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.

Zakka Style Sewalong 1

A sewing book called Zakka Style has been going the rounds with a  Sewalong. Written by the talented Rashida Coleman, it contains 24 projects from her favorite Zakka sew-ers. Zakka being a Japanese esthetic word for cute & hand-sewn with details.
I had previously made one of Rashida's Snappy Coin Purses and wanted to play around with linen more.

The first project I did from the book was the pincushion. Pictured in neutral off-white linen with a cotton print next to it. Turn it over to see this gorgeous salmon pink linen for the backing.
Of course I immediately go into fabric panic. The only linens I have are white or off-white. Where do you get pink linen? Did she dye it? Where did she find it? on & on until I thought my head would implode.
Sorting through my fabrics, I eventually came across this damask tablecloth in watered blue (a bleach incident in another life) and got over myself, changed gears and did NOT use linen at all.
Does this disqualify my pincushion from being Zakka?

I also played with stamping Stearman's on twill tape. This project - in the book - specifically called for a stamped twill tape embellishment and I was ready to follow instructions exactly. {don't be rolling in the aisles - that's my job}.

I have had this little ironing board print in my stash for too long but because it was kelly green (and I have the yellow colorway as well) it sat waiting for the right project.

See what I put on the backside - another print in the green colorway:

Bunnies flying airplanes

This turned out darn cute. However, I really couldn't get into the pincushion thing so I filled it with lavender and stuffing. Whoever gets it can decide if they want a sweet smelling lavender sachet or an airplane pincushion.

Instructions were spot on, easy to read, short & fast.
I found the button ONLY AFTER I sewed the pincushion.

Lavender Sachets

These turned out good smellin'
They are filled with dried lavender from Tracy.
They are fairly easy to make. The real question is how much lavender to add?

   Or, maybe a little lavender embroidery on the left side of the skirt... Across the bottom...