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!

Christmas Through The Year October update

Linking up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches for this months CTTY update. I thought I had better get cracking on a few more gifts this month so have a few in progress shots to show.

First of all I have a production line of wheat bags on the go

Loosely based on an Anni Downs design you can see some I made earlier in the year here.

These pieces of decorated felt have been cut out ready to sew up into some secret stitching.

And this little Jenny of Elefantz owl is now a complete project apart from her eyes and I need to find suitable buttons for those.

This is a little crazy lavender sachet aprox 4" x 4"

I hope to make at least two more of these if I get a chance.

Autumn is now in full swing - we have lit our first fires of the season and had several frosts.

This walnut tree glowed in the mist when the sun struggled to come through the other morning.

Sadly a very poor crop of walnuts this year.

And a little more autumn colour.

IT's FSNI tomorrow night so if you have not signed up yet then pop over to Wendy's blog now and do so.

Happy stitching