Adventure of Design - FREE Pattern

 Each year our quilt guild does a little "gift baggie" for members; if folks wish to contribute then then make (or obtain) a little item to include into the baggie. I've been toying with several ideas for this year...and one of them was a "donut" pin cushion that I saw on Pinterest. The idea has evolved...and I thought I'd share the adventure of designing with you...and give you a free pattern or two as well.

Donuts on Pinterest are the traditional type with the hole in the center. But, that was more work than I wanted to do since I would be making forty of these. So, why not a "filled donut" with glaze and sprinkles instead.

 So, I pulled out some pink felt and cut the "flower shape" for the donut glace portion...then found some cream upholstery weigh damask for the background and back layer of the donut. Spent two days hand stitching each glaze felt piece to one of the backgrounds. Next...sewing on those beads! THIS is about the time that my enthusiasm gave way to reality...there was just no way that I had the time to sew on ALL of the beads needed to really make these pincushions great. So, "plan B" entered my brain.

Embroidery was so much faster...and still very beautiful. So, why not place an embroidery scene on the felt background? But what would be a good design? Off to the computer again...and a rose sprig was my solution.

It fit the shape of the "glaze" nicely...and could be worked up much faster than stitching thousands of beads.

So, I'm off to transfer the design to some tissue paper for over-stitching to the felt (since you can't really trace on to felt easily). I'll post a photo when one of these forty pincushions is finished. Wonder how the design will FINALLY play out...might still have to add a couple of beads or some French Knots? 

Two patterns resulted from this design adventure...and here are links to each if you'd like to give these pin cushions a try:

DONUT PINCUSHION PATTERN

CHRISTMAS ROSE EMBROIDERY PINCUSHION PATTERN