I heart pincushions..don't you?

If you name is MomChops and you are reading this post..  read no more!  This post contains a valentines present for you and you need to back slowly away from the mouse and put this post out of your mind..  got it Moms???

Just look at the doggies for a minute (Hi doggies!!!) and then move on to OnePrettyThing ok?!

Speaking of doggies...I really like this pic of them..  this is the location they all stand when they are waiting for a treat..  Harriet looks like I just said to her..  "close your eyes for a big surprise!"..  the other dogs (being the obedient ones that they are)..  are thinking... "is she going for the milk bones or the breath busters.."  With these dogs..  it's usually breath busters (we all know why right??).  Harriet evidently has a slippery butt...  she always parks herself on the carpet for a treat.  Otherwise her hiney slips out from underneath her.  Poor puppy.

So you are here for crafts not silly dog pics right?!..(MomChops you had better not be reading this missy)...Lolly sees ALL.

I made another pincushion I wanted to share..  just one flower bead this time and some hearts!

I am going to run through the steps really quick and show you a tool I have for cutting felt into really cool shapes.  It's called a Sizzix Big Kick (learn all about it HERE).  I got it a few months ago and it's completely amazing!  I have never used it for anything another other than cutting felt (but it cuts all sorts of stuff!).

The thing I really like about it is that you can save your smallest scraps and use them on this machine.  I wanted to cut a bunch of small circles yesterday and one of the dies I have has circle centers in the flowers..  so I just placed my scraps over that part and ran it through the machine and viola..  small perfectly shaped circles!  I have flowers, hearts, trees, leaves and some other odds and ends..  all help make my felt projects extra cute!

Once I had all my shapes cut out and ready to go it was time to follow the same directions I shared with you yesterday.  You can see them HERE.

I decided that I wanted to make a heart pincushion for my mom for Valentines day.  She's getting the heart flower too!  I think she's really going to like them!

I started off exactly the same way as yesterday...  the only variation was in the colors and decorations I did for the sides.


I stitched the words "I love you" down the seam side and then cut the hanging edge with a little curve in it and then stitched down the side of that open seam.  I thought the words were going to fit down the side perfectly but they did not work quite right..  so the "you" is a little slanted.  I plopped a glass flower bead in the center of the curve and attached it with a french knot.


On the other side I stitched the hearts I had cut out with my Sizzix as well as some of those plain circles (I made them into little flowers with french knot centers).


I stuffed the bottom with cardboard again (to make it flat) and stuffed and blanket stitched it closed!

So my next little mini project was to make some cute decorated pins to go with these pincushions!  The pics I took of the process for making these did not turn out well at all.  I'll try again this weekend if anyone really wants to see..  but it's REAL easy.  I just took some glue and a plain silver flat pin and basically stuck a flower bead through the center (so the head of the pin was like the center of the flower).  I placed a little glue there and then hung them upside down to dry (I did this by sticking the pins very carefully into the lid of a small cardboard box).  It worked like a charm!

My red ones are still drying but these are some of the blue ones I made to go with the pincushion from yesterday!

I tried three kinds of glue to get these to work and I think the best thing to use is a clear flowing glue.  I tried liquid nails, crazy glue and a clear scrapbook glue I had on hand (it's called adhesive tech and you can get it HERE).  That last one seemed to work the best.  The crazy glue left a weird white film on the beads and the liquid nails was just to gloppy (it made a mess in the center of the beads).

I am really thinking these pins are just for decoration.  I am not 100% sure how well they would hold up to real sewing use.  I know there are some really cute pins out there..  look on Etsy (these HERE are really cute).  She makes some killer ones that would make a perfect accompaniment for your handmade pincushion!

That's all I gots for today!  Tomorrow I am going to share some details about a virtual quilting bee I have joined (thanks to Dana from Old Red Barn, Co.)!  I got my first month's fabric scraps in the mail yesterday and I can hardly wait to get started with this piece.  You can follow our progress HERE + I will be of course be sharing my scraps and what I make from them each month!

Happy Wednesday HUGS!