We have a bit of an obsession with maps in our
household. We both did degrees in
Geography followed by a masters in Geographical Information Systems so maps are
a big part of what we do. We have a
number of framed maps hung on our walls along with various other map themed
objects. And, of course, whenever I see
map fabric I really struggle to not buy some.
My latest map fabric purchase was bought in a fabric shop we
stumbled across whilst staying in Kumamoto on a recent visit to Japan and is a
half metre piece of heavyweight cotton with a Japanese style map on it:
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| Japanese map fabric from Kumamoto, Japan. © 2015 Jennifer Richardson |
I haven’t decided what to use this bit of fabric for yet,
but it will most likely be turned into a cushion cover as much of my other map
fabric has been!
I made these cushions as a present for my younger brother
and his fiancé who live in London using fabric I bought on Leicester market:
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| London map cushions. © 2015 Jennifer Richardson |
These cushions were a housewarming present for a friend who
is a fellow map fan:
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| Map cushions. © 2015 Jennifer Richardson |
I also used some of the map fabric to redo the cushion pads
on our dining room chairs:
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| Map seat cushion. © 2015 Jennifer Richardson |
But by far my most favourite map themed project to date was
to get some map fabric custom printed. I
came across Fingerprint at a craft show at the NEC in Birmingham a while ago. What attracted me to their stand were the
squares of map fabric printed using images from old atlases. I just could not walk past that stand without
taking a look and of course ended up buying a few squares which I made into
cushion covers as a present for my older brother:
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| World map cushions. © 2015 Jennifer Richardson |
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| London map cushions. © 2015 Jennifer Richardson |
Whilst at the stand I ended up chatting to Laura Kemshall’s
mum who told me about the custom printing.
Once I knew what I wanted, I contacted Laura and sent through my
images. Laura was really lovely to
communicate with and I was absolutely delighted with my fabric when it
arrived. I had a half metre printed,
which had 3 map squares on that I had lined up to make (yes, you guessed it)
more cushion covers. These were going to
be special cushion covers though as my plan was to freehand embroider over some
of the line work such as contours, rivers, main roads and stands of trees. One of the cushions I then gave as a wedding
present and the others (though I still haven’t finished the 3rd)
were for my Mum for her 60th.
I was over-the-moon with the final result. And I keep meaning to get more map fabric
custom printed by Fingerprint!
Please note that if you are thinking about having any fabric
custom printed then you need to make sure that any images you use are out of
copyright.
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| Custom printed map cushion freehand machine embroidered. © 2015 Jennifer Richardson |
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