Pins, Pincushions, and Quilt Books

I haven't gotten a lick of work done in my sewing room this week, so I thought I'd blog a little about more of my favorite sewing things. Nicole at Sister's Choice Quilts initiated some interesting discussion about pins and pincushions. Apparently she sews over her pins and has bent or broken quite a few and wanted to know what pins others use. A barrage of comments ensued, some of which chastised Nicole, some punctuated by stories of breaking pins flying up into one's face, which would be scary.

I am also one of those people who likes to sew over pins. Usually I bend the pins and break the needles, but the worst thing I did when sewing over a pin was that I broke the needle, drove the tip of it into the bobbin case which damaged the case, then lost the broken needle tip in the bottom of the sewing machine, and had to pay to have it all fixed. Not good! As many of Nicole's readers admonished, I have since learned to slow down to a crawl going over the pins or to stop and remove them before I get to them.



My favorite pins are the $1.89 pack at JoAnn's with the glass heads so I can see them when I drop them in the carpet. I have a fear of driving a pin or needle into my foot, which I've already done once. Not good! My favorite pincushion, and it's not a pincushion at all, is the $1.89 blue metallic one which also seems to attract my scissors and seam ripper. Get it close to the pincushion and it practically pulls it out of my hand.

My next favorite pincushion is decorative only, because the top is really too shallow to put pins in. My son, who is now 18, made it when he was about 8 as a cub scout project for Mother's Day. The cubbies used baby food jars with a little batting and velvet glued to the lid, covered in trims, with a few plastic flowers for further beautification inside the jar. Of course I have to keep it and love it because he made it for me.

Next is a wool pincushion with a needlepunched design on it, made by my good friend AnnH, as a Christmas gift to those who held positions in our local quilt chapter (I was the Treasurer for three years and am retiring shortly). It is a very large pincushion, by pincushion standards; but it's sweet, simple, and colorful, and it reminds me of how much I like Ann.

Becky, the Quilting Booklady, is having a giveaway for her birthday on June 23. I wonder how old she'll be. To qualify for her drawing, she asked that you post a picture of a favorite quilting book; and if you also post a picture of a quilt you made from the book, you'll get a second entry in the drawing.

My favorite quilt book is this one by Jinny Beyer. One reason I like this book so much is that Jinny skips all the color theory and gets right down to the business of how to choose coordinating fabrics. Her approach is unique, easy, and produces great results. Choosing fabrics is challenging for a lot of quilters, including me; and Color Confidence for Quilters continues to inspire me.

This is not a very good picture, but this is a quilt I made from the book. Red, blue, and green is one of my favorite color schemes, and I enjoyed using so many different fabrics in the quilt. I love this concept--one block, different fabrics in each block, same color placement in each block for unification--and would like to try this with some other blocks sometime.

Credit where credit is due:

Midnight Star design by Jinny Beyer, Color Confidence for Quilters