Pin Cushions

To help tidy up my sewing area, I sewed a needlecase, a pincushion and a sewing machine cover. I stuffed the pincushion with woodshavings I had bought for the gerbils but then learned wasn't good for them. I made it following a tutorial I found on Craftster and used a big, fat cotton thread I got from the Goodwill.

The color was "Alpine Moss." If I had to do it all over again, I think I would have trained to be a lipstick color/embroidery thread/interior wallpaint namer. what fun to sit around coming up with names like "alpine moss" or "candy apple" or ...oh, I just realized I wouldn't be able to keep the job. I keep coming up with things like "frog's belly" for a certain translucent shade of white. Or "moldy orange" for that beautiful light blue with a touch of gray color of the mold that grows on oranges that have sat too long at the bottom of the fruit bowl. And the name "Tibetan Yak" appeals to me but I have no color to go with it. But "Monkey Brown" would be a wonderfully fun color, don't you think. I see I lack that certain reverence for the romantic when it comes to naming things.

I made one pincushion because I needed it. Then I got carried away. I swear I try to stick to that idea that "less is more," but "more is more" seems to be carved into my bones. So I have four pincushions now. And I have a few more variations on buttons and ties I'd like to try. Here are three orange ones stacked on top of each other and a little doll that I found for a dollar on one of my forays to the Goodwill this week. It reminds me of an Anne Geddes picture. It looks like a caterpillar with its knitted body. The antennas are what did me in.

I saw a little picture in a Japanese craft book of an orange made in this fashion, only smaller and made from whatlooked like felt and with a few green leaves attached. So I did some pincushions in orange to see if the floss would split the fabric in to sections so that it looked like a sliced orange.
I just used a flipped over bowl to trace a circle on freezer paper and then cut out a template. I stuffed them with wood shavings--which is a wee bit messy to work with--and sewed buttons over the center to hide their belly buttons. It's great fun to pull the string tight and watch them seize up. The look a little bit like whoopee cushions when you first make them, before you string them up.
I'm very satisfied with the slight crunch and the tinge of resistance you get when you poke a pin in. It's like biting into a Slim Jim. Fluffy stuffing wouldn't have been quite as tactilly rewarding.
So, I want to try and make some fruit pincushions and some squares. It's a little infectious since they are so quick to make. My final picture is of a mother and baby manatee statue that I picked up at--none other than--the local thrift stop.I'm a sucker for baby animals and their mamas.