Trip Around The World Cushions Tutorial

Welcome to a second tutorial this month - I am spoiling you!

This tutorial supports the two 'Trip' cushion kits we have just launched in our Edinburgh shop and online. Of course you could use it to just make your own version with fabric you already have. Or you could buy our kits which include pre-cut fabric and wadding, and where all the decisions have already been made for you! They are also very reasonably priced at £12.99 and £16.99.

These 2 cushions are versions of the Scrappy Trip Around the World technique that everyone uses for their quilts. I have just made these versions especially for cushions. 

Those of you that know this technique will be able to just glance at the photos and move on I should think. But for those of you that are new to patchwork, or just bought my kit, this tutorial will hopefully be a big help!

We are going to start with Trip Around The Block. This makes a 16 inch cushion cover.

You will need 4 different strips of fabric - 2½ inches x WOB (width of bolt).

Sew these together along their long sides to form one stripey piece.

Press the seams to alternate sides (rather than pressing them open or all to one side), this will make matching your points a little easier later.

Fold your pieced strips in half on the long side, right sides together, and sew along this seam to form a long ‘tube’.

Using your rotary cutter, mat and ruler cut 2½” strips from one of the short ends of this tube. You will need 16 of them.

Place these into 4 separate piles (of 4).

Using a seam ripper carefully unpick one of the seams. Lay your strip out flat.

Unpick the next seam along and lay next to your first strip.

Keep unpicking a different seam each time until your 4 strips show the squares moving in a diagonal pattern.

Sew these 4 strips together in this order. Press. (I've turned this one around after I've sewn it).

Make your next block in the same way, and after you have unpicked a seam and flattened a strip you can lay it next to the block you have already made to check on your layout for the next one.

To create the diamond shape you need to make sure your next block is a mirror image.

You can just make the block, then turn it around and hope for the best, but I find it's quite helpful to build your blocks in this way.

Sew these 2 blocks together. You now have half a cushion cover.

Keep building your next 2 blocks, you can check them both out before you sew them together if you like.
I chose a directional print and decided I wasn't bothered about the trees being all the same way up.

I'm sure with a little more thought I could have had them all the same way up - why don't you try that!

Here we are with all 4 blocks sewn together. At this point you could just make this into a cushion cover without quilting. Or sew a few more of these and make a quilt!

To make this into a quilted cushion cover see the bottom of this post. Meanwhile let's have a look at the other version.

This one is called Trip Into The Distance. This makes an 18 inch cushion cover.

This time you will need 9 different strips of fabric - 2½ inches x WOB (width of bolt). This works best if you get a good contrast between the different fabrics.

As before sew your strips together...

Press the seams alternative direction

Fold your pieced strips in half on the long side, right sides together, and sew along this seam to form a long ‘tube’.

Cut 2½” strips from one of the short ends of this tube. This time you will need 9 of them.

As before unpick one seam and lay your strip out flat.

This time we are just making one big block, so keep going with all 9 strips.

At this point you can decide which strip you want going through the centre diagonal line by moving the strips around.

I decided to have a lighter fabric in the centre. Sew all the strips together. This one is so easy!
Now we are going to quilt our cushion cover.

Lay your finished block on top of the wadding piece and press from the fabric side. You can spray baste or use safety pins if you wish, although the wadding will naturally adhere to the fabric once you’ve pressed it so you shouldn’t need any other fixing.

I machine quilted a straight line a quarter inch either side of each seam line. This creates a nice lattice type pattern.

For the first cushion cover I quilted a diagonal grid.

Using a ruler and your Hera marker or removeable pen mark diagonal lines that cut through the centre of each square. Mark in both directions to form a diagonal grid.

Machine quilt along all marked lines using a slightly longer stitch than you use to piece with.

Let's finish our cushions now, this is the Trip into the distance (18inch) cushion.

Take your remaining piece of fabric for the back, cut 2 pieces measuring 13 x 18½” (for the 16 inch cushion cut 11 x 16½”). Turn over a half inch, and then another half inch on one of the 18½” sides (or 16½” for the other one), pin and then hem. Repeat on other piece.

Press and then place these 2 back pieces on top of your cushion front, with wrong sides together, overlapping the back pieces. Pin and sew all around the cushion with a ¼” seam.

Now check out my single fold binding tutorial to see how to finish these!

You can buy your kits here.

I do hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you use this tutorial please remember to credit me and link back to the blog on any social media (if appropriate).