I got really Skinny...

Edited - look at the end of the post for some observations on how I stuffed my skinny pincushion.


No I didn't drop a ton of weight... I got lots of Skinny pincushions!

Did you see the Skinny pincushion swap over on Amy's blog - Amy Made That.? She has a link to the pattern and she masterfully arranged for lots of great gals to swap skinny pincushions.

Yesterday I got a wonderful package in the mail with not one but TWO Skinny pincushions all the way from New Zealand! Now that is pretty exotic for an old gal from Ohio. Karen at Baa's Amazing Adventures sent me all these goodies!

Two adorable Skinny pincushions - so bright and cheerful! And there was yummy yummy candy (was is the correct verb... it went fast LOL!) And cute fabric that is unlike anything in my stash and isn't the little flip flop adorable -- its a magnet. Thank you Karen for such lovely gifts. I truly appreciate your work and thoughtfulness.

And I ended up making more than one when I got into this project, cause they are like potato chips - you can't eat or make just one! I added a button to each of the ones I made. I ran across a stash of ceramic buttons that I figure are close to 20 years old -- oh my goodness, I do horde stuff - LOL - but it is good stuff and it has aged well, don't you think?

The one at the bottom is the one I sent to Kelly at Pinkadot Quilts. She requested bright and vintage and to me that means something from the designer Sandy Klop's American Jane fabric collections. I  gifted the brown one to another friend and kept other two for me - -yeah I'm kind selfish where chickens are concerned. I have pincushions in several places in my sewing room - by both of my machines, on my cutting table, on my ironing board and next to my stitching chairs both upstairs and down. Now in some cases these pincushions are only about 5 feet apart but when I want a pin I want it at my finger tips and I don't want to have to fetch it, even if it is only a few steps -- boy I'm getting lazy in my old age. But it's an arrangement that works for me.

Thanks again to Amy and Karen and Kelly - the whole event was great fun!

Happy stitching-
carol fun


Thoughts on stuffing the pincushion -- I like crushed walnut shells in a pincushion. You can get a good size bag of this stuff at a pet store. They use it for lizard litter - just ask. Anyway I made a tube of muslin based on the width and length of the pincushion about a 1/4" smaller. I filled this with walnut shells and sewed it shut with my machine. I pushed a bit of poly fiberfill into the ends of the pincushion, wiggled the tube filled with walnut shells into the pretty outside covering and hand sewed the opening up. I like the heft you get with walnut shells. You can use it as a weight to hold fabric or a paper pattern in place as well as it being a pincushion.