A Biscornu Pincushion

I finished the embroidery for my pincushion during the week. It did not go together as well as my first biscornu but then choosing velvet for the base was probably not a good idea! Anyway after a bit of unpicking and restitching it went together and I was able to add the spider to my last corner and tassels to the points. Using a shanked button was not such a good idea either but then, after much deliberation, it was the best for size and colour of what I had so I went with it.

Very pleased with how this turned out although a few lessons learnt for future reference!

This week I also completed the last flower pot for my Red Manor House BOM

so now I am all ready for the next part which should arrive on Wednesday.

So far the only big problem I have with the new blogger is that I am receiving each comment twice by email. Is there someone out there who can tell me where to go to report this please? Also the only way I have been able to add labels is by running through the whole list and checking the boxes - anyone know of a quicker way?

Have a good week and hope to see you on Friday for Friday Night with Friends.

WIP's and trialing the new blogger!

Well so far so good - now to add a picture

That was easy but how do I get back to the left hand side of the page?

Anyway, I think I have done as much as I can to my piece of crazy so the next stage is to machine it to the pincushion base. Then I will be able to add the beaded tassels and put a spider on the web.

So I just found left alignment in 'other options', thats good.

I have finished working on my pomegranates page in my sketchbook. The one on the left is with water soluble pencils which I have washed with water. The one on the right normal colouring pencils.

The photographic reproduction is not as good as I would like - the whole page glows a much more golden yellow.

Now, I wonder if I have added any labels - cant see anywhere to save. But having found preview I can see that my labels are there so that is fine.

OK, I shall publish and wait to see if any comments come through as that seems to be the problem most people have had.

See you next time

June FNSI

Many thanks Wendy for hosting our Friday night get together - you can see who took part on Wendy's blog here

I started off after lunch with some drawing - back to pomegranates but this time in colour.

The yellow in the background is a little more golden than shows on my picture and I worked with coloured pencils. Today I started on another pomegranate on the oposite page using water soluble pencils. Still needs more work yet before I let loose with the water!

Anyway, after my play with colours we went off to meet a friend who had transported some things for me from UK earlier in the year. This was the first time we had been able to meet up since then. They were things that came from my parents house after they died last summer, the main thing being this sewing box that my Dad made for Mum about 30/40 years ago - maybe more.

Inside there are three removeable trays - perfectly sized for storing reels of Sylko sewing cotton - and a nice deep storage space underneath.

There were plenty of reels of thread left in the box - I do love reading the names of the colours on those old reels.

Having completed my two flower pots for the week, I allowed myself on Thursday a new project and I had put together some fabrics for a square of crazy quilting - yes, I couldnt resist making a start on a crazy biscornu!

It was good to have my completed pitncushion to hand when I worked out where to concentrate my stitching. The four corners of the top come down to form the sides and therefore wont have any pins in. So they will be focal points. The top four points of the finished pincushion are the centre points of each side - so that is where I shall put my beaded tassels. The four corners of the base will be very visible so I made sure that the fabric I chose works really well with the colours of the top. Whew - hope you got all that lol!
Anyway, yesterday evening I made a start on two of the corners.

I was really pleased with how these roses turned out.

Not a huge ammount done over the evening - the trouble is I pick up my crazy quilting book for a quick flick to pick up ideas and end up spending ages looking at all the gorgeous pictures!

Hope every one else had a good evening. See you soon - I have to try out the dreaded new blogger!!

PPPP#3

My last post for this years Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade.

Thank you very much Ida for organising this event again and for getting together such a great list of prizes. You can see all the entries on Ida's blog here

I have seen some biscornu pincushions in the parade and as I have not made one before I thought I would have a go. Whilst wondering what to use for the top of the pincushion I remembered a box of HST blocks left over from the flying geese quilt that I made a few years ago.

Pressed and trimmed these measure 1 3/4". One day I will use them I am sure!! Anyway I selected nine different ones fully intending to take photographs along the way but of course I got carried away with the process and the next picture I took was this.

I used this tutorial for putting the pincushion together which worked like a dream. However, next time I will use my usual method of having a seam in the base to use for filling as it makes for a neater finish on the edge.

I wanted a nice bright button for the centre but in amongst my hundreds of buttons I couldnt find anything suitable! So ended up with this green button on top of a clear one which I think works well.

I am definitely going to make another of these. It's a while since I did any crazy quilting so that is what I am going to do next - I can see beady tassels on the four corners!

