Pin It Weekly #293

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These cuties are from my "pincusion" board.

And from my "low volumes and neutrals" section of "heart, quilts."

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Pin It Weekly #296

10 pins. No words.

More Pincushions and a Project from Richard

Before I write anything else, I want to apologize to everyone who has sent me an email, left a note here or messaged me in any way. I've had Milly on my hip for days now. Everyone is away at work or school or playing with friends, so that leaves Richard and me to babysit. All. The. Time. 

She's even been sleeping here at night. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving having her, but a baby is work! And since she weighs 20 or so pounds, she's heavy work. She melts my heart, though, and it's possible that I annoy her with all the kisses and love. Ah, I digress, so it's time to move on to the post at hand.

As I mentioned earlier this week and last week, I've been on a whirlwind of sewing to make some pincushions for friends who are all going to a quilt show later this month.


I have finished enough pincushions to have one per person, which was my goal. To get this set done, I pulled out a small pack of 2½" squares of traditional 1890s fabric that I've had for some time. I don't remember how I got them, but I am fairly certain that I was at International Quilt Show in Houston at the time. 

Regardless, I decided to sew four squares together, quilt the patch and then add a backing, leaving a small opening to turn the pincushion and add some filler. This pincushions are oddly filled with sand, walnut granules, or shell granules. It sort of depended on what I had at my disposal. All of the materials work well and give the pincushion some weight. I use my pincushions as pattern weights occasionally, so I always want them to be a little heavy.

This batch of ten are all basically the same in size and shape. The biggest differences are the fabrics and quilting motifs. I tried to use a different motif on each one. The fabrics in this line had mostly four colorways, so I separated them by their designs and used the four colors in each pincushion. 

I felt that I'd cheated when I found this backing fabric in my stash. It was just the right backing and I happened to have just the right amount. Not tempting fate, I used it on all ten of the pincushions from this line. I really like the way it coordinates without looking like it comes from the same family. 

The other thing that I wanted show you is the thread rack that Richard made a couple of days ago. I plan to use it as a door prize for our guild meeting. It works quite well with the smaller spools, but larger spool are too jammed up and the little dowels are too thick for bobbins.  Here's a slideshow of his project:

Oh, he does not like it! Too many design flaws for Mr. Perfect. So he's started working on another one. I've decided to give this one away at the meeting, despite his protest. Someone else may appreciate it as much as I appreciate his work. 

The wood is from his scrap pile, but it's beautiful cypress with soft gray and yellow lines. One would never know that it's scrap wood since he sanded it to a smooth finish. Honestly, my hands get rougher than this wood! (Though recently I've been slathering petroleum jelly on Milly and that's softening my rough skin.)

Link Up Love!

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

More Pincushion Finishes

Somehow I'm going to have to keep track of which pincushions I've shown you and which ones I have left. I decided to show you in batches since that's how I'm making them. Plus, each batch kind of has a theme or colorway. Maybe it's more a colorway.
I wrote about the first batch here.

I'm sewing ahead of my writing because for some strange reason that's how it's going. Don't read too much in it though, I'm not that far ahead with the sewing. 

In the second batch, (here) I used an off-white background fabric. In that post I wrote about my plan for all the pincushions. For these I found a piece of Kona Black in the scrap bucket. It was big enough to cut down, which I needed to do because the other scraps were more like slivers. 

I decided not to spend much time agonizing over what the pincushions would look like. My plan is to let people choose their own, so if someone doesn't like a color or whatever, she can choose another. Or none at all. 

  
I like the black on these but I really like the tight quilting on the topmost in this picture. I've tried this checkerboard quilting on a few other pincushions since, and it always ends up being one of my favorite motifs. Too bad it's so time-consuming.

Of the pincushions themselves, the orange with the thin sliver of black in the middle is my favorite. I don't even know why. I'm fairly sure the purple and gold LSU colorway is going to go quickly, so I've been trying to include one or two in each batch. 

I do not like the wavy quilting (it looks messy) but there's no way I'm ripping out some quilting on a pincushion. If everyone says it's too messy, I'll toss it away. 

And there you have it....four more pincushions in an afternoon of sewing. 

Five Little Finishes ~~ Pincushions

I've been sewing a little, though not much. I had an idea last week that is sort of a secret. My guild has booked a bus to attend the Gulf States Quilting Association quilt show in April. 

The bus holds 35 people and I had 20 or so pincushions already made and sitting in the basket, waiting for a recipient. Making another 15 shouldn't be that time-consuming. I wrote about other pincushions for this project here.

I had to rip out the handwork on this round one.
That flat side was making me crazy!

These were quick and easy. I just sewed strips of fabric together to make the four rectangular ones. The round one is a left-over circle from some other project. I quilted it in a circle from center to edges.

The others all have straight line quilting so they would quilt up quickly. Did you notice the LSU colors? In Louisiana if you want people to love your stuff, toss in a few with LSU colors. That LSU love translates to all kinds of other colors--just don't be obvious about rival colors!

I sort of made a batch of these in an assembly line fashion. First I sewed all the strips for the tops, then quilted all of the pieces by pinning them to the same fairly large scrap of muslin. I used scrap batting, too, so everything used in the making is scrap of some sort. I don't sew my batting pieces together...just kind of butt two pieces against each other and pin in place as I pin the pincushion top on. 

