There was an old woman who lived in a shoe

And that old woman now has a darling little house complete with a flower garden! Yesterday I showed you the shoe that I wanted to turn into a pincushion. Last night I built the house and the "world" on which it is perched! I laced up the shoe with some pretty pink ribbon and voila! I used variegated floss to stitch the flowers in the garden and flower boxes under the windows.

And here is the house up close and personal! I'm telling you these little pincushions are positively addictive. I started out with Mimi Kirchner's Tiny World Make-Do Pincushion pattern and then added my own touches. It is an amazingly simple pattern and the instructions are clear and very well illustrated. It is perfect for all skill levels, even beginners.

My list of addictions continues to grow. Here are a few of them:

• tiny world pincushions
• collecting teacups, mugs and other vessels for pincushions
• hexagons and diamonds
• nine patches
• half square triangles
• machine quilting
• Czech pottery birds
• hand quilting
• hand embellishing with floss, thread and beads
• lazy punk blocks
• porcupine quill boxes
• collecting fabric (cotton and felt)
• embroidery floss
• food
• thread
• quilts
• wall hangings
• blogs and blogging
• CBC Radio
• weird and wonderful natural things like brain rock and Saturn rock
• tchotchkes of all descriptions
• and much, much more!

I have to run an errand for Mom today so I think I will go for an extra long walk for some fresh air and exercise. If it takes me by the thrift shop and they have more teacups and mugs I might just feed my tiny world addiction! What I should be doing however is working on Lazy Punk and the Block of the Month pattern!

Yesterday I decided I would mark the diamonds on Lazy Punk with a Frixion pen rather than use the dot-to-do method. I spent the afternoon doing just that and then started the quilting. It was much faster and easier for me to do it this way. Hilda  of Every Stitch marked her Carolina Lilly for quilting and it is spectacular so I decided that for some parts of my machine quilting marking is definitely called for. I am much happier with the diamonds now.

And I'm loving the back!

Before I go for my "walk" I thought I would leave you will some pretty fall colours from Mom's garden!

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Filling in the spaces of Lazy Punk and yet another tiny world pincushion

The quilting is going slowly on Lazy Punk. Drat! I've come to the conclusion that the quilting of the diamonds will be neater if I draw the quilting lines with my Frixion pen or water soluble marker rather than use the dot-to-dot method.

The diamonds that were dot-to-dot are not perfect but I'm not doing any reverse sewing. Once the entire quilt is quilted the imperfections will be diminished!

There are large areas for quilting where the cornerstones are situated. Need to do some thinking about how to fill them in! I was hoping to have this quilt finished for Wednesday but it is starting to look iffy.

Yesterday evening I was looking at the tiny world pincushion I made as a door prize for the retreat organized by my Guild. I really like the little pincushion and hate the idea of parting with it. So what's a quilter to do?  Make another! It was fast because I had a few houses and trees already made so all I had to do was the "world". This is another mug I found at the thrift shop. It is an old Japan mug and I just love the basket weave pattern. Isn't it unusual?

Here's a close-up of my house! In case you are wondering, I do use these little gems...they are working pincushions!

And here are the two of them together.

Many, many years ago my mom gave me this little tchotchke shoe. I don't know what it was meant to be, maybe a tiny planter, but I think it would be perfect for a tiny world pincushion. And what would I call it? Well that's easy....The Old Woman's House because when I was a little girl Mummsie told me that "there was an old woman who lived in a shoe" so this little shoe will be the starting point for a pretty little house. There are holes for shoelaces so I'll have to dig out some ribbon and lace the shoe up. Tonight I'll work on the house while I watch television! Stay tuned for the finished pincushion. It is small so the whole thing should come together quickly.

Time for a cuppa and back to marking Lazy Punk. So until I post again, happy sewing!

Flying Fish School and a cute little pincushion!

I recently found this little pincushion in an antique shop. I hadn’t planned on buying anything but the minute I clapped my eyes on this one my resolve went out the window; the pincushion came home with me. There are no marks on the bottom so I have no idea where it was made (to me it looks Scandinavian) or how old it might be. But all this matters not – it is just so darned cute and I love it to bits!

It is Show and Tell at Quilting Gallery and once again I’ve submitted a photo of a quilt. The theme this week is wall hangings. I’ve entered Flying Fish School. The voting will open sometime Friday morning and it closes on Monday at 6:00pm EDT. You will be able to see all of the wall hangings and vote for your favourites here.

Flying Fish School, 28 ½” x 28 ½”

Flying Fish School was another challenge quilt. There were three Northcott fabrics and I was allowed to add five additional fabrics. The five I added were white for the waves, blue for the sky and three darker blues for the water in the centre. The Northcott challenge fabrics were On Golden Pond (buttery background with goldfish), a gradient Halloween orange and a small orange/coral/purple print. I used only the challenge fabrics to make the fish and the “birds”. Take a close look….the bodies of all of the birds are made of goldfish hence the name…flying fish! The little aquarium in the centre is loaded with fish fry that will one day grow up to dip and dive in the waves like the others! And now for a few close-ups!

 

 

Until I post again, happy sewing!