Fan Pincushion

This is an old-fashioned pincushion I made with silk ribbon embroidery. It's old-fashioned because it's made to have the pins stuck into the top curved edge. It's made with several pieces of felt sandwiched between 2 fabric-covered cardboards.

This could easily translate into a motif used in a crazy quilt. Some motifs are appliqued onto the CQ, then embroidered. Whenever I do this, I sew the desired shape right sides together to a piece of non-woven interfacing. I sew around all the edges, not leaving any opening for turning. I then slit the back of the interfacing, turn the motif right side out and press. This way you get a good shape, without the usual bulge where the opening for turning was located. If you want to get really clever, you can stitch your motif to fusible interfacing (right side of motif to non-fusible side of interfacing). Then after you slit and turn the motif, you can place it on the CQ and iron it on. But you have to use a special non-stick sheet on your ironing board, or when you are pressing it into shape, you'll iron it onto your ironing board!