Taking A Break From The Hard Stuff...

After a few months of working on more involved projects, I decided to play with something simple and fun today. Did I tell you I love pincushions? Oh, yeah. I really looooovvveee 'em!!

I started thinking about the different ways I could create new pincushions and came across these lovely little ceramic egg cups at our local Cracker Barrel. The Project Linus gals gather there for lunch on Monday's after a morning of creating blankets, and we usually look over the goodies in their shop before or after our meal. I knew these little egg cups would be perfect for my pincushion idea so I decided to purchase a few.

So today I took one out of the box and grabbed a piece of pink wool felt from my stash. I cut out a circle and stitched a strand of perle cotton around the outside edge of the circle (perle cotton is a strong thread). I pulled the thread ends to make the circle "cup" and filled it with fiberfill as I continued to tighten the thread. When I decided I had put enough fiberfill into the center of the circle, I tied the thread ends and cut the ends off.

Next, I took my adhesive (I use E3000) and ran a bead along the inside top edge of the egg cup. I put the felt "ball" into the cup and weighted it down until the glue dried. I finished off my design with a little trim with pearls and a satin rose on top. Voila! My new pincushion!

I've been involved in a few pincushion swaps in the last six months, and will be participating in a new one in May. I think one like this might be my gift for my swap partner this time. Either way, it was a fun day creating another pincushion for my collection! Go ahead and make one yourself...it's really fun!

I've added a flickr album (My Pincushions!!) for photos of my creations. Check it out!