Tips And Tools Tuesday – Pick A Peck Of Pin Cushions

How many pin cushions do you have?      One?  Maybe, two?

Where do you use your pin cushion? At the sewing machine? On your cutting table? Both?

Is yours a “traveling” pin cushion? Do you take it from one area to another? From one room to another?

I used to have a “traveler”.  I’d keep it (I use that phrase loosely) by my sewing machine. When I needed pins to secure pieces for sewing, it was very handy there. But, sometimes, I needed to pin blocks or rows of blocks together, or borders to the quilt body. Then my pin cushion “traveled” to the cutting table, or the kitchen table, or a bedroom where I had the rows laid out on a bed.

Then, I’d bring my pinned pieces to the machine to sew them, and realize that I’d left the pin cushion in the room where I’d been pinning. Ugh! I’d have to get up, go and retrieve it from wherever I’d left it before I could continue sewing.

So, I decided to have two pin cushions for just such occasions.  I use the two with the yellow pins in them. One at the pinning station for withdrawals, and the other at the sewing station for deposits. When the “withdrawal” one gets low, I just swap them.  Pinning this way has saved me time and aggravation.

In a previous post, “What Color Are Your Pins?”, I explain my reasoning for the monochromatic pin color.

Some projects require pinning, but, a large pin cushion can just get in the way. Not to mention, trying to pick just one pin from that crowded sea of pinheads can be… challenging! Yeah, I’ll go with challenging. 🙂 While making the “Just Buzzing Through” Quilt Along sample, I put a few pins in my little wooden shoe cushion and kept it in the bed of my machine. I could easily slip a couple of pins in and out of the units as I chain-pieced them.

I like to hand-piece and hand-applique, so, these little finger pin cushions are the perfect place to keep pins and needles handy and out of the couch cushions! And, ultimately out of me! They are great for road trips, too!

Or, I’ll use this little wooden sewing caddy that keeps pins, needle, thread, and scissors all in one place.

The small dowel slides out so that you can change thread spools easily.

You can make cute little pin cushions out of some unique small treasures. My favorite, is the shoe.

Today is a good day to look around and see what potential pin cushions you can find.

And, It’s not too late to join this Quilt Along. You can jump in at any time! It’s YOUR quilt to make on YOUR time.

• Here is the Quilt Along Schedule for “Just Buzzing Through”
• Week One – May 10 Getting Started – Gather Your Supplies
• Week Two – May 17 Cutting
• Week Three – May 24 Piecing the Units
• Week Four – May 31 Assemble the Blocks (I have a surprise planned for this week!)
• Week Five – June 7 Assemble the Quilt Top
• Week Six – June 14 Basting and Machine Quilting (I’ll show you exactly how I quilted this on my domestic sewing machine. If you’ve been hesitant to try it, this is a great quilt for your first machine quilting project!)
• Week Seven – June 21 Binding Your Quilt

Visit lookoutmountainquilter.com and subscribe to my blog. Each week, I will send to your inbox, an announcement that another step on this Quilt Along journey has been posted. The posts will remain on my website, so you can join in the Quilt Along at any time. If you’re on Facebook, join our Lookout Mountain Quilter Group, and share photos of your progress! It’s always encouraging and inspirational to see what others are making!

Happy creating!

Diane