Sweet Pincushion

I picked up a kit for this sweet little pincushion at a quilt show last year. It's made entirely of 11/2 in squares sewn together with standard (well, for quilts anyway) 1/4 inch seams. The kit contained enough squares for two pincushions, and I supplied the buttons. This is one side,

and this is the other. The pincushion is made with two top and bottom panels consisting of five squares sewn together, then joined with five more squares. Stuff with polyester batting, sew the opening closed, add buttons (be sure to use quilting thread here) and you have a darling pincushion.

I made both of them while riding to work, with each taking one round trip's worth of hand sewing (less than three hours), then stuffing them at home. I gave one of them to my carpooler, as the fabric raveled a bit and I left threads all over the passenger seat in her brand new Honda Civic. She brought it in to work but none of the other ladies believed it was hand sewn. Actually, on the first photo, you can see the seam sewn shut from the outside as I wasn't particularly careful with it. This just goes to show that you can make things by hand if you aren't afraid of threading a needle and tackling the job. I used Sarah Howard Stone's handsewing thread, which is prewaxed and pretty strong, but as mentioned above, quilting thread for the buttons.

I'm thinking of making a big one for the cat in shades of black and white to blend with the fur. Should be cute, but knowing him he'll probably ignore it. This one I would make on the machine.

It's now Friday night at last. This was the first full week I've worked since mid December and it seemed like an eternity! I hope to work on the Black and White Log Cabin Quilt this weekend, and maybe get some time in on my Persian Peony Tile.

Have a great weekend!