Half Stitched and Mollie Makes Giveaway

I'm carving out some stitching time. I had some errands in the next town over and ran by Joann's, 'cuz that's what you do when you're out and about.

They had the May issue of Mollie Makes on the rack plus some Portland Timbers' fabric in the clearance bin at $3 bucks a yard.

And weirdly enough, they now carry EOS lip balm and hand lotion. Which my friend's daughter likes. At 50% off with the coupon.

Successful outing on all fronts.

I  enjoy small embroidery projects. I did some cross stitch when the kids were babes. The only thing I got out of cross stitch was to mind how the backside looks - 'cuz people (diehards) look.

I can't quite decide what I'll make with this finished floral heart. I'll either make a card with it or stitch it into a frame purse. Or, it will wallow in the drawer to age it a bit. It's a cute little thing at less than four inches across.

I, ahem, also have an unfinished sashiko project of pretty pink cherry blossoms. It's almost halfway stitched. This is definitely a small space project, suitable for airplane rides up to Anchorage in May to visit my dear daughter.

GIVEAWAY!!!

I read through this latest issue and almost tried my hand at crochet and a fun granny square pattern. I'm in my spring clutter-free mode and I would love to give this magazine away to someone who can use this magazine or just wants a fun read through. It will be missing it's project ('cuz I did do the stitching fun).

All the projects inside are detailed on the cover on the left. Pretty botanical papers in the middle, a cork wallet, that super fun granny square pattern, some awesome felt bakery food items.

If you're interested, I'll ship anywhere in the US or Canada.

Leave me a comment. If you aren't a blogger, please leave your contact email in this format: You(at)email(dot)com.

I'll pick a winner this weekend - April 8th, 2017.

Stitch on!

Friendship Quilt Pincushions

I thought I had already blogged about this estate sale find. All of $1 - that's right - one dollar!
The quilt was in pretty poor condition but it was a friendship quilt.
Back in the 1930's, 40's and even into the 50's, these quilts were very popular.

Each lady hand-embroidered their block with their signature done in their signature embroidery stitches. Embellished or not.

This particular quilt was done mostly by ladies from Oregon (swoon) in the 1930's using feedsack fabrics and tiny little hand stitches throughout. No machine piecing done.

If I hadn't of bought it, it would have gone to a landfill.

I sat on it for about a year before thinking of a way to upcycle it into something 'new'. 

All of the blocks were the same, hand-stitched six-sided stars with hexagons created  in-between. There is a fancy name for this block . . .maybe one of my readers knows it?

Seaside, Oregon. Complete with fishing boat and fish jumping. A crab! and a seashell.
Some ladies embroidered their town in addition to the date.
 This block was age-spotted but I couldn't leave it out of my pincushion collection.

 Cutting out 6 inch circles, preparatory to making the pincushions.

I gave the remaining holey quilt to a friend. There is still some usable parts of feedsack but I was done with it.

I made 20 pincushions.
Stuffed with lavender and polyester stuffing.
Finished off with floss and buttons from my grandmother's stash.
For sale in the etsy shop.

 More information on Friendship Quilts.

Pin Cushion

Simple Pin Cushion.
I'm putting together a sewing kit for my niece and a brand new pin cushion was in order.

I thrifted a cutter quilt earlier this year - I think it was an anniversary celebratory quilt. It was a grandmother's flower garden with the white centers embroidered with friends and family names.  Probably from the 50's. Although some of the fabrics are obviously feedsack quality.

I cleaned it as best as I could with Retro Clean but it was only a dollar for a reason.

This pin cushion is just a fussy cut 6" circle backed with a 6" piece of felt. The felt was chosen for it's non-sliding properties but more likely because the box of felt is still out from Christmas sewing.

You sew the circles RS together leaving 2" to turn. Stuff with fiber fill and lavender. I tend towards lavender because you want your pins and needles to smell good. Or is because lavender exudes a calming influence over your sewing frenzies???

Then you take some six strand variegated embroidery floss and knot it at one end of a very long piece. Decide how many sections you want. Come up thru the middle, around to the backside and back up to do the opposite side, pulling tightly as you go to get good definition of the petals. My pieced scrap lent itself to six sections.

Knot off.  Look in your button drawer and pick the first one with a shank and sew on with remainder of floss.

Done.


 

I need to make more of these for the Etsy shop. Having a huge clean out sale right now.
RunningWithNeedles
Just use the code CLEANOUT2014 to get 40% off everything.