebles around the whole edge to give the size I wanted (14" x 14"). Now they are ready to join together.  So many ways depending on the effect you want. You can crochet them or stitch them , whatever you fancy! I joined mine with a simple slip stitch . You get a slight raised edge which looks very neat.

I left an opening at the bottom for the cushion insert and then made a chain of 130 to close the bottom with. I doubled it over to give more strength that is why it is so long! Then using a darning needle I threaded it through and closed it with a bow.

This makes a 14" x 14 " cover and will need a 16" x 16" insert to plump it out properly!   

I am so pleased with these they look so pretty and elegant in these colours. 

xx Eirawen