FNwF's June #2

Thanks once again to Cheryll for hosting our Friday night get together. You can see what everyone was working on here

After a nice drive and walk by the river in the morning I sat down after lunch wondering what to do! It's not that I have a shortage of things to do it's just making a decision as to which project to tackle that's the problem! Looking at my list I noticed that I needed to make a postcard to send off to a friend and as I have not made a card for a while I decided that that was the way to go. I decided to make two cards - it's almost as quick and also means I have a spare for another ocasion.

I pulled out a couple of pieces of printed and inked brown paper that I crumpled up then smoothed out a bit before ironing onto some pelmet vilene. I remembered coming across some distessed tyvek motifs recently and actually remembered where I had seen them, so hooked them out and machined them onto the cards then added a few rows of fancy stitching. The backing was machined into place and the cards zig zagged all around. Tadah! One and a half hours of happy play and I have two cards.

In the evening I got out my latest Red Manor BOM block and started sewing. Not a huge amount done due to several things of interest on TV! It is my fourth block and as I am aiming for two a week I am right on schedule.

It's a windy day here with the odd sprinkling of rain - at least it has warmed up a little bit - it has been distictly chilly for the last few days and I had to dig out some socks!

Have a great weekend.

PPPP #2

Have you had a chance to pop across to Ida's blog yet to check out all the beautiful pincushions? Do have a look, there are some beautiful pincushions there - and while you are there why not link up with your own parade!

I thought I would come back and talk about the two pincuhions I had made since the last PPPP and one I bought. They are these three.

First the crazy pincushion. I love doing crazy quilting and loved working on this adding lots of detail.

When I was making my 1797 Revisited quilt I thought I would make a pincushion using miniature versions of the coffin hexagons and some of the fabrics used in the quilt. These hexagons are 1 1/8"  long.

Similar colours to the crazy - I guess they must be my favourite colours!

Regular readers will notice that 1797 now has borders - I added them this week. I had originally thought that I would applique a parade of hexagons around the border but have decided now that I think I like the simplicity of the plain border.

Now, back to pincushions and the little Dutch shoe. I bought it for next to nothing in a house sale and it was filthy!

The little pincushion bit was horrid too. So I ripped it out and gave the shoe a good scrub. I then added a new cushion using a scrap of Dutch fabric that I had in my stash.

The thimble cleaned up too.

Right I am off to make another pincushion having picked up lots of ideas from the parade. See you again soon.

Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade

It has been several years since the last PPPP and I have really missed it! So was very happy to hear that Ida was planning another this year.

You can go to Ida's blog here to link up and to view everyones contributions. I am really looking forward to seeing some new ideas and inspiration, everyone has such great imagination when it comes to pincushions.

I got all my pincushions out for a photoshoot!

After I had put them away I realised that I had forgotten two so they got their own photoshoot!

While I was wondering what to make for this years parade I was browsing through this little Anni Downs book.

One of her sweet little stitches really resonated with me - 'My Home is my Haven'. Well my home has been my haven during lockdown and so came the idea for a commemorative pincushion.

I am off to link up with Ida and see what interesting ideas are turning up. I shall be back later in the week with a few 'new to PPPP' pincushions. See you then.

FNwF and Chookshed party

What a busy weekend it has been so far - and it's only Saturday afternoon!

Last night was the first Friday of the month so time for Friday Night with Friends hosted by Cheryll. Many thanks for getting us together again Cheryll and you can see who joined in here

It was a wet afternoon here so I got an early start and finished off a pincushion that I have been making for the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade next week so no pictures now. I then moved on to work on my swap hexies for the month.

It's the first week of the month so the next set of instructions came for the Red Manor House BOM. This month we have another eight applique blocks to make.  I have completed one block and started work on another yesterday evening.

I have decided to add a small button to the centre of each of the large flowers.

Also this week we have a new Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour - pink.

I even managed to find eight pink fabrics that I had not used in last years pink block.

Of course this weekend its time for the annual Chookshed birthday party.

In the past I have enjoyed stitching along while Chooky and friends party and sew in the Chookshed but this year things are different! Chooky organised a zoom link up for her party and invited me along. The party started yesterday evening at 11pm my time, just as I was off to bed so I popped in this morning for half an hour and then again this afternoon and sewed along for a while. It was so lovely to see and speak to people that I have been chatting to in blogland for the last four or five years. There were people coming and going all the time because of course we are all in different time zones. Great fun and thank you so much Chooky for organising it.

Monday is the first day of PPPP 2020

If you want to find out more  then pop over to Ida's blog here. And I shall be back on Monday with my first PPPP post.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.