Skinny Pinnie - Received!

We are closing out our 

Skinny Pinnie Pincushion Swap!

By now, everyone should be mailing

and receiving their finished pinnies.

As the "swap mama" I had the luxury

of choosing my partner,

and I selected the lovely and talented

Beverly, of golfingbev on Flickr.

Look what came in the mail for me,

courtesy of Beverly!

There is so much goodness in here,

starring the most adorable...

and petite...skinny pinnie,

composed of teeny tiny hexagons!

See that needle book in the background?

It's made to match the pinnie,

from a Nana Company tutorial

that I must try someday soon.

{Sigh...}

{Photo by golfingbev on Flickr}

There are little treasures I'd never seen before,

such as Japanese zippers...

with French sayings...

Or little cherry zip pulls!

There are Japanese sewing and crafting goodies galore

in this little stack of sweetness.

I love each one to bits!

{Everything was all bundled up with bits of Washi tape!}

There was something old...vintage feedsacks!

And something new...this handy Seam-Fix

seam ripper with a little thing on top

for picking up the snips of thread.

{Of course I may never need to try that tool, since I'm such a perfect stitcher. Ahem...}

There are more fabric samples, too...

little teapot prints I had admired on Bev's Flickr site...

and even a Glamping mini charm pack!

{Can you find it, among all of the treasures?}

And look at this darling little tag!

I first noticed Beverly's sewing talents

during the Zakka Along 2.0 Patchwork, Please sew along.

Beverly has a distinctive style,

mixing bits of fabric to create detailed treasures

that leave me breathless.

Check out her photostream, and you will see what I mean!

Beverly's Patchwork Please Apron - Polka Dot Cafe

Thank you, Beverly, for spoiling me rotten!

{I will be able to trace my new Japanese sewing fixation to this magic moment.}

Getting Skinny With My Pinnie

WOW! What fun I've been having with our

Skinny Pinnie Pincushion Swap!

I've joined 52 of my skinniest friends,

and we are all making our partners

a new Skinny Pinnie pincushion.

Here's what I made!

My skinny partner, Stephanie,

lives in Pennsylvania.

{Me, too!}

She told me she likes ric rac and selvages.

{Me, too!}

She loves Bonnie and Camille fabrics...

{Me, too!}

The fun part is that

I didn't even know that she is such a fan of

Bonnie and Camille until after I'd sent

her new skinny pinnie to her!

I love using some linen

along with dreamy fabrics like this.
It's a little design detail I picked up
from the Zakka Style Sew Along.

I had sew much fun making this pincushion!

I left the ric rac unstitched on the front,
just anchored in the seam,

for holding a small pair of scissors.

For the little selvage insert,

I adorned the top unfinished edge

with a wee bit more of the same ric rac.

In my last pincushion post,

I shared that I love to use

Pellon ShapeFlex 101SF interfacing

to keep my pincushions from distorting

during the stuffing process.

{It gives the pinnies great shaping...skinny or not!}

If you'd like to see lots more beautiful skinny pinnies,

head on over to our Flickr page,

and get the skinny!

Come back soon, and I'll show you what my partner made for me!

More Thoughtful Pincushions - Part 2

Earlier I showed some photos from creating

my latest batch of Thoughtful Pincushions,

made with adorable quotations

illustrated by the talented Susan Branch.

As promised,

I'm ready to share the finished pinnies!

After I had made up my log cabin blocks

for the pincushion front pieces,

I auditioned them with backing fabrics.

Let me show you the combinations I came up with!

The dried flower block looks sweet 

with the Scrumptious candy stripe...

Next I put another Marmalade print on the back

of the songbird block.

 I chose a larger Rosey print for the Tanya Whelan block.

 What could be more homey than a picnic check

from Children at Play?

I am just THRILLED at the way this bright Briar Rose

backing set off the butterfly pinnie.

{Can you see that little grasshopper?}

 And the Sugar Hill plaid tied all of these bright colors

together, so sweetly.

I have some tips to share, too,

on how I make my pincushions.

