I got the urge to make a wool Tomato pin cushion this morning when I was playing with some new wool fabric I purchased at Wool & Goods for Primative Rug Hooking.
I googled for a pattern and found The Painted Quilt. What fun to have a quick and easy project that is both very useful and of heirloom quality.
Pin cushions are just that – for pins. Have you ever wondered what happened to all your needles? Pin cushions suck them deep into the center where you may never recover them.
With scraps from making the Tomato I also made a hand full of Strawberry Needle Cushions. Small enough to keep needles from disappearing and cute enough to just display.
I have old pattern weights they don’t seem to make any more. Bright yellow round O’s that fit perfectly over the gathered stitches that create the bottom of your Tomato.
I followed the directions from The Painted Quilt cutting a bias strip 6″ x 12″ long. The remaining triangles were the perfect size for making the Strawberries. I sewed along the folded long edge for the classic strawberry shape.
Stuffed with Corridale wool top, the lanolin is good for keeping your pins in perfect condition.
I do use a fabric glue or fray check on the wool edges to ensure long wear. I recommend also using FrayCheck at the end of the process to protect the edges of the ‘leaves’.
Being a kitchen witch is working with what you have on hand. I could have driven 10 miles to shop for green wool for the small amount I needed to finish the leaf top, but I threw an extra log on the woodstove and overdyed some tan and some dark grey wool with green Pro Chemical and Dye Washfast Acid Dye.
Other than the changes in using wool fabric, wool stuffing and using the O weight, I followed The Painted Quilt directions. I didn’t bother with a template for the greenery and I just cut them free hand.
Try it!
These animal prints in the snow were found in the same place I photographed prints last winter.
This is the first snow of this season to stay on the ground and it is a pleasant addition to the holidays.
My photographs of animal prints have been the most popular item on my web pages. I hope you enjoy these prints.
A dear friend gave me these vintage Red Work Blocks – 53 of them – that have been passed from woman to woman for many years. The story of this set of blocks has been lost to time, but I certainly contemplate the life of Grace Thayer and her seventeen year embroidery project.
One block short of a completed quilt top, I wonder if there was a 54th piece or did Grace plan to complete the final square when she sewed the top together. Did she die before beginning the last piece? For now I am using a new 8″x8″ muslin square which also highlights the difference in color, weight and weave from the late 1800′s pieces.There are two identical squares of Scissors and Button Hook. Did Grace forget she had already embroidered that design?
After removing the stack of muslin blocks from the plastic bag I received them in (not a good idea for fiber storage), I scanned each square into the computer as they looked – creases and all. It was several hours of work that I grew bored of rather quickly. How long did it take Grace to embroider each square? How long each day was she able to bend head to hands by dim light to create designs from everyday Muslin and the Turkey Red embroidery floss popular in the 1880′s?
I will display a grid collage of the pieces in this post, and I will create a page showing each piece for close up examination.
Interest in Red Work has increased in recent years. Originally Red Work Quilts were finished without batting and sewn square to square as a summer bed cover. Check out these sites for the history of and patterns for Red Work Quilts.
RedWork Plus
Pretty Impressive Stuff
Poor Margaret and her husband, or consort, Oliver were on a sloop off the coast of Maine traveling to Boston. Oliver drowned and Margaret died of exposure before reaching shore on October 31, 1803 when the sloop ‘Hero’ was capsized by a gale off the coast of Kittery.
I lost my life in the raging seas,
A sov’reign God does as he please.
The Kittery friends they did appear,
And my remains, they buried here.
Yeah, the fine people of Kittery may have buried poor Margaret, but not in the main cemetery grounds, and not without feeling the need to pat themselves on the back for burying her. Though now her grave site is kept neat and mowed, I was there over 20 years ago when Margaret’s stone was overgrown.
You have to walk to the back edge of the cemetery and down a hill to reach Margaret’s stone in the last patch of flat land before the earth dives down to the sea.
Recent events have led to the uncovering of a Pine and Cedar forest on the coast of New Hampshire. The stumps among the beach rocks and sand at Jenness Beach have attracted the curious from around the region to witness a sight not seen for nearly forty years.
In 2005 I took photos of the beginnings of a new garden.
I took the first photo as Sam walked to the plant. I then took a second photo when Sam had moved on to another intriguing smell. The circular light over the Angelica plant was not visible to the eye at the time of taking the photo. On immediately reviewing my picture I saw this and took another photo. The orb is still visible in the third photo but it is smaller and to the far left of this scene.
I have not altered these photos in any way other than scaling the size for web viewing.
These photos were taken at dusk with a flash.
The sequence of three photographs taken are below.
Not Your Mama’s Recipe!
I have reworked the original recipe that called for 2 cups of sugar. Make these with the best quality ingredients. This recipe contains Peanut Butter.
In a heavy bottomed sauce pan combine and stir together:
1 cup sugar (Update – I am currently using less than 2/3 cup of sugar)
Pinch of salt
3 Tbls. butter
1/2 cup milk
Bring to a boil and cook a minute or so then add:
1 oz. chocolate
1/2 cup Peanut butter
Stir as the chocolate and peanut butter melts.
Bring back to a boil then turn off the heat and add:
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups Oatmeal flakes
Stir in quickly until the Oatmeal is fully coated. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper and cool. Very hot! Think molten lava! Let them cool and set. Makes 2 dozen.
Salem, Massachusetts cemetery headstones.
