My adventure into making pincushions was not planned. I entered a quilt in the National Quilting Association’s (NQA) quilt show several years ago. While there, I was browsing through the vendors and came upon salt cellar pincushions. I was smitten. I bought 3, one for me and each of my daughters. The little salt cellar dishes are unique and charming. I wanted to make them and told my daughter, Lucy, that we should try to make them together. We live in the midwest and there is an abundance of antique stores here giving us ample opportunity to look for old glass. The following summer, after collecting some glass salt cellars, Lucy set out to make the pincushions. She had recently had ankle surgery and was non-weight bearing and looking for something to do because she was bored. She did an amazing job troubleshooting the pincushions. I had a basic idea of how to make them, but she perfected it! Several years and a thousand+ pincushions later, we still love making them – it’s so much fun! I’m a quilter, but now I feel like I’m a pincushion artist too. We have expanded the pincushion containers beyond the salt cellars, but salt cellars are how we started and still my favorite base to use in making the pincushions.
The books pictured above, The Open Salt Compendium and 5,000 Open Salts, A Collector’s Guide, catalog a large variety of salts and include the manufacturer and date of production. Another reference is Salty Comments which was written from 1984-2005 by Ed and Kay Berg. Their early newsletters were written on a typewriter and pictures of salt cellars were hand drawn.
Our process of sewing on a button with matching thread and creating a custom crystal and glass beaded pin gives each pincushion their own personality and appeal. My pincushion journey includes hunting for glass and looking for just the right fabric, or cut of fabric, to make the pincushions. I have met a lot of interesting people and learned so much along the way. I am sure I will continue enjoying the whole process.
The hunt for fabric to make salt cellar pincushions is always fun! When I spotted Suzy’s fabric at my LQS, Sew to Speak, I knew it would probably be a favorite. Suzy Ultman’s has such a fun style with her art and creations! The prints from Suzy’s Minis 2 are perfect for salt cellar pincushions because of their petite scale.
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Another enjoyable part of the process was picking out accessories including buttons and creating the custom crystal bead pins. These little popsicles needed a very small button! I call it a micro button. I’ve had these in my stash for a long time and never really thought I’d use them.
The term “cuteness overload” is not an exaggeration with these prints!
If you are interested in a pincushion, visit my Etsyshop! And keep up to date with pincushion progress on my IG @lesleystorts.
Progress continues on the Ice Cream Soda paper pieced quilt. I’ve been working on this for about a year and half. That’s a long time! I love making the blocks and matching them with pincushions that I have on hand.
Piecing the blocks together is a lot slower than I thought it would be. But I’m happy to be at the stage to be able to connect blocks.
This project was started by Jodi from Tales of Cloth. Her website is full of wonderful inspiration and English paper piecing projects.
In other happenings, Ohio is up to it’s shenanigans again with the weather. The sun was out and shining and it was raining at the same time. Raindrop shadows?!
Happy Quilting! ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎
I’ve enjoyed reading so many people’s blogs and Instagram posts looking back at the past year. In compiling my projects for the last year, I’ve enjoyed seeing what I completed too.
Ohio in Blue made with Katarina Rocellas’s fabric was one of the most fun quilts I made last year! I was pleased with the finished quilt.
My Pike Quilt made from Sharon Holland’s fabric was challenging to design and make, but an enjoyable process at the same time. The free pattern for this quilt can be found HERE on Craftsy.
Lucy and I made dozens of saltcellar pincushions! I have so much glass I need to get busy making more.
Rainbow Pincushions
Pincushion Swap
Rainbow Love
Saltcellar Pincushions
Saltcellar Pincushions
I was surprised at the number of quilts I made that I did not keep! If I didn’t have pictures of these, I would have forgotten.
Fiber Optics Lap Quilt
Fiber Optics Quilt
AGF Market Quilt
Halloween Quilt
AGF Quilt Top
AGF Quilt Top
In February I created a quilt for RJR Fabric’s quiltwithlove.com blog – also known as #whatshadeareyou. Creating the Game Night quilt was a challenge and a quilt that I had been wanting to make. I’m happy to be able to check this quilt off of my list and enjoy it.
Game Night Quilt
Backgammon
Chinese Checkers
Playing Cards
One final quilt for my year of the rainbow is my Lucky Point Quilt.
Overall I would call it a successful year! And 2018 is off to a good start because I have a couple of quilts that are almost finished that get counted as 2018 finishes 😉
If you made it this far — well, thanks! And one last goodie that I found of our driving dog while I was searching for quilt pictures…
A couple of months ago I saw a swap on Instagram for pincushions and it did not take me long – about 3 minutes – to make the decision to participate. My pincushion pal and daughter, Lucy @sew.lucy, decided to join too. What a great decision! We both made pincushions that were totally new to us and had a great time doing it.
