Crochet project finished....finally

With a bit of free time on my hands last summer holidays I decided to teach myself to crochet. I got as far as making the 2 sides of a circular cushion:

Things ground to a bit of a halt as I searched around for a cushion insert to finish the project. I wasn't able to find one so the project got sidelined.

Summer holidays have rolled around again and I figured I'd better get this project finished.  I had some quilt batting and some calico ready to make my own cushion insert.  Two circles of calico were cut to the same size as the crochet circles. These were then sewn together leaving an opening in order to fill the cushion.

Circles of batting were cut and put inside the calico cover.

 The leftover bits of batting went in too.

 Then it was time to close it all up with a bit of hand sewing.

 Next step was to crochet the edges of the cushion cover together. The 2 crochet circles were laid on top of each other, right sides facing out. The crochet hook was inserted through the edges of both of the crocheted circles to make a loop:

The tip of the hook was placed in front of the yarn, then under and around it. The yarn was then caught in the lip of the hook and drawn through the loop.

This joined the 2 sides of the cushion, leaving 2 loops on the hook as shown above. The same process was repeated with these 2 loops.

The yarn was pulled through the 2 loops, leaving 1 loop on the hook:

A single chain stitch was then made and then the whole process was repeated until the cushion was sewn up. When I was 3/4 of the way around I placed the calico insert inside and then kept going. 

For a first-ever crochet project, it turned out pretty well.  Looks just like a cushion!

 And it was nice to be able to tick one thing off the to-do list :)