Pincushion Fun!

Before I tell you about the "pincushion fun" I had.........let me say this..........I often feel, and especially lately, I feel like I am always trying to catch up. Janice, owner of Firefly Quilt shop where I'll be teaching tomorrow night, offered this advice......."you never get caught up!" And you know, she was right and the way she said it made me think that instead of trying to get "caught up", I am just going to keep moving forward and leave it at that!! Soooooooo, moving forward, I'll get to the "pincushion fun"! I went to St. Peter - not the Pearly Gates St. Peter - but to St. Peter for the quilt guild meeting two weeks ago today (catching up - moving forward, remember). I did a program for the group last May and they invited me back to do a pincushion workshop. I was originally going to package 30+ kits for the group and then I decided to do what I did at the Extension meeting last March..........set out the supplies and let everyone choose their own colors.

I set it up like a "buffet pincushion bar". :-) I passed out the pattern sheets for the pincushion and also gave everyone a copy of my needlecase pattern as there was enough woolfelt in the roll to do both items. Then, everyone came up to the table and chose a tied bundle as their pincushion base, then a square for the flower, a green piece for the leaves and a little square for the flower center. Each person also took a washer and a piece of batting to cover it that was used as a base in the pincushion. All this would make the pincushion that you see in the lower right corner of the photo.

After everyone cut out their pattern pieces, it was back to the table for the next step ........ choosing the Perle cotton to stitch the pieces to the pincushion and to use for the buttonhole stitch that would go around the pincushion.

Here's the whole group busy at work on their pincushions. Everyone seemed to enjoy the project and while no one finished their pincushion before time to close the meeting, most had completed the flower/leaf stitching and would be able to finish up quickly when they got home. In the program I did last spring, there was a bit more time and almost everyone finished. It was good to repeat this and see just how much time is needed for future workshops. All in all, it was a great deal of "pincushion fun"!!

And tomorrow night, I'll have more "pincushion fun" when I teach a similar project at Firefly Quilt Shop in Mankato, MN. More on that tomorrow.

So, what did I to tonight? Well, I presented my "Legacy of Stitches" quilt program to my old quilt group in Prior Lake where we used to live. It was so much fun to see my quilty friends! I had the best time sharing my quilts and stories. Many of my friends had seen several of the quilts that I brought but there were also many new members in the group who hadn't. I really did have such a good time, that I smiled all the way home and barely remembered the drive. Uh, oh, that's not really good! I was being careful, though, and I didn't speed. It's just that I was thinking about what a fun evening it was so my mind was elsewhere. However, I was being very watchful for deer as they are definitely "out and about" at all hours of the day lately. Deer hunting season is not far away here in Minnesota. That's good for the hunters but I hope they don't hurt any of the deer that pass through our backyard. I kinda like watching them meander out of the woods and across to our neighbor's bluff.

Well, that's enough for tonight. Have a good day!

Sandi