Living with a person who loves fabric and quilting crafts as much as I do is a huge bonus! She gave me a lot of feedback about my pincushion and made the saltcellar pincushion that I gave to my recipient. I helped her make her pincushion and we both learned a lot along the way.
Lucy made the carry-all pincushion by Anna Graham of @noodlehead. Her instructions were clearly written, easy to follow and allowed us to successfully create a beautiful pincushion for Lucy’s partner.
I have been cleaning out and organizing all different parts of my house since the late winter. In combing through the quilting supplies, I stumbled upon a pattern by Carrie Nelson that I bought some time ago and decided to use it for my pincushion. I had so much fun that I now have a favorite new quilt block – the log cabin.
Both of our partners stated that they love a lot of color. Tula Pink fabric provided a great palette for making our creations. Lucy made a special pincushion from the blue Swim Team Winham fabric since her partner is a swimmer. Packages were mailed off today! Hopefully our partners love their gifts as much as we did creating them 🙂
Welcome to the Minis Blog Tour hosted by Pat Bravo of Art Gallery Fabrics
I am happy to be a part of this mini quilt blog tour hosted by Pat Bravo of Art Gallery Fabrics. Being given beautiful fabric and asked to create a quilt is one of my favorite activities. My take aways from this project are:
»»»A reminder of why I enjoy Art Gallery Fabrics »»»Challenging myself with a new quilt block
If you have not had the opportunity to sew with Art Gallery Fabrics, I would encourage you to get some and treat yourself. Art Gallery Fabrics have a distinct feel to them, very soft with a gentle drape. As a member of the tour, I received a bundle of fabrics from Pat Bravo’s new lines Essential II and Dare. I chose to use five of the fabrics to make my mini quilt:
My Bundle of Fabrics
If I had to use one word to describe my 5 fabrics together it would be eclectic. At first glance, I was not sure they would work, but I like the end result. I named my quilt Daring Edge because of the Dare fabrics and all blade edges from the different pinwheels. A favorite aesthetic details about the quilt is the Hula Hoops in Azure background around the perimeter and how it reminds me of water.
For inspiration in creating the quilt block, I used the book 1000 Great Quilt Blocks by Maggi McCormick Gordon. Using the Double Pinwheel III block as a starting point, I resized it from her original and modified the block to tailor it to my fabrics. I like a challenge and enjoy learning with every quilt I make. My big lesson with this quilt was in creating half-square rectangles. Online tutorials helped, but I had a lot of testing with scrap fabrics to get the size just right. And learning how to mark and line them up was a bit of a lesson in math, but now that I understand it, I’m looking forward to future quilts with this versatile and interesting technique.
Marked and Pinned
Sewn and Cut
Ironed
Being a part of this tour has been enjoyable. The other quilters involved are so talented and creative and I enjoy seeing all of their beautiful creations using the Dare and Essentials II fabrics. If you would like to see their work and get some inspiration for yourself, check out Pat Bravo’s Blog and the following links:
Creative inspiration can be found at the Essentials II Lookbookand the Dare LookBook. If you happen to be in Columbus, Ohio, you can stop by one of my favorite local quilting stores, Sew To Speak, and check out their beautiful selection from various Art Gallery Fabric designers.
Daring Edge Quilt Back
Daring Edge Quilt Specs:
20″ x 20″
4 blocks total
56 pieces in each block
224 total pieces
5 fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics, Essentials II and Dare collection
Quilt Back in Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Elements in Icy Mint
Aurifil Thread 2600 (a light silvery grey) used for piecing and quilting
Saltcellar Pincushion made with Carolyn Friedlander’s Dentals in Green.
It has been almost a year since I began hunting for saltcellars and making pincushions. Lucy, one of my daughters, has been instrumental in helping perfect this little pieces of art. And as we have learned and grown in making these, an interesting thing has happened- I have come to appreciate fabric and the patterns in a different way. There is a need to focus on small areas and what they have to offer in a saltcellar. The diameter of most saltcellars we use is about 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 inches. Some of the dishes are a little bigger, but generally they are small. This means that we have to maximize where we cut.
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I love the color green and adore this fabric by Anna Maria Horner called Minutes in Glen. I was excited to use it in a pincushion and took special care to cut it so that I was able show an interesting part of the fabric.
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Another beautiful and interesting fabric we’ve used is Tula Pink’s Bats in the Belfry in Plum. Depending on what you wanted to highlight with this fabric would depend on where you cut for the pincushion. This fabric offers many choices that would work well. Lucy made this pincushion and wanted to make sure to include blue so that it stood out.
I love quilt making and will continue making quilts. I do appreciate though, the opportunity to look at fabric in a different way and that has come through making pincushions.
Happy Crafting and Quilting! ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎
Enjoy posts on IG at my sites @lesleystorts and @stortsmarket
Saltcellar Pincushion made with Carolyn Friedlander’s Dentals in Green.
