Thursday, May 14, 2026

Embroidered Victorian Pin Cushion and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 Today's sun was greatly appreciated 🌞 It's still too cool to stay outside to stitch but it's getting there. I just love watching and feeding all of the neighbourhood wildlife. I finished my embroidered Victorian pin cushion, so here it is.

Victorian Pin Cushion

I wasn't sure if I would make the pin cushion but when I embroidered the pattern on a smaller scale onto lovely vintage cotton, of course I had to make it. Because the handkerchief had a lace trim that I wanted to include in the pin cushion, I didn't use the pillow case method. I just made it up as I went along.😀

Embroidered Victorian Pin Cushion

The good thing about embroidery is that it covers machine stitching lines very well. I even took out my pretty pins to put into the cushion...I'll need more of those.

This is what the sampler looked like last week

The last two stitches to add were the beaded wheat ear stitch and the half wheel buttonhole stitch. I did the buttonhole stitch on the yellow sampler without drawing it - so I learned from that and drew the half circle on my pin cushion sampler.

Drawing the half circles to get it right

What I learned

The size of the embroidery hoop you use matters! I was originally using a 6" hoop for my first sampler but since it felt small, I switched to an 8". This turned out to be larger than the fabric so it wouldn't keep the tension. So I switched back to my 6" but just adjusted the fabric when I needed to.
I don't always use an embroidery hoop but for these more "formal" stitches, especially placed in rows, it was necessary.
I don't like drawing the whole stitch because I don't usually follow the drawing anyway, but it was needed to make the half-circles roughly the same size. It worked out well.
If you've been following me for a while, you know that I don't like making things that require accuracy, so this was way out of my comfort zone. Now that I proved that I can do it - the question is do I want to do it again? Probably not 😁
It's nice to play with stitches, although I'm not a huge fan of embroidery floss. I found it really hard to thread my needle when I was using 4 strands. It's not so much the original threading as the multiple threading required when you make mistakes and have to pull the thread out - and you can only do that by taking it out of the needle.😕
To keep the lace trim on the pin cushion, I attached the back to the front at each end and sides, having two pieces meet in the centre. I then buttonhole or blanket stitched the edges so they wouldn't fray.
I channeled my mother's MacGyver talents when putting it together - the important thing is that it looks ok and won't leak filling!

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts shared with us her week 3 and 4 quilts as part of the 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge.

Honey Bouquet quilt made with flannel scraps by Kat

Kat used ruler quilting to finish this lovely quilt

Deb, A Scrappy Quilter, quilted up a whole bunch of quilts that she and her grandchildren layed out. You'll want to check out her post to see all of them!

A lovely stroller quilt made by Deb with left overs

5" squares make up this cute quilt by Deb

A pretty yellow quilt with a gridded centre by Deb

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has the pattern of her Rainbow Sprouts Quilt available in her shop. It was first featured in the Make Modern Magazine's Issue #68. She also has a great Rainbow Seeds quilt made from the left-overs of the Rainbow Sprouts quilt.

Rainbow Sprouts Quilt by Preeti

Rainbow Seeds quilt by Preeti

Sandra of mmm quilts has a gorgeous quilt, Diamond Baby, in the latest Make Modern magazine. She took some amazing pictures on her trip to Eastern Canada. You'll want to check out her post!