I Just Found Chilli Peppa!

Chilli Peppa lives in the UK and she loves fabrics, especially African wax prints. Aren't these prints beautiful? Imagine what you could do with them in a quilt! Visit her shop: Chilli Peppa.

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Uh-oh! Do you think the second fabric looks like pin cushions, or is it me? You, dear readers, may have to get together and do an intervention! (Yikes, wait 'till you see what I've been working on!)

New Pin Cushion Store!

Kelly in Springfield, MO has a brand new Etsy store where she sells her pin cushions: unDeniably Domestic. She's been open for only one week! Take a look and check out her Princess pin cushion. Cute!  Good luck, Kelly!

Rocks in Pin Cushions

No, this isn't some kind of "keep your eye on the rock" trick. Haha. I'm making pin cushions with little Nantucket baskets and they needed some weight. So here's my solution: rocks wrapped in cotton batting strips (so they don't jiggle around like there's some kind of a rock in there). This will be glued to the bottom, then the squishy business part of the pin cushion will be sewn or glued to that. I'll show you how they come out. Cute baskets, don't you think?

New Spiral Pin Cushion Pattern.

This new knitted and needle-felted pin cushion is my latest creation. It's remarkably soft and feels good to squish. It's knitted from Lopi wool from Iceland. The ivory roving is from Martha Stewart Crafts. The button is from La Mode.

Needle-felting is thought to be the oldest fiber craft, even pre-dating spinning and weaving. Basically you tangle wool fibers by stabbing them with a long needle that has barbs along the shaft. It's fun.

If you haven't yet tried needle-felting, take a look at my new pattern for the Spiral Pin Cushion.

 If you can knit, stab, and sew a button, you can do this.

I should call mine "needle cushions." I use my pins so constantly that I don't have time to "cushion" them. Pins go into a pretty vintage soap dish that my sister Eileen gave me. Without a "needle cushion" I'd be walking around with needles and thread stuck in the knee of my pants!

Green Hat with Tentacles!

This Crocheted Ski Mask Hat with Tentacles is the work of knitnutbyJL from SanFrancisco, CA. Hahahaha! That is thinking way out of the box!

Thanks to Nedra of the Cactus Needle blog in AZ for the heads up about this.

Glamour Damaged

 

This hilarious "Eclectic Punk" hat is the creation of Julie in the San Francisco Bay area, CA. It's part of her Mohawk series at Glamour Damaged. Julie likes cats, dogs, yarn and coffee. She has a blog too. The pink hair adds a nice touch! Selvages could be added to this recipe!

Needle-Felted Pin Cushion

This charming needle-felted mouse pin-cushion is the creation of Di Summitt of Nashville, TN and Felt of Dreams on Etsy. The mouse is 3" tall. Click on the link for more photos, including the vintage tureen that holds this little mouse. Nice work! Di learned to needle-felt when she bought a kit on Etsy.

This beehive pin-cushion is the creation of Sharon Constant of Oakland, CA and Backstitch Chicks. If Sharon and Nan aren't making something, they say you can be pretty sure they're asleep.

Not all polyester fiberfill is the same. Here's the scoop.

After admiring all those creative pin cushions recently, I've been making some.

Okay, I've been making a lot. Who can make just one? Isn't this nice? I just noticed it's all Moda.

I learned that there is a big difference between the cheapest 100% polyester fiberfill,

 and the "Silky Soft," "Ultra Plush," "Soft Touch Supreme" version of 100% polyester fiberfill.

The next two photos show the Soft version. It feels very nice when you squish it.

The next photo says "100% Premium" but it's surprisingly ikky to the touch, and when squished in the finished pin cushion, it has a high eww factor. I bought a big (20 oz.) bag of it, but I won't be using it for pin cushions. Maybe it will be useful for packing material. Both versions are made by Fairfield (right here in Connecticut), and the difference in price is not that much. Get the good stuff.

Happy First Day of Spring!

Ahh, spring! It doesn't look this spring-like in my neck of the woods, so I simply Googled "spring" and found these images. That's better. The photo below is Longwood Gardens in PA (taken in April).

One of my sweetest springtime memories from childhood is getting new sneakers and running around outside after all the snow was melted. Ked's Flyers were really fast! Haha. (They didn't look like watermelons, though.) Happy Spring!

