Pinnie Parade

There's a pincushion parade over on Instagram this month, and I have joined in!  What I love about this #pinnieparade is the pincushions can be ones made already - gifted to a friend, gifted from a friend, newly constructed, vintage - you get the idea!

Here's a rundown on week one:

Graphic made while trying out Canva

Day 1 featured my newest pincushion acquisition, gifted by my friend Caroline.  She pieced tiny pieces to make this adorable pinnie.

This pincushion for Day 2 was made following Heidi's pattern from her Sew Organized for the Busy Girl book with leftover Carolyn Friedlander fabrics and mailed to a friend.

Day 3's pincushion I kept for myself.  I used a thin leftover strip of solids from Chawne Kimber's Small Pieces workshop.

Day 4 was a gift from my friend Jackie.  She made this pretty hexie pincushion with all Cotton+Steel fabrics.

I pattern tested this cute scrappy pincushion for Amanda Jean's Plenty of Pincushions Volume 1. Posted on Instagram for Day 5.

This long skinny pincushion gifted by Amanda Jean was shown on Day 6 and is perfect for placing right in front of my sewing machine when chain piecing.

Leslie sent her new Urban Artifacts fabric, and I made this pincushion with her selvages for her market booth.  That's Day 7!

I am pretty sure I can play along for 31 days using pincushions already made!

If not, then I will have an excuse to make MORE pincushions.

I see that as a win, win situation!

Friday Finish: Journal Covers

With the exception of one item, this finish was from a few weeks ago.  Traditionally, we exchange happies (small gifts, just because) at our Gruber's retreat.  This year I made journal covers using Rachel's tutorial.  I love the fact that you can pull from scraps, cut into a favorite fabric, use an orphan block, piece together selvages and customize the cover with the recipient in mind.  I did all of the above!

made in Montana

All of the above covers were made while vacationing in Montana.  When I arrived in Minnesota, I bought the composition books to go inside.  This allowed more fabric in my suitcase without worrying about that pesky weight limit.  You can use any type of composition book, but I like to use the graph paper version.  Quilters love graph paper for sketching out ideas!  

scrappy 36 patch block

I paired each composition book and cover with a fat quarter of Florida flamingo fabric. Before you ask, it's designed by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake. 

cowboy-themed log cabin

The above cover combines linen, scraps of cowboy fabric from a past project and new "scraps" of Cotton and Steel.

Cotton and Steel version

More Cotton and Steel was used to make this journal cover.

Liberty of London four patch

I cut into my Liberty of London stash to make three of the journals.

Liberty of London strip

This one features one strip of Liberty of London inserted into linen.  I don't have a picture showing the inside which uses fabric my daughter-in-law brought back from Paris that coordinates perfectly.

another Liberty of London

One more with Liberty of London and Weave by Moda.

Anna Maria Horner themed

This composition cover is for my Anna Maria Horner loving friend.

Cotton and Steel selvages

I would buy Cotton and Steel for their selvages alone!  I made this journal cover with the selvages before using the fabrics in any projects.  I must admit it was hard to part with these clever selvages.  Must.buy.more!

That's a tiger....not a cat in the center

My sister was unable to attend this year's retreat.  Being the procrastinator I am, her journal was just made yesterday ;-)))  Sorry Michelle, the QuiltCon pencil is not included!

remembered the label

For Michelle, I used a college ruled notebook rather than the graph paper.  She knows why.

Linking up with finish it up Friday!  

Thanks for stopping by and happy stitching,

Friday Finish: Scrappy Selvage Bag

Happy Friday and happy first of November!  It's great to start the month off with a sewing finish.  I am excited to show you the bag I made using the Scrap Happy Purse pattern by Crazy Mom Quilts. 

I made a huge mess in my sewing room playing with fabric from my one of many overflowing string basket and selvage basket.  I have to say it was so much fun!  

scrappy selvage bag

I thought this bag was a perfect opportunity to put a dent into the pile of selvages I have hoarded over the years.  When cutting my selvages I leave a wide strip of the fabric too.  There was no planning in the arrangement/choice of strips.  I just grabbed a strip from my pile and stitched it to another strip.  Next time I make this bag I will go with a more planned scrappiness ;-)

the other side of the bag

My original plan was to make one side of the bag with all selvages and the other side using all fabric strips.  In the end I decided rather to alternate the sections of selvages and strips.  I am very pleased with how this turned out!  I even made my first gusset and stitched "leather" handles to the bag.  The interior  lining is Anna Maria Horner Field Study linen that I bought on sale and the pockets are Amy Butler LOVE lined in Technicolor.

blurry inside picture

I find the more I use my scraps the more scraps I seem to end up with.  

I'm not complaining....I'm just saying....

I made another 3-D project!

I still have tons of scraps and selvages...I see another scrap happy bag in my future!

Linking up with Amanda Jean's finish it up Friday.  Thanks for stopping by,

Fifteen Minutes

is all the time I could find yesterday.  I guess that answered the question whether playing nursemaid would give me more time or less time in the studio ;-)  Most of my day was spent getting caught up on paperwork.  When my daughter was feeling a little better, we watched a tearjerker movie together, and after that I was good for nothing ;-)

I'm not a big Miley Cyrus fan, but I like Greg Kinnear and Kelly Preston.  I usually stay away from Nicholas Sparks books and movies because of the tearjerker aspect, but my daughter picked the movie.  I have to say, it was a sweet movie....I used more tissues than my sick daughter.

OK...back to quilting.  This is only the second time I've worked with selvages.  It is a great project for 15 Minutes of Play, and maybe sometime later today, I will finally link my last two projects there ;-)

I've been saving my selvages for a while, and I am glad to finally see them sewn on blocks.  

You know...it is possible to recycle too much.  I wanted to use old phone book pages for my foundation, but I don't have any.  They've all been recycled, and I guess the phone book people haven't found us at our new house ;-)  We don't subscribe to the newspaper any more which has really reduced the amount of items in our recycling bin.  I ended up using a monthly neighborhood bulletin that happened to arrive at the right time.

At my speed, fifteen minutes only produced nine 4" selvage blocks.  My daughter is still home sick...poor thing.   I may have more selvage blocks to show tomorrow ;-)

Have an amazing day!!!