Lost and Found (twice)

My finished list for 2010 needs updating. Last night the second pincushion cut out back in May (!) finally came together. It was in a small zip-loc bag in the bottom of a quilt/knitting bag and had gone awol for a bit. The top and bottom stars had been finished back in June, and sometime mid-December when the bag was emptied out it resurfaced. My shoulder needed a break from knitting so I went back to handstitching.

The original idea was to alternate the prints on the bottom and top so each diamond was more distinct, but I liked keeping the aqua and purple flower print pieces together, since this was such a small scrap anyway (probably from my sister?). I stuffed it last night with loosely spun wool (some of my early spinning) and some leftover plastic pellets to give it some weight. I like the wool stuffing better than the polyester used on the first pincushion finished back in May. The pincushion was missing this morning, and I thought our chocolate lab Max had purloined it, but there was no trail of pellets to be found. Apparently Murphy the cat needed a quick game of hockey, as it turned up under a bookcase.

Two aqua fabric covered buttons (commercial, with a plastic shaft) came to the top of the button box today to finish it off. Now off to find the other fabrics set aside for the next pincushion.

Finished object and report

The last pictures of the repurposed fabric weren't very attractive, but the bags finished up very nicely. I like the weight of the double layer, as it feels more substantial than even a lined bag. We ended up stuffing 42 bags with cosmetics and other sundries at the American Sewing Guild meeting earlier this month for the local domestic violence housing program. There is enough of the sturdy plaid lining for quite a few more bags, and they'll be ready for next year's donations.

When you make multiples of a project, there is always a learning curve, as something you may be willing to do once (i.e. zig-zag the edges and fold them over and re-stitch), is quickly replaced with serging the edges in one pass (and also containing fraying edges.) The notes are updated for the next time this project is worked on. I'll cut the outside and lining pieces the same size, pin together, serge the edges together then do the quilting.