This egg reminded me of our little pincushion creations - and I have to say it is exquisite! This is from Winding Vine Wanderings and you may like to visit there and see Patti's artistry!

Also, we had our little group last night - some new faces, some couldn't come, but all I remember is a swirl of fabric, naked towels, embroidery floss and appliques. I cannot wait to see our creations! In the meantime, here are some of our pincushions. I can't believe how creative! There are more to come. . .

Also, I promise to work on my camera skills! The key is patience -

A Tea Towel Teaser

I am adding links to some inspiring Embellished
Tea Towels to get your creative juices flowing.

Anthropologie (favorite store in the world alert)
Chow.com (kind of odd, but I love the towels, click
on different ones. You can create that look!)
Little Birdie Secrets (this links to an older post, but
this blog has the niftiest tutorials. So dang practical)
Tea with Friends (these are too cute)
So you can see some festive examples of Embellished
Tea Towels. Also, browse around and get inspiration from
all books, cards, other linens. I will post some simple
patterns for embroidery and appliques in the next day or so.
Les Arte des Amis group - This Thursday, 4/16 at Jessica's.
Come with your pincushions and we will put photos
up on this blog of our collective effort. Also,
don't forget, this Thursday (6:30pm) - we will take those
bland tea towels and junk them up in an artistic
way.

Pincushions discoveries!

HOORAY!
Next week, Les Arte des Ami meet for their April festivities!

This month we will continue with pincushions for those whose
addiction continues. We will also introduce embellished tea
towels for those who are ready to branch out. We did discuss
aprons for this meeting (we will do those in May, but have decided
to hone those hand- sewing skills and combine these two projects!
With a few embellished pins thrown in for good measure. I will email
what you need to bring, but to get you in the mood - here are some
links to expand your pincushion repertoire

Thanks to one of my favorite blogs Foxgloves, Fabric and Folly I
discovered these three instructions. first two from Martha Stewart:





The little strawberries that old fashioned
pincushions used to come with
- they were actually used for needle
sharpeners. Cute AND pracitcal. Link here

The classic Tomato with very simple
instructions. Who could resist!! Link here

And finally this festive, yet simple number!
Heather Bailey's Patchwork Pincushion (a fabulous artist -
download this pdf or
instructions)

Addicted to Pincushions

What am I doing? I find myself creating pincushions

every night. I will soon have one for each room in the

house. I will be giving them away for graduation gifts

- the traditional graduation pincushion, I am sure you

are familiar with it. . .

I stumbled on this nifty little book (thank you very much

Amazon for alerting me to yet another "need") and am addicted!

OK, true confession - this new obsession is the hybrid of

two other obsessions: my love for something I can create

in my lap and my love for thick wool. I have a stash of this

fabulous wool from my previous obsession for wool rug hooking.

I have commitment issues.

I know Iwill return to the rug hooking because of the absolutely

georgeous one I am 2/3 done with. I will come back, I promise!

BUT in the meantime who could resist these festival-in-your-palm

pincushions? And so practical. Did I mention the embellished pins

you can make to go in them?

What? How did I get off on that? My real reason for the post is to

show picutres of some of my pincushions to inspire others - I'm taking

you down with me. This is mostly for my Les Arte des Ami friends.

I will post photos of ones you bring to the meeting the 24th too.

This is my first try, and aren't I having fun!

Indulge me as I learn the ropes. I have longed to set up a blog for months now, and here I go. I plan to mostly reference other blogs that make my heart soar - I love a beautiful blog. Why not take my little blog addiction and turn it into something useful? If I can marry my passion for creative things, creating things, books and being at home into a communication platform, I will be a success.