Ampersand cushion with piping

My pal eversojuliet has an ampersand fetish and has been hinting at me for an ampersand cushion for her new flat. I was told it had to be black and white..  

My interpretation of a black & white ampersand cushion

 

To make it I found an attractive ampersand and printed it off. Then found some funky fabric (not exactly white) in my stash that would look good against black cotton. My button supply had become low, so I got a colourful bag of buttons from John Lewis for £3, along with a fluffy cushion.

After driving myself nuts for 15 minutes looking for the bondaweb I knew I had put somewhere safe, I created an applique ampersand on the cushion front. I used the button stitch instead of zigzag - I think it works much better for applique (thanks for the top tip Rachel)

Piping seemed to feature quite heavily in this year's Great British Sewing Bee. I felt I needed to give it a go, how hard can it be? Will this add that je ne sais quoi to my cushions? There's heaps of online how-tos, like this one, but I'm a bit lazy and have an aversion to using pins. So I cut out one inch strips on the bias, found a bit of acrylic wool (didn't have time to buy fancy piping and was inspired by Did You Make That?'s use of string), and used the zipper foot to make something that resembled what I thought it should look like. After a bit of swearing and wishing I made them 1.5inch strips, it seemed to work!

I attached the piping to the cushion cover front, and then put the cushion together in the usual way.

oooo- lovely bit of piping - and by using a bit of wool!

Not a bad housewarming pressie. I hope she likes it!