Meet Jennifer from South Carolina

Jennifer has a fabulous blog called Kill Them With Craftiness. In addition to crafty things, she tells the story of her adoption. There are tutorials too. Her Etsy store is: Lessons from Lois. She makes lovely purses and fabric buttons (photo below).

I found Jennifer this morning when she featured my selvage pincushion on today's post. I love how the Internet brings us all together. Have a great weekend.

Window Shopping on Etsy, for FABRICS of course.

Is this fabric by Tanya Whelan modern or retro? Yes! And I like it. Take a look at this treasury I made featuring some lovely new fabrics.

Purse in Hand

 

I found this "Purse in Hand" at an antique market here in Connecticut, and it's really growing on me. I added the silk cushion and it's now listed in my Etsy store. The possibility of finding things like this is what drives me to search the antique markets. Okay, flea markets. :) I used to really dislike stuff like this; what's happening to me? First selvages, now this. What's next?

Notice the two pretty pinsies (beaded pins) in this cushion. They're made with pearls and glass beads.

Rainbow Pancakes

Here's your daily serving of color! Photo by New York photographer Henry Hargreaves.

Now That's Better! Pincushion Gravy Boat

If you were a little shocked yesterday with the Endurance pincushion, you might like this one better. I love the lime green silk dupioni cushion. The gravy boat is "old world," but the color is up-to-date. Nice combination of elegance and fun. I'd rather enjoy this every day in my quilt room than keep it in the china cabinet. See it here on Etsy.

I think the two pinsies with pearls and glass beads add a nice touch too.

The Pincushion Named Endurance

I recently bought a little silverplate cream pitcher at the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market. The seller said with a chuckle, "You can have the matching sugar bowl for free." When I showed it to my sister Eileen, she said, "Don't throw it away! Make it a pincushion; it's interesting; it has history!" So here it is.

This bowl was made in Japan, probably mid 1900's. It may have been a wedding gift, and probably spent years looking pretty in a china cabinet. But it has seen hard times, that's for sure. It was pulled from the wreckage for some reason, and because of Eileen, is now starting a new chapter as a pinsuchion, complete with a peach-colored silk cushion and two fancy pinsies. That's Endurance!

It will be listed soon with the other 100+ pincushions on Etsy in case you want to see more photos.

Big Eye Needle

This Big Eye Needle by Yanko Design opens wide to make threading easy. With some pressure, the eye opens to the size of a buttonhole. Keep an eye out for one of these. Heehee, couldn't help it.

Fenton Glass Shoes!

And here they are after the removal of the bandages. I'll make new pinsies for these cushions, although the blue one looks like a keeper. I would never have given these shoes a second look at the flea market if I wasn't keeping a keen eye out for pincushion containers but I like them. The man I bought them from said he has a thousand more at home. Uh, okay. Can you imagine? Do you think he was trying to get a date? Haha!

Thank you to Jean and Sandy for the info that these were made by

Fenton Glass in Williamstown, West Virginia. Fenton is no longer in business.

Bandaged Glass Shoes

You've probably guessed these are pincushions under construction, but are you wondering about the "bandages?" These vintage shoes are a recent flea market find. I like the cushions to be nice and full, but when I tried to glue the cushion into the shoe, it kept popping out. Rather than remove some of the polyfill, it seemed better to tape it in there until the glue dried. But of course you don't want to tape silk. It might leave a mark. So, the bandage!

Yes, necessity is the mother of invention. This isn't quite as good as sliced bread, but I'm smiling anyway. These shoes are so ugly they're cute! (Don't worry; the green silk is actually a nice celery. The color on my monitor is pretty bad.) I'll show you when they're finished.

Girl & Dog to Become New Pincushion

I've been on the lookout for interesting items to make into pincushions. This one came from the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market in New Milford, CT. The inscription on the bottom of this piece seems to say "Rose," and "Germany." It doesn't feel smooth like glass; it's more flat-finished and a little grainy. Maybe it's ceramic. It appears to be old. I'll show you when this becomes a pincushion.

Any suggestions for what color silk I should use for the pincushion? Pink? Wheat?

Amazing Sand Drawings

Doesn't this look like a machine quilting design? It's sand drawing by Andres Amados from San Francisco, California. His site has more incredible photos. Take a look here too.

World Quilt Finds a Good Home!

Here's the World Quilt, at home in Tampa, Florida. Linda, the Quilting Violinist has it displayed beautifully on her red wall. Click on the link to see her post about it. Don't you just love it when a quilt finds a happy home?

Happy Easter!

Very best wishes to you! I hope you have a wonderful day including some time to really savor the beautiful meaning of Easter.

Pincushion from Linda, the Quilting Violinist

Linda from Florida, the Quilting Violinist, won the World Quilt (see sidebar post). She sent me a sweet thank you package that included this beautiful pincushion. This is the one that I use, although for this photo, I have it "staged" with decorative pins. Didn't she do a great job making this? Linda used CD's for the base. The level of squishiness is just right, medium-firm. She probably put some old violin strings in there. :) Linda attached the selvages with a zig-zag stitch. Here's a photo of the back.

There's something special about using a pincushion that a friend makes for you. Similar to having a birthday cake made by a friend rather than making your own. Haha. Click here to see more of Linda's selvage creations. Thanks, Linda!

Now HERE'S a Paisley Egg!

Thank you to Chelsea for telling me about Holly at Twisted Poppy, maker of gorgeous decorated eggs! Can you believe I'm featuring this photo right after showing you my sorry attempt yesterday? Haha. Yes, I have some room for improvement, I know. Holly makes eggs to order, so I'm giving you a link to her page of SOLD items. Aren't they amazing? Yayy, Holly!

Paisley Egg

I've been thinking about paisley designs lately, and even created a Treasury on the topic. Yesterday I took a 2 hour class on Ukranian Egg Decorating. Here are some pics of one of the eggs I decorated.

Learning to draw with the little hot wax tool takes some practice, that's for sure. After that, you put the egg in a jar of dye. You can then apply more wax and more dye, but I kept this one simple.  Next, we drilled a tiny hole in the bottom of the egg and used a suction device to remmove the inside of the egg, and rinse it with water. Then it went into the microwave oven for 5 seconds. That melts the wax and makes the egg nice and shiny.

Our instructor suggested a website for supplies and further info: Ukranian Gift Shop.

Nantucket Basket Pincushions With Rocks

Remember the photo I showed you recently while making the Nantucket Basket pincushions? The rock shown was too heavy. I had to go outside and find smaller rocks, but now the pin cushions have a nice weight. The bottom of the basket has a flat wood base so they don't teeter. The decorative pins add a nice touch; these have pearls and hematite beads. I love how this came out!

Visit my growing pincushion collection on Etsy.