I needed a new pin cushion.  Yes n-e-e-d-e-d.  I was using some old thing that I recovered a while back and I didn’t pay much attention to the fact that it was ugly as long as it worked.  But then when I started using the pretty Clover flower head pins from my mom, they made the pin cushion look even worse.  AND it wasn’t padded enough so sometimes if I picked it up the wrong way I’d impale myself on something that was long enough to stick right through.  OK, I didn’t require first aid or anything but it freaking hurt!

So I started thinking about a new pin cushion.  I like the tomato style round ones but I’m not a cliche type of person and I didn’t want a red tomato sitting by my sewing machine. (Sorry if you love those, no judgment here).  Every once in a while I looked for ideas for making a new one but other things were just more fun to look at and I kept putting the whole problem aside.

Until…

I’m currently working through an online class by Kimberly Einmo.  Yes, everyone, it’s all about various piecing patterns with pre-cuts and not the typical kind of class on my list.  But Kimberly is one of the well known book-writing and traveling teachers of quilting, and a passionate piecer friend of both my mom and I – you know who you are – raved about her on more than one occasion, so when I was looking for a new class the other day  I thought to myself “what the heck, I will check this lady out.”

Now Kimberly is really fun to watch and listen to and she has a lovely personality, lots of great ideas and techniques – she even sells her own special rulers which she features in her class – and I’m enjoying the class although I still might not do a lot of picky piecing even after completing it.

BUT when I saw her pin cushion I had to have it.  I actually rewound the lesson and paused it to make sure that if I went hunting for it I would get exactly the right one. I can’t tell you off hand what she was teaching me at the time because as soon as she picked it up to do something it popped out at me like she planned it that way. (Of course, this is one of the benefits of taking classes on Craftsy, being able to pause and rewind to go back to something important, like the perfect pin cushion). It was a lovely large and plump pink velvet tomato style pin cushion with a little green topper and a pretty bead hanging from a cord and I knew right then it was the one I wanted.  I’m not even a bright pink person, but it was irresistible.

I immediately found it on Amazon and of course, because you get free shipping at a certain point, I threw a couple of rotary cutter blades into my cart and placed the order.  You can always use some backup blades.  And it came all wrapped in cellophane so you just know it’s special …

Five inches wide!  It’s the biggest tomato I’ve ever seen.  So I’m happy now to have not only a cute new perfect pin cushion, but the SAME pin cushion as Kimberly Einmo (she sells them on her website too) which makes me feel pretty cool overall.

And just to keep you up to date on the quilting side of things, my most recently finished quilt is a sweet floral print baby quilt using lovely coordinated prints cut into simple strips of various sizes to give it an almost patchwork look without all the patches! Yay! My kind of quilt top 🙂  I saw an idea online for a baby quilt using very girly floral prints that to me have a vintage look when put all together, so I just had to try one because it was so pretty.

I don’t know what it is about this fabric, but once the quilt was washed, crinkled up and all cuddly it was just so noticeably soft, even compared to my other quilts.  The prints are from a line called Princess Rose which I found online at Missouri Star Quilt Company and I’m so happy with the end result that I immediately ordered more!  (They must be getting used to me by now …)  I know I will want to make another baby quilt, or maybe even one for me, with this gorgeous fabric.

Just to finish things off, I had to take a photo of my cute pin cushion with this adorable quilt, which is already sold and packaged for delivery.  I couldn’t resist doing a before and after: I ask you, is there any comparison here? NOT!