Monthly Archives: August 2016

Pincushion Project

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Who can resist alliteration–just sayin’

traditional pincushion

Does everybody in American have one of these?

One of my quilt groups has a pincushion exchange scheduled for next month, and the last program was a display of many creative pincushions. I wish I had taken pictures! Since this is quite a creative group, I’ll be sure to take some at the exchange.

Meanwhile, I needed to make a pincushion. Note that I don’t say I need a pincushion. That certainly is not the case. I have a number of pincushions, and yes, I use all of them. However, to say I need another would be pushing it!

There are lots of great pincushion ideas on Pinterest, so I just made my own Pincushion board to collect a few. Then I chose one I thought I could make, and here it is:

pincushion

Dresden Pincushion, made from a free pattern at AllPeopleQuilt.com

I also noted that one of the bloggers I follow had gone crazy making pincushions, many of which were just little quilt blocks sewn together and filled. So I made a mini from some 2″ finished blocks I found in the orphan bin.

Then I went a little crazy myself, and took pictures of all my pincushions.  Most of them were gifts from friends or family, which gives them special meaning.

And finally, a fun factoid: I learned in my research that it is best to stuff pincushions with crushed walnut shells to give them a little heft!  And those crushed shells are sold as lizard litter in the pet store!  Who knew?

One last pincushion, a miniature: miniature pincushion

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Tuesday Quilters’ Show

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One of my quilt groups (which I seldom attend because it meets during the day and I work full time) is having a little show at the church where they meet, so I stopped by to take some pictures.  Most of these ladies are traditional quilters, and many are quite accomplished.

quilt show

The purple diamonds near the center feature geckos fussy-cut from a batik

One of the women has really gotten going on miniature quilts, so this next bunch are all by Maryann Budahl. They are under 12″ x 12″, and they are NOT as wonky as they seem in the pictures–some were hung too high for me to photograph them well.

miniature quilt

Look at that quilting!

You can click on any of these little quilts to see it up close.

Here are a few of the other quilts on display:

miniature quilt

This is a miniature by Susan Roper.

There were several Christmas quilts:

Christmas quiltChristmas table runnerSeveral full size quilts were draped rather than hung, so I couldn’t get a complete picture of them.

traditional quilt

traditional pieced quiltAnd here are some medium-sized quilts:

star quilt

Christmas sampler quilt

A Bird, Several Houses, and More by Maryann Budahl

And finally, a quilt that looked pretty modern to me:modern wall quilt

There is a fair amount of overlap between this group and the Smoky Mountain Quilters (of Franklin, NC) who will be having a show in September, so I look forward to seeing more quilts soon.

 

Amazon Star

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This quilt was finished, even to the binding, late last year. It took several years to do, so I was well over it by that point. It is a Judy Niemeyer pattern (Quiltworx.com) and finished king size. I love her patterns because they are beautiful and the instructions are very well organized. Maybe some day I’ll even make another one.Amazon-star

For now, I have dragged this quilt out and I’m putting a hanging sleeve on it so I can enter it in the show for one of my local guilds, the Smoky Mountain Quilters of Franklin, NC. The quilting was by a friend who’s done my quilting for years–WAY too much to try to quilt a king size on my home machine!

So this is a second “finish” for this quilt, getting it ready to display.  I’m glad I got it out of the closet and ready to show 🙂  Quilt shows are a motivator sometimes.  And, since I’m counting this as my August Finish, I’m sending it to Aunt Marti as well!

New Design Wall!

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I have had several types of design wall over the years, most recently just a flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth hanging on the wall. However, a few months ago I read Katie Pedersen’s instructions for her design wall, and decided I wanted THAT one!  She used big sheets of foam insulation covered with a flannel sheet, so fabric sticks to the flannel and pins go into the board easily if needed.

A non-messy part of my husband’s shop is in the same space as my studio, so it made getting him to make the design wall for my birthday really easy!

design wall for quilter

The shop corner of the studio!

I e-mailed my husband Katie’s design wall tutorial, then e-mailed Katie for further help. (She washed her flannel sheet twice, drying it on hot both times.)

My husband had a few ideas to make the whole thing sturdier, so he added a thin sheet of underlayment material behind the insulating foam board.  Then he added a wood frame on the back to stabilize the whole thing.  This shows the back side with tape holding the foam to the underlayment, as well as the wood frame.  We glued the insulating foam and underlayment together, as well.

Back side of quilt wall, showing taped seam where pieces were joined and a wood frame to reinforce the whole thing.

Back side of quilt wall, showing taped seam where pieces were joined and a wood frame to reinforce the whole thing. Tape at the edges wraps around both board and foam to hold them together as well.

Then we wrapped the sheet, taped, and stapled per Katie’s instructions.

Despite all that, every project has its glitches:

We were NOT successful in putting bolts or screws through the whole thing to attach it to the wall.  Finally we decided to hang it with a French cleat, which you can see here if you want to know what that is.  That meant that nothing from the hanging apparatus had to go through the front, so no holes in the flannel!

And finally, here it is:design wallI’ve used it quite a bit already, and it works beautifully!  Thanks for the idea, Katie!

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