Patchwork please

When I found this new patchwork book I immediately fell in love with the little pincushions on the front cover. I don't know what made me like them so much; maybe it was the clever use of fabric using motifs and text; or maybe it was that they were just so cute.   I ordered the book and began to make one for myself. In the process I thought it would be nice to make one for every member of my sewing group - there are eight of us altogether. They are all great travellers and every time someone returns from their travels they bring with them a small gift for everyone. Over the last year, the extent of my travelling has been to and from my girls' homes, a weekly trip to the supermarket and the occasional trip to the shopping mall. Not very exciting. As a result I have been on the receiving end of a lot of lovely gifts and have never been able to reciprocate. Until now. Eight pincushions later I have eight little gifts which I hope will go some way to repaying the generosity of others.

This was a good way to use up some scraps and I had fun finding new fabric with text and small motifs which could be fussy cut.

You will see that I did not use covered buttons on my pincushions as pictured on the book. To be honest, by the time I had finished making eight pincushions, I was a bit over them and the thought of making 16 covered buttons (two for each pincushion), did not excite me. I think the little buttons I have used are just as sweet.