Repurposing Pincushions!

So, I know that we got married in January in a perfect (for me) small way. But my new husband is partial to large parties so we're having a blessing and party to celebrate being married in September, back in Ireland. As part of the ceremony we're having our parents bring up our rings, and also doing a hand binding ceremony. We could have bought (or done without) ring pillows, and we could have borrowed our Humanist's hand binding ribbon - but where's the fun in those things!?

I've had Kim's Cathedral Window pincushion tutorial bookmarked for ages now, and I've always been equally daunted and intrigued by the Cathedral Window block. So this seemed like a good time to give it a try! And in a greater act of providence I won a $20 gift certificate from Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting for the Fat Quarter Shop!!

I made one extra, the one with the button I get to keep!

I used a Liberty Stile fabric for the centre, and then picked up the colours in some Summersville Spring and Salt Air fabric I had lying around. The cushions are easy to make when you have Kim's tutorial to follow, and quick once you get by the burning your fingers with the iron stage (why did I cut my nails before this project!?). I will definitely be making these again! The ring pillows aren't stuffed yet because my fibre fill is back in Ireland. So I'll do that when I get home. It also reduces bulk for the plane!! Despite their lack of filling, they do work nicely.

I bought some Technicolor crosshatch for the hand binding ribbon (as it has two colours on one piece of fabric, allowing me to have different but similar sides on the ribbon). The whole idea of the ceremony is to represent two coming together as one, so using this fabric appealed to me. As did having two different fabrics making the one ribbon that would be used to bind Paul and I together. I embroidered our initials on one side of the ribbon, and in the centre on the other side I appliqued a little square of fabrics from the ring pillows - to try and unite everything with a common colour theme, I guess.

I spent the rest of my gift certificate on the white fabric for the pincushions, and a 6" charm pack of Tula Pink's The Birds and The Bees. Originally I was going to use these for the coloured sections in the Cathedral Windows but I decided the colour palette wasn't bright enough. So right now, I have it laid out on my design wall (too fancy a term for some tacked up batting) and I've planned a whole little quilt with these at the centre!

However, a quilt for a little boy is what's on the cutting table right now :)

Hope you all have a good weekend! Linking up to TGIFF at Molli Sparkles!

15 year old me totally wanted to be a quilter!!

I know, I know... You don't hear from me for a month and then, like buses, three arrive at once! Actually, I set myself some topics to post on this week and next. Some can be written in advance and scheduled to post (though I've never done that so if gobbledegook turns up from me, you now know why!), and some are to get me back into the linky parties :)

Today, I'm going to quickly share a few pictures* with you of stuff I've found around my parents' house that I started as a teenager. It turns out that I've been into fabric and quilts for WAAAAAAYYYYY longer than I ever knew. Most of this stuff must have been made when I was 15 (that's 16 years ago this summer!).

Firstly, my mother found a box of fabric. I have snaffled the big bits to be future quilt backs, and this white one is going into a Japanese fabric quilt I have planned for this summer - it is the softest cotton I have ever felt.

At the bottom of this forgotten fabric horde were 6 inch squares. Very roughly cut. And they were in piles with numbers taped onto the top. The meaning for the numbers is long forgotten. But I do vaguely remember gathering up all my favourite teenage clothes that I had started to grow out of and cutting them up into squares for a quilt.

Very roughly cut. Also, two hexagons (top left)!!

I even had sewn one strip together...

...badly.

These squares made me particularly excited. They're from what I term my 'first grown-up pyjamas'. My godmother brought them back for me when I was around 12. Silky on the outside, cosy on the inside, and in a tuxedo-style that I loved.

With my new knowledge of interfacing as a thing, these are going to become a baby's quilt. There will be flannel and Tula Pink to go with! I can't wait :)

*Disclaimer: it started as a few, but I found more photos as I went on... I am now out of control on stuff I made as a teenager.

In my grandmother's old sewing box we found a series of hexagons in navy and blue that I'd put basted and EPP'd together as a teenager. They have all become pincushions now. They are not the prettiest, but they are functioning very nicely. I even made myself one of those pincushions you can wear on your wrist!! No pictures of that one though...

One for me...

One for Mammy.

And, finally! Yes, I think this is it. I made a cushion as part of my transition year Home Economics class (along with a macramé plant holder which has thankfully been lost). Check it out:

This fabric was my mother's. She bought it in Japan long before I existed and it's pre-quilted. I feel so bad now for having cut it up to make this cushion. It deserved better. Look how awful the points are! I think one of those flying geese may not be entirely missing its head. Still though, this cushion still lives on one of the bedroom chairs. Though the backing needs a mend. Maybe it will out-last me, horrible job and all as it is.

The big question now is - where's the rest of that fabric!!?? I also distinctly remember drawing designs (probably for secret gardens at the time, but ones that might also double as quilt inspiration now) in a science copybook. We are not a family that throws books out, so I'll have to have a proper look. But not this week. It's exciting to know about though, tantalising. I wonder why it took me so long to get started properly.

If scheduled blogging goes well, there should be another post up on Thursday while I'm mid-air over the Atlantic. All about the quilt I've left behind, mostly pictures to be honest. And then I shall see you all for Sunday Stash. I've been lining the flat with fabric in preparation for my arrival. I suspect I went too far... There is going to be a strict fabric diet for the rest of the summer (possibly year) I think.

:) til next time!

Aoif