Pincushions

Hello, everyone.

I was reading Needle n Thread today and Mrs. Corbet has been talking about needles. Well, about needles and pincushions.

It was enlightening.

I was inspired to throw my few, pitiful pincushions into the mix.

I have one for sewing machine needles:

Pincushion with embroidered labels for sizes and types: B for ballpoint and S for sharp, Roman numerals for sizes

I have another one for pins, and the strawberry for that one holds a few hand needles for use at the sewing machine:

Some of the many pins in the tomato, and a few hand needles in the emery strawberry.

And then I have one, special, pincushion for embroidery needles. Most of the needles still have threads in them from the last time they were used. The beading embroidery needles are there, too--still sporting bits of Fireline. (Link goes to Fire Mountain--but this thread is fishing line and can be found in the sporting goods sections of various stores. Along with the line cutting scissors you need to cut the stuff.)

The embroidery pincushion. It really is a tangle, and even though I tried to separate needles by type, it's gotten rather confused. Still, the needles here are not used for hemming and suchlike. They're for embroidery or for bead weaving.

There are a couple of really bent-up needles in that multicolored tomato. They earned their bends, doing the bead embroidery on DD1's wedding dress. I think of them as being retired, not isolated from their still-working brethren, but not called on to do much.

If I bust out the embroidery frame and a piece of fabric and tracings on Sulky Solvy to make that picture of the Risen Christ I've been wanting to do, the multicolored tomato is the one that holds the needles to do it. Well, that and the little packages of more needles like those. (Link goes to the Sulky site--you can find their products in lots of fabric stores.)

I have a few ends to tie up before I can start another huge embroidery project. And a few more decisions to make. But the painting calls to me.