Pincushions Multiplying

I mentioned in my previous post about the multitude of pincushions that have shown themselves in my sewing studio. I thought it might be fun to document it in this blog. Here's the most recent one I made. Actually I made two of them - one for a friend and one for myself. This heart shaped, bow bedecked pincushion pattern is available free on-line. It is rather large compared to the other pincushions. If I were to make any more of these I would likely shrink the size down by a third or one fourth the original size. It is filled with brand new quilting pins I recently purchased so I know these are sharp and unbent - for now.

Next you'll see a Mary Engelbreit chair pincushion than came from a friend. I was tempted to use it as a small doll's chair, but for now it holds pins near one of my sewing machines. Immediately adjacent to it you will see my pink magnetic pin holder. This was given to me by two very lovely ladies who once took a class I taught on quilt making. I love the ease of using this as I can sort of 'toss' my pins in its direction without looking while I am in a sewing frenzy and it 'catches' most all of them.

Next you'll see a standard tomato pincushion and my Golden Chicken pincushion. The chicken was supposed to be sewn as a couple of basic mini Log Cabin quilt blocks, but I made mine up with mini crazy quilt blocks showcasing decorative stitches at the seam lines. It was used as an sample for a sewing class I taught once. Mine sample didn't quite follow the standard way of doing this as a log cabin, but was a derivative of it. The gold lame fabric is soft and pliable compared to the cotton in the rest of the piece. But the batting that is sewn in prior to making it into a 'chicken' gives it enough body to hold it's shape. Here's one source for this type of chicken pincushion.

In the basket that sits alongside my iron at my pressing station are some small stuffed squares with Rubber Duckies machine embroidered on them. There are three of them in the basket, plus three more with another embroidery design. They could also be used as juggling aids (without the pins!) or as originally made to be used in a tossing game we featured once at the local sewing store where I worked. The small round tin with the cat also holds pins (yeah, more new pins)! When I saw this I knew I wanted it as I already have Loralie Harris' machine embroidery design with this same cat image. I am not really attracted to things with cats on them (I'm allergic to cats), but this little cutie caught my eye and now resides in my sewing studio.

The last picture shows the Heart Pincushion again as well as a portion of the Weighted Pincushion with thread catcher my friend Rosemary made for me. I'll have to get a better photo of it to share. It is one of her own designs that I haven't seen quite like it in my search on-line, but looks similar to this pincushion with thread catcher. Rosemary's version has crushed walnut shells in the pincushion part, an attached magnetic strip to keep track of needles and scissors, and is weighted with a ceramic tile.

You can see another package of NEW PINS! I found them while de-cluttering my sewing studio. I've also got some older yellow headed pins that are just not as sharp as the long glass headed quilter's pins. Obviously I like using the sharper ones so I don't struggle getting pins through several layers of fabric.