Pincushions!

Does anyone else have a pincushion that looks like mine?  It's just too stuffed and doesn't work properly! I'm always grabbing more than one pin or bent pins and my favorite tiny, vintage pins get lost in the sea. I guess every now and then one must perform a spring cleaning of the pincushion, eliminating bulk and what not, but I don't and certainly don't plan to!

After discovering this problem, I thought I could will myself to put the pins back in a less-saturated way. But oh no... we get in a rhythm while sewing and these pile ups just happen. Over and over I watch myself stick the pin in the same spot, like a small child decorating the Christmas tree!

Another complaint: the upholstrey weight fabric I used was  too thick to quickly stab a pin into, so many a pin tumbled to it's death, forever lost to the land of playful kittens, dust pans and unhappy feet.

All this to say that I decided to make a new pincushion and ended up with two extra! I put them in my ETSY shop and if you want one, go get it!!

Did I mention that they're hedgehogs?? Yeah, they're cute little hedgehogs...

Mandy & Myrtle

Mandy & Myrtle aren't spoken for...

If you buy one in my shop and write me a note that says something like... "I read your blog and want a hedgie!!" I'll refund your shipping! FRee Shipping if you mention my blog! Woo hoo! Bargin.

Hop to it kiddos!! Your hedgie awaits!

New Project: Quilt Restoration

Thank goodness for friends of your mom who cast off treasures like this:

A finished quilt top in need of a little love... Oh bliss! I love quilts that are mostly white with all these cute little pattern pieces. Now I can get right to my favorite part which is hand quilting the layers together.

First I'm going to iron the top piece so that all the petals are flat and take out the old ties. Then I'll get some cotton batting to make the 'sandwich' with the backing fabric. I haven't quite decided about the backing fabric yet. Should I go simple and get a nice quality, whole cloth back that's just white? Should I get a cute little patterned fabric, like flowers or polka dots? Or should I piece together a back using the old fabrics I have downstairs at my moms house? Part of me thinks that piecing the back together would be the most resourceful, 'quilterly' and congruent with the style already set forth. There aren't too many non-cotton fabrics, so I don't think the maker was cutting up old shirts and dresses or anything! I'm not sure if these are feed-sack fabrics, but they certainly point that way. Perhaps she got a bag of scraps from the fabric store?

I think I'll investigate the fabrics downstairs first, to see if any would match, then go from there. I also want to add borders on all sides of the quilt top, since the motifs are currently quite close to the edges. I don't want anything too distracting though, no patterns. I would go with white, but trying to match the current color would be impossible and would probably look terrible. So I'm thinking a subtle, muted solid color like a light green, gold or coral. Something unusual to satisfy the artist in me. This is so exciting!

I plan to quilt around the outside of each motif and at the same time, tack down any loose tips. This is probably not the 'right' way of doing it, but I thought it would conserve time and thread. If I'm going to be going around anyway... why spend hours tacking down loose tips before hand? Not to mention tying all those knots?

Any suggestions for what I should do in the center of the flowers?

Vintage Card Games

When I was little I played a lot of cards with my Grandmother and Mom. The best one to play, probably my favorite, was Old Maid. The two of them always got me with this trick:

I'd grab whatever card was sticking up highest without fail!! It probably took me longer than you'd expect to catch on, but mostly because there's something really fun about handing the Old Maid back and forth so much and the giggles that erupt when you get it (and get rid of it!) that I just didn't notice they were tricking me.

As you can see by the vintage set I picked up recently at the flea market, this game tends not to be that PC. I think now they use something other than an"Old Maid" so as not to further agitate those disgruntled old ladies or something. I think I might just have to frame these, the images are so lovely!! The colors are perfect... Hey Kids, can you spot who's in there twice??

 

This next game is called "Animal Rummy." I just love the "Gay Dog"