Little favorites...........

Some time ago, I took pictures of a few of my pincushions. It was my good intention to post them here. I never intended that my posts here would be so few and so far apart. I'll try to do better starting now............

My interest in pincushions came from my mother. She has always enjoyed sewing and still does a bit of hand-piecing and quilting. She has many favorite treasures that she has collected or made over the years and she has given me a number of them in recent years. She made the little quilt that you see on the wooden rack. Then she took little sugar bowls from old doll dishes that were missing their lids and made them into tiny pincushions. You can see how small they are as I placed a quarter near them so you could compare size.

I love the potbelly stove pincushion in this photo and it even has a pincushion in it!! It is sitting on a braided mat that is made of jersey fabrics, likely from the 1940's. I bought it many years ago at a thrift shop called "The Crowded Closet" in Iowa City. If you are in Iowa City, don't miss it. My sister goes there often.

I'll have more pincushions to share again soon!

A new version of the Turkish Rose Pincushion....

Thought I'd share this slightly different version of my pincushion. Instead of stitching the rose in place I only stitched it at the center. First, though, I took a purple permannt marker to the cut-out rose shape and lightly made lines from the center out, then I did the same with a permanent red marker. Next, I took a wet paint brush (do this on a paper towel to absorb any color) and "painted" over these strokes with water to mute the colors. I let it dry and then the center circle was stitched in place and I added some long stitches (Perle cotton) over the colored area. I used the same pink to blanket stitch around the petals of the rose. Finally, I tacked the completed rose to the center of the pincushion for a three-dimensional effect. I was thinking I should have done that to the leaves but I'll do that another time.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!