Selvage from Germany

My sweet friend Martina of Cologne, Germany sent me this piece of fabric with a very pretty selvage. So far, it's too nice to cut. Haha. After petting it for a while, I'll be able to use it. Thank you, Martina!

And Martina uses selvages herself, so you see how sweet she is to send it to me!  :) 

The Quilts of Ann Brauer

"October Sun" by Ann Brauer from Shelburne Falls, MA.

See more of her gorgeous abstract landscape quilts at:

The Quilts of Ann Brauer.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (Green Quilts)

My mother's maternal grandmother, Mary Lehane, immigrated to the US from Ireland around 1900. When I was little we used to wear something green on March 17th,

and we'd have green mashed potatoes with our supper.

Years later, when our sons were little, I used to surprise them with green food too.

My favorite green food is beer! But it doesn't look very appetizing.

Do you have any favorite St. Patrick's Day traditions?

Here are some green quilt for you:

A Gee's Bend quilt featured on The Purl Bee site.

"I Love Green" by Pamela Mostek.

Stunning quilt-in-progress by one of my favorite quilters Sujata Shah of Pennsylvania.

See her blog The Root Connection.

"Weeping Willow Houses" by Bobbi Finley of Williamsburg, VA.

Featured on All People Quilt.

"Eureka!" by Jackie Robinson of Animas Quilts.

National Quilting Day! (Tomorrow)

This "Pointing the Way" quilt was designed by Martha Ethridge to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of National Quilting Day. Also see the National Quilt Association's main website.

So how will you be spending the day tomorrow? I hope to be quilting! Same as every other day. Haha.

Meet Gudrun from Germany!

Gudrun from Germany has been busy creating beautiful garments with her selvages!

See more on her blog: Flohmarkt und Sticken.

Good work, Gudrun!

Texas Selvage!

Take a look at this! "Deep in the Heart of Texas" by Moda has little Texas-shaped color windows!

Thank you to Diane Steele at Rabid Quilter for the heads up about this post on Judy Laquidara's blog: Patchwork Times.

Diane made this beautiful selvage bag. Nice job!

World Quilt - Winner Announced!

The winner of the World Quilt is Linda at The Quilting Violinist in Tampa, Florida! Yayy, Linda!

Here's a photo from her wedding day, back in 1988. Aww.
(This photo is from her blog.)

Pin Cushion Grand Finale! Day 5

Vintage ring box pin cushion by Lorri of All Vintage Sewing in Pennsylvania.

Lovely vintage crochet and linen pin cushion by Redesigning Vintage in Jacksonville, Florida.

Pink donut with sprinkles pin cushion (haha!) by Claire from London, England.

From Danamarie Hosler of the Small Craft Advisory in Baltimore, Maryland, here are three little felt pin cushions. She uses all her scraps, and each cushion is different. Should we tell Danamarie about selvages? Haha, I don't know! How many scraps can one person handle?

And finally, a whimsical pin cushion from Victoria Gertenbach of Lancaster, PA. See more of her work at Silly Boodilly on Etsy.

So, do you have a favorite pin cushion from the last 5 days?

Pin Cushions! - Day 4

Vintage tin toy tea pot pin cushion by Kelly of Whimsical Wool in Northern California.

Vintage egg cup pin head pin cushion by Barbara Rose MeConkey of Ollympia, Washington.

Charming cross-stitch pin cushions by Vicky in the UK.

 "Blooming Pin Cushion" by melissamoze of Austin, Texas.

Tiny World pin cushion by Mimi Kirchner. See more at Wee Folk.

Final batch of pin cushions tomorrow.

More Delightful Pin Cushions! - Day 3

Cactus needle pin cushion by Astrig of London, England.

Yellow egg in bird's nest pin cushion by Laurel Susan Studio from North Carolina.

St. Patrick's Day theme by Janie Johnson from Austin, Texas.

What a charming idea! Granny square pin cushion by Anna Hopper of Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

I'm having fun looking at all these creative pin cushions!

Noteworthy Pin Cushions - Day 2

This lovely embroidered pin cushion was made by Shelly from Victoria, Australia.

Red hand-felted pin cushion by Dealey Dansby Designs.

This one makes me laugh! Little hiking boot pin cushion by Joyce Tompkins of New York.

"Eat Your Veggies" by ADHD Knitting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ooh, nice and soft!

I love this one! It's from Sixes and Sevens in the UK.

Also, World Quilt winner annoounced Sunday!