April is over, already!

I'm about to start a new hand piecing project and realised that I didn't have a spare pin cushion or thread catcher to put in my project tin so, of course, I had to rectify that situation!  I spent longer than is probably sensible making this cute pin cushion who was going to be given a name (possibly Ethel) until I realised that naming her may prevent me from sticking pins in her.

I adapted this pattern and made her from Liberty lawn.  As you can see, she's got a little gingham tail and lilac eyes (she tested several and liked these best), nose and whiskers - I'm really quite fond of her!

The question is, can I bring myself to stick pins in her...

Of course I can!!   (sorry, Nicky!)


The other thing I needed was a thread catcher and I can't tell you how much trouble this gave me, especially considering how many I've made and how very, very simple they are to make.  (Skip to the photo if you don't want to read about some really stupid sewing!)  The first problem was when I turned it through and the wadding was too big for the fabric.  Thinking I'd done something daft (and blaming tiredness) I unpicked it and started again.  And the same thing happened.  That's when I realised I'd picked up the wrong piece of wadding and was using Hobbs Heirloom instead of Warm and Natural.  The Heirloom, it turns out, has a bit of give in it, whereas W&N doesn't, and turning it through the stitching gap had stretched the wadding.  I cut the front off that attempt to salvage the fabric, put the rest in the scrap bin and found a piece of Warm and White and started again.  This time all went well until I discovered that the button I'd stitched on wouldn't/couldn't anchor the ribbon so I took it off and stitched it on again but this time adding a thread shank to lift it off the fabric and create room for the ribbon.  That attempt also failed (but at least I tested it before tying the knot) so I had to go back upstairs and empty out my button jars to find a larger orange button.  No joy.  So I picked out a pink button and looked for an orange ribbon.  No joy there, either.  Then I realised that the original orange button sat nicely on/in the pink button so I went back downstairs to stitch it on.  Guess what?  It wasn't in the centre!!!  Off it came.  Fortunately the second attempt (at this button combination!) was successful. If you're still with me, here it is!

So, I finally have a project tin (and I've prepped the first block but I'm keeping it a secret, for now!) and I'm ready to go:

This month I've made quite a lot of progress with my hexies and have added 83 hexagons (I know, eighty three!  It's amazing how stitching two or three a day really adds up over a month) and eight trapezia and it now looks like this:

In other almost exciting news, Archie has a new collar:

What about this pose?  Does it show off my smart new collar?

And a new lead:

It's about time I had a new lead - the old one is really tatty and not fitting for a dog of my standing...

Doesn't he look handsome?!

And when the sun is shining or it's dark and a torch (or camera flash) shines, this happens:

It's shiny!!

I think that's a happy note to end on, don't you?!  I'm linking up, as usual, to the lovely Lynne and her Fresh Sewing Day post - thanks for popping in!


P.S.  If you go here you can see some of my embroidered Summersville squares on the DMC blog - eek!