Backs of pincushions in green plaid

After quilting the top, it was short work of adding the backs and filling them. The hand work of sewing them closed was not easy because I use that darn clear nylon filament thread. It's impossible to see, curls around everything, and makes little kinks in itself. I've tried ironing it, which helps a little, but it's still a fight.

Shocker: I remembered to put in my little tags as a subtle reminder to the recipients of me. Well, these five make 25, I think. Only 10 more to go! 

How's this for a little surprise when you go on a trip? Wouldn't it be fun to be able to choose your favorite then pass the basket to the next person?  I'll put a few extra in so everyone gets a choice, but how do you feel about being the last person to "choose"?

Better! Rounder! Neater!

Link Up Love!

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)
Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!) 
AHIQ at Sew Slowly and Fret Not Yourself

News on the Home Front

Is that our daughter-in-law, Stacey, has a new job. She will become general manager of a restaurant not far from here. There's a caveat, however. Isn't there always? Stacey will have to attend a training which IS far from here, so she'll be gone for days at a time...for a few weeks. 

Since the other adults in their house are working adults, someone has been wrangled politely asked to take over babysitting services. Guess who that someone is? Why did I retire? Did I have big plans? Is it possible that the universe is conspiring? 

Now don't get me wrong. Milly is a doll...sweet and beautiful and good-natured. Perhaps having so many adults in her life means she's also a little spoiled. Regardless, when she makes "pretty eyes" it's impossible to walk away. So I've been enlisted. 

Learning the word no

Expect more baby posts and pictures for a while. If today was any indication of how things will go, I won't have any sewing to share. In ten hours of Milly I've accomplished a nap and a few pitiful little pincushions. 

Remember that I made a bunting for a friend earlier in the week? Well, cutting those triangles left me with lots of unused right triangles. They couldn't go in the bunting and there were so many that I decided to use them right away. 

Bunting and pincushions together

I sewed two pieces together along the angled cut, which gave me a rectangle. Then I cut those rectangles so I could mix up the different fabrics. I really love this soft, romantic collection. 

Actually I pulled the fabric from my stash. I could have pulled more pieces like these but felt that I needed to repeat some of the fabrics so the bunting would have a cohesive look. 

In the end I cut two pieces from most of the fabrics though not all. Regardless, my friend loved the pictures, so I'm calling the bunting a success, and that means the pincushions are also a success, right? 

 Back of pincusions

I also used some of the fabric to piece the backs of the pincushions. In the end I used almost all of the scraps to create these four.

Currently in Progress

I thought I'd give a little tease of the art quilt I am working on. Reds, neutrals, greens in snippets, slivers, and slices.

And because I can't remember whether I mentioned this big fat hexie pincushion, here she is. I bought a new hexie ruler last weekend at Joanne Fabrics and used the largest size to make a pincushion. I got so excited that I didn't think to quilt it! Crazy, I know. This one is going to my guild meeting to give away as a door prize. I haven't been in months, so it's definitely time to show up. lol I'm afraid they will forget who I am!

And that is my goings on for now. 
Come back tomorrow for Pin It Weekly. 
Happy Quilting

"Under the Haystack Fast Asleep" ~~ Finish

I've been on a tear in an attempt to use up some of the blue fabric in the stash. It's beginning to become a burden. Actually it's more like seasickness. But I'm determined. I have one more quilt top complete and ready to go on the long arm for quilting. This one, though, is complete and ready to go to a baby boy.  I'm calling it "Under the Haystack Fast Asleep."

Did you notice the green chair. It's part of the set with this orange chair. 

 For this quarter square log cabin, I decided to make the blocks wonky. Talk about add some movement! It may be the reason that I'm sick of working with the quilts. 

Of course, I could just be sick of the weather. Tropical Storm Cindy is doing her job very well. Thunder rolls with very little time between each burst. The puppies are getting hoarse from barking at the thunder.

And in case the weather and the puppies are not enough to entertain, we have an incessant red bird attacking himself against our windows. Now we get one every year (I wonder if it's a family trait) but those have always chosen one window. This guy will attack any window: the bow window in the living room, the window near the long arm, the kitchen window, the window by the machine. 

Quilt Stats
Name:	Under the Haystack Fast Asleep
Size:	40" X 40"
Fabrics:	Variety of blues from stash
Background:	n/a
Binding:	scrap fabrics left from blocks
Pattern:	Wonky Quarter Log Cabin
Quilting:	practice quilting / variety of motifs

It's all well and good to have an extra quilt or two for those times when you need one quick, but you know, I needed a little diversion. That said, I made a pincushion. I bought a new ruler--one for making hexies. It allows measurements for 1" to 5" hexies. So I cut out two 5" pieces, sewed around the block, leaving an opening of course. Then turned it right side out and stuffed it with walnut shells. Easy, easy! I didn't quilt it because truthfully I didn't even think about it. How silly is that? (Maybe don't answer that question. hehe)

Linking up with

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Crazy Mom Quilts 

My Quilt Infatuation
Busy Hands Quilts
TGIFF at Slice of Pi