Pincushions

I finished up my little Cathedral Window blocks the other day. Some of you guessed right. I made them into cute little pincushions.

These pincushions are available in the shop.

They’re so cute. I love the way they turned out. I really like the weight of them, think bean bag. You could even throw ‘em at your husband for making uncalled for “constructive criticism” about your latest project. I filled them with an abrasive to help keep those quilting pins nice and sharp. Did you know that is what the little strawberry on the tomato pincushions is for? It’s filled with an abrasive as well so when you have a dull pin you’re supposed to stick it in and out of the little strawberry a couple of times. Eh, I usually just throw away my dull pins, but it’s not very often because I’ve had an abrasive filled pincushion for years. (Usually it’s because I’ve nicked a pin with my needle while sewing *shh* don’t tell the quilt police.) So yeah, these pincushions are like a giant version of the teeny strawberry.

These were such a fun quick project and just what I needed to take my mind off the Neptune quilt on my frame. Today I completed a whole row of quilting while the baby took his afternoon nap. I’ve got lots of scraps hanging around so you’ll probably be seeing more pincushions in my shop.

~ Norma

A Little Something

Yesterday I didn’t feel like working on my Neptune quilt. So I whipped up 2 little projects that will be added to the shop soon. Here’s a sneak peek!

 

Sometimes you just gotta work on something else.

~Norma

Don’t forget to enter the Heather Ross fish fabric Giveaway.

Cathedral Window Pillow

I recently had a finish! Lately it seems like I have a ton of unfinished projects or projects that "need" to be started.

I finished this lovely pillow:


for my girl Heidi:

whom I was so lucky to visit last month on my little trip to Utah. This pillow is super special because it is made using fabrics from her husband's ties. The red fabric is from the first tie she ever gave him, and the silver fabric is from the tie he wore at their wedding

I finished it last week but I couldn't post pictures until I was sure that Heidi had received it. I mailed it out Wednesday afternoon and it made it to UT on Saturday, just in time for Mother's Day!

I had been working on this pillow for about a month. It really isn't horribly difficult but it was my first time making the Cathedral Window pattern and I was just too afraid of ruining the ties! I finally just took the plunge and finished it up. I must say it turned out beautifully. I basically followed the instructions on A La Mode and can be found here (part 1, part2) Instead of pinning all the window fabrics and the arcs, I used a fine line of Elmer's glue and heat set it with my iron. I glued all of the windows and arcs down before heading to my sewing machine. By doing all of the gluing I was able to do continuous stitching from one arc to the next with minimal starting and stopping.

Before sewing but after all the windows were glued down
This is how I did continuous line stitching

I love the finished product and I have always admired the Cathedral Window quilts. I don't know if I have a queen size quilt in me! I may just have to compromise at pillows!