My Very First Pincushion!

   Now that I'm reading so many wonderful quilting and crafting blogs, I've been getting the "itch" to make a pincushion.  I finally found just the right pattern for a beginning sewer.   Retromummy kindly published a post about Sewing 101.  It had links for several projects, including this pincushion tutorial.  I got the idea to add the ribbon from a free pincushion project from allpeoplequilt.com.

Voila!!  There she (?)  is....

Side 1:

and Side 2:

Pretty cute if I do say so myself!  I'm happy with it :o)

* * I aplogize for the color and light quality of my photography-- I'll have to work on that.

In making this, I learned a few new things, such as what a doll needle is:

(It pierced some pretty big holes in my brand new homemade project!)

Since I took the Process Pledge, I have to confess that I also cheated a little bit:

I used fabric glue to secure the end of the ribbon!!  (You can see the tail just to the right of the coin)

And I really have to learn how to do invisible stitching!! (I'm almost embarassed to post this, but it's hard to learn these things from a book and I don't have a real live mentor handy at the moment-- I really need to sign up for a class!  And soon!)

slightly outdated book from 1976-- but still a good resource

In retrospect, as I post this, it occurs to me that I could very easily find a video tutorial on youtube or on one of the quilting blogs--  I'll remember that for next time!

I used one of my all-time fabric fabrics:  Cherish (in Plum) from Kona Bay Fabrics.  Isn't it gorgeous?

I usually use my magnetic pin holder, but now I don't have to take that back and forth with me to the dining room table when I'm pinning borders on a quilt top-- I can use my handy new pincushion instead!

P.S.-- For those of you who read my previous post about kitchen towels, you will appreciate how excited I was to find these at Target yesterday!!  Bright and cheerful (unlike the weather outside at the moment!)