Pincushion Parade

There is a fun little blog parade being hosted over at Laugh Love Quilt. Like all the participants I have more than a handful of pincushions that I use regularly.

This Hat Pincushion holds various needles for hand work.

These little China men hold my large quilt pins and a few tiny applique pins.

Here's the main work horse. I picked this pincushion up at my favorite quilt shop in Hawaii on the island of Kauai, Kapaia Stitchery.

These are my little Eskimo ladies...I had to have an Alaskan pincushion.

This one is strictly for my machine needles. I used this mainly when working with clothing...mostly mending...so the needles are only used for a few minutes and ready for the next job.

Another work horse...the pincushion and thread catcher combo. Love this! A gift from my mother-in-law.

My most recent acquisition...one that I made to match my lime green scissors.

The  idea came from a book by Nancy Halvorsen. I'd love to have all of these...just never get around to making them!

There are so many cute pincushions in this book that I want to make that apparently I bought the book twice. I think that's the only time I have done that with books. Sew very fun. Hope you enjoyed this part of the parade.

A Brief Hope About Forrest

In our little town of Eagle River, Alaska, a home was found to be full of dogs and birds on Saturday...it was something right out of the show "Hoarding." Over 35 dogs and 50 birds were in the house. Most of the dogs were Chihuahuas. Sunday night on the 10 o'clock news I saw the flash of a Bernese Mountain Dog being taken out of the home. I immediately hoped it was Forrest who has been missing since July. Since the animals are now evidence for a criminal case the animal shelter wouldn't release information about the animals but a savvy electronic person was able to pull single frames from the news footage and I was able to get a better look at the dog...it's not Forrest. Darn! Double Darn!

Still hoping.
Walks always help.

We did get our walk in yesterday because it warmed up to -7F. I don't know what it warmed up to today but I'm pretty sure it was still subzero...but sunny!

Beyond Frozen

Beautiful

-16 F

Beauty has it's limits.

The two creatures with double fur coats are looking a little miffed that I don't walk when it's -16F!

Jenny is acting as a draft shield...cuddled up against the front door where it's a little cooler than the rest of the house.

Tonka is putting most of his body mass on the cool tile. I guess he's trying to get more cool.

If there were a picture of me I'd have ten quilts piled on top of me. It's cold!

Maybe it will warm up to -10 tomorrow...I do walk when it's that warm.

Not much to show in the studio today...I'm just cleaning up from all the fusible web work I did last week...I made a pretty big mess pulling lots of fabric from the stash for a tiny perfect piece. I'm also ironing...with a nice hot iron. Sounds wonderful.

Fusing...Forever Fusing

The final four blocks are fused...

These are the blocks from the kits...fabrics provided.

And these are the blocks made with fabric from my stash. I love the black bear. I'm not thrilled with the position of the dive-bombing dragonfly...I may have to redo it. 

Next will be the all the top stitching...I think that will be the most challenging step in the quilt.

Quilt Shop Excursion

I was feeling a little guilty about my quilt shop excursion yesterday until I saw a picture of bolts of fabric in the storage closet of Judy Laquidara over at Patchwork Times. I don't have any bolts of fabric so obviously my stash is reasonable. So I'm going to enjoy my purchases and share them with you. Many of the fabrics in the bottom photo I already had my stash but I was in search of yellows for the Dresdan Fan design over at Bunny Hill Designs. (Click the Scrap Plate Club button on the right if you want to check it out.)

I've really been drawn to quilts with yellow as a background color lately...so totally not my comfort zone. So I am going for it! I bought three bottom fabrics...the yellow print for the borders, the purple for the sashing and the yellow for the backgrounds of the Dresdan plates. First I have to pre-wash everything so no cutting yet. 

And when I got home I had a package waiting for me. I ordered four different fat backs...fabrics that come in 108" widths...and of course they are batiks.

Still diligently plugging away on my January UFO. I am surprised at how long it takes me to put these blocks together. Four more...

The two center blocks came in kits so the fabrics were already selected and ready to use. The other two are made of fabrics from my stash...although the dark grey for the halibut came from my set of new purchases. Very hard to find grey tones in batiks. They were approved by AK Santini this morning.

Four More

A little bit of progress on the January UFO.

Sharing an Internet Freebie

Here is a link to a wonderful free pattern at Anthology Fabrics. It's the pattern, Florigia

There is a kit for this quilt in the latest issue of Keepsake Quilting...but I thought you'd like to know the pattern is available for free. I would really like to make this one...another pattern in the stack. This one has a little paper piecing too...one of my favorite techniques.