Once the piecing and cutting are finished,

I always use interfacing to add

soft support to the fabrics.

{My go-to product is ShapeFlex 101SF fusible interfacing, made by Pellon.}

Not only does the interfacing smooth the surface,

it also keeps the stitches from separating

during finishing and during use.

I stitch the fronts to the back, leaving an opening,

and then I turn and press the unstuffed pinnies,

until they are nice and flat.

Here's how they look on the backsides...

I think the best pinnies look as cute on the back as on the front.

{I love to put lots of stuffing in my pinnies, and the interfacing prevents distortion.}

Another detail I love to add is my little "eamylove" label.

I buy mine on Etsy here.

So here are the solo shots of the new

finished pincushions.

I had a hard time parting with the sweet Tanya Whelan one!

This one will surely bring a song to a singer's heart.

{I had to make another one for my mom, when she saw this one.

Mom is quite the beautiful singer, too!}

I think this one turned out very charming,

with the colorful dried flower bunches.

Can you tell, I have a soft spot for country sweetness?

I love the little heart in the window of the house.

Here is a fresh cheery pinnie, to warm any dark days.

And the bright beauty of the butterfly,

with the drama of black...

is my very favorite.

They are all off to their new homes...

where I hope they will be well-loved!

{I know that I loved making them, and I'll be making more.}

Linking to Fort Worth Fabric's Fabric Frenzy Friday

More Thoughtful Pincushions - Part 1

It's my firm belief that 

you can't have too many pincushions.

I'm finding lots of wonderful friends who feel the same way,

and that's how we ended up with

53 skinny members of the

Skinny Pinnie Pincushion Swap!

{Once my partner has received her new pinnie, I'll show you that one.}

One day last week, I had a free sewing day!

I decided to make some more

Thoughtful Pincushions

using my Susan Branch illustrations.

{This was the first batch of Thoughtful Pincushions I created.}

Before anyone asks,

I must say that I've looked all over the web

and haven't found a source for the wonderful panel 

of quotations, illustrated by Susan Branch.

{Luckily I had quite a few squares left, even after sharing some with friends.}

I wanted to create this new batch of thoughtful pincushions

in the most playful way possible,

so I cut a whole bunch of colorful fabrics

into 1 1/2" strips.

{I'm pretty sure that in heaven, there will be giant heaps of fabric strips like this,

and all of the quilters will be allowed to jump in them, all day long.}

The real fun began when I chose the fabric strips for each quotation.

I made a log cabin style block for the front of each pinnie.

This one called for bright colors to go with the dried flowers.

I liked the old-fashioned prints
placed side by side with the modern fabrics.

{Repro prints from my earliest stash, along with Scrumptious and Mama Said Sew fabrics.}

Here's one I made for a singer...
who loves pink.

What a sweet quotation, huh?

{Bonnie and Camille fabrics...Marmalade and Scrumptious.}

This next one is a little bit country...

It made me feel warm all over, so I chose a dash of red,

with a bit of black and some gray and green.

{More Scrumptious, a bit of Bake Sale by Lori Holt, Mama Said Sew - again! - and a bit of a cherry print from JoAnn.}

I really loved the colors of this little nosegay,
and I pulled out some bright strips from the pile.

The finished block makes me smile!

{Marmalade, polka dots from Riley Blake, Briar Rose and green gingham from a vintage sheet.
The background is from Tanya Whelan's Sugar Hill line.}

Here's a quotation that would obviously look great
with lots of hot pinks and reds.

For some reason, though,

I decided to go sugary-sweet for this block.

Look what happened...so sweet that it makes my teeth hurt!

{All by Tanya Whelan...Rosey and Sunshine Roses.}

This last one...for today...is my new favorite, I think.

The quotation is as lovely as the drawing,

and I decided to go bold with my fabric choices.

{"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly.
"One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."
Hans Christian Andersen}

I adore the drama of the black print against the lime greens,
with a taste of orange and blue!

This combination will definitely show up again

in my sewing future.

Stop by again soon, for Part 2,

to see the finished pinnies!

{I promise not to make you wait very long.}