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.

Ugly Duckling!

As part of the PPPP this year we are asked to also show a picture of our ugliest or oldest and well worn pincushions. I have something that I discovered after my original post when I was lining up my pincushions for my new header pic. So here it is.

I made this to hold my machine embroidery scissors securely in place having dropped and ruined a pair. I does the job but is not the most attractive item.

Notice the little biscornu pincushion that also missed my original post - definitely not an ugly that one!

If you have not been across to Ida's blog yet to view all the lovely pincushions in the parade then I do hope you will - you can see them here and if you have some lovlies then do share them with us yourself.

The Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade 2017

This was such fun last year that I have been looking forward to joining up again this year. Many thanks to Ida at My Sister Made Me do it for all your hard work in setting this up and arranging for all the lovely prizes!

I went to a car boot sale - vide de grenier as they are known here - last year and spotted this owl pincushion.

He is pewter and had belonged to a friend of mine who had died earlier in the year. Her family were selling some of her things. I could not resist! However, he is a little sad I thought and so I removed the ugly blue lump that was the 'pincushion' and replaced it with a big fluffy velvet pin cushion. Here he is now in all his splendour!

He sits on a little cabinet watching over all the sewing that I do.

A couple of years ago I fell in love with this design from Natalie Bird.

I bought the pattern and then it sat in a drawer for a year. But then last Christmas I decided that it would be my Christmas present to me and so I made up my version.

I based it on my favourite Tilda fabric - the grey with roses which went beautifully with the dusky pink spot - I wish I could get hold of some more of that pink spot!

I replaced the wool applique of the original with embroidery.

And beacause I filled the pincushion with crushed walnut shells it is quite hefty so I replaced the bobble on the top/nose with a loop to make it easy to move around.

For some reasdon this pincushion did not make it to last years post and yet it sits on the table next to me every evening!

Made for me by a dear friend, the extra large thread catcher is useful for storing my handcream, glasses, tapemeasure etc

A tile used as the base makes it nice and stable and the magnetic strip holds my scissors safely in place. The pincushion is large enough to hold masses of pins.

Next up is this Christmas pincushion which again missed out last year - because it is stored away with my Christmas things!

It's a Gail Pan design and I love getting it out to use during December.

I am looking forward to seeing lots of beautiful pincushions in the link up - hope to see you there!

EPP Tuesday again!

And I see that it is now two weeks since my last post - how did that happen?
Anyway, I am here again now and after a couple of weeks of dodgy weather we are back into a canicule (heatwave). Temperatures are set to be 30+ all this week!

So back to business as I have a few things to show you.

First of all thank you to Anthea for hosting our link up - you can go to Anthea's blog here to see what everyone is working on.

First up is my DMTV Stitchalong bookwrap which has now reached this stage.

I have added lots of green seeding to the green areas.

The last stage before I make it up is to add some beads.

I have finished making all the blocks for the border of my Hexathon quilt.

I now need to lay everything out and work out their positions.

In the post today I received some lovely swap hexies.

These are from Wendy of Sugarlane Designs - even her card matches in well with the hexies! Thank you Wendy.

So that is all I have for EPP Tuesday, now on to other things.

I have started crocheting squares. Wot me, crocheting Granny squares! Whatever next! Well, I had a lovely bag of wool and cotton left over from my Hygge shawl and I was wondering what to do with them when along came Sharm from Country Fragrance with a CAL for a Flower Garden blanket and I couldn't resist having a go. At the moment I am just aiming to make the flower blocks as I don't know how far my supplies will go. Here are my first blocks.

They grey border is my wool yarn, the colours are all cottons. It does not show up too well in my photo but the centre petals are raised. It's a nice simple pattern.

Finally, in case you have not heard, the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade is returning next month.

For more information see here.

So that is all my news for now. We have a small person here with her parents taking up a lot of my time at the moment so I am mostly catching up with small hand stitching projects. Plus we have a plumbing crisis today! - it never rains but it pours. Hope you are having a great week.

Lucky me!

The perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade is over but you can still go and look at all the beauties on parade here at My Sister Made Me Do It. Many thanks to Ida and friends for organising this great link and for putting together such a great list of prizes. I was very fortunate to win second prize! Which meant that this delightful Moda Jelly Roll - Amelie by Me and My Sister Designs - landed in my post box on Wednesday.

I have never owned a Jelly Roll before so for the moment it is sitting on my desk where I can admire it every time I walk past! Thank you Ida.

We have had a couple of days out this week. On Monday we went to Aulnay which is about 2 hours north west of here to meet some friends for lunch. The church is large and covered in very ornate and beautiful carvings.

Inside I spotted this wall hanging.

Poor photo - sorry - just wanted to give you an idea of size. It is much taller than me.

It's a very simple piece but I think very effective.

Anyway, the town itself is very unremarkable so I wondered why it had such a large Church until I found this tower

- the only remaining part of an enormous chateau which would have dominated the town and brought much wealth to the area.

Yesterday we went to the coast with friends and had a lovely picnic in the sunshine. Afterwards we went to visit another friend who gave us a guided tour of the Cognac house that she works for. These amazing stills are made entirely of copper - there are two. She says that soon they will be polished and gleaming ready for distilling this years crop of grapes.

The onion shape is evidently a legal requirement for all Cognac distilleries. Just a beautiful shape.
The tour was of course followed by a tasting of Pineau (a by product of Cognac) and the five different Cognacs that they sell.

A couple of pictures of the courageous little flowers that have been pushing their way through our dry soil.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend with lots of sewing time.

The Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade

I am linking up with Ida at My Sister Made Me do it for her second Parade of Pincushions and I have already seen some real beauties around blogland. Do pop over to her blog to see some gorgeous pincushions.

I am starting off with this one which lives near my sewing machine and which sits quite handily by it while I am machining.

When not in use it sits in this little matching basket which was a Jenny of Elefantz design and holds a few other tools and essentials!.

This florentine/bargello pincushion is not in use but sits on my shelf of needlework tools. I made it as part of my C&G course back in the 80's.

The box was intended to hold a thimble and now holds a  few from my collection.

Finally my newest pincushion - I love that Tilda fabric and the little glass dish cost just 50pence from a charity shop. I stuffed it with walnut shells so it is nice and heavy.

Many thanks to Ida for organising this link up.

The Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade!

This linky for us to show off our pincushions is being run by Ida and you can see all the lovely and interesting examples that have been entered HERE. Many thanks to Ida for hosting this parade and having such a good idea.

Here are the pincushions that I use regularly.

But I am just going to talk about the two that I really enjoyed making.

First of all this Anni Downs pincushion.

I can't remember now if I made the bag first or the pincushion but I love them both and they are perfect for taking with me when I take sewing out for the day.

This set I made some years ago.

The design is my own using perle cotton on canvas. They live in my sewing basket and are used nearly every day.

There are some stunning pincushions in the parade - I do hope that you will go and have a look.