Carry-all pin cushion freestyle

I was inspired this morning by a blog from Crazy Mom Quilts featuring the Carry-all pin cushion from a new book, Handmade Style. Too impatient to wait until I found the book, and too intrigued by the idea of figuring out the construction, I dived in.  the process was a lot of fun and I balanced the fabrication with time outs for embellishments.  Looking back at the inspiration piece, I think my Carry-all falls in the super-sized category.  but it still packs a lot of function it its six by nine frame.

One of my first freestyle add-ones was a felted wool needle case.  Two round sheets of hand dyed wool tuck in behind the needle case cover.  A crocheted chain of pearl cotton wrapped around a black button holds the case closed, securing the needles and protecting me from sharp points.  Sometimes needles tend to sink down and get lost in big pin cushions, so I'm thinking  this should be a handy way of keeping track of them.   Part of the fun in fabricating this design, was that it evolved as I worked.  I find more and more opportunities to use wonder clips when I sew and I've seen a few new ideas for holding wonder clips at hand, as well as pins.  So I added a ruffle along one end of the cushion, just for wonder clips.  I think its going to work WONDERFULLY.  (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I filled the pin cushion with polyfil because of the size,  but topped the polyfil with my favorite pin cushion filling - a muslin bagged layer of crushed walnut shells about one inch thick.  I also added a sheet of Peltex at the bottom to minimize the rounding caused by the polyfil. 

There are assorted little pockets on three sides of the pin cushion. I've found a place for my  small scissors, tape measure, pointy chop stick for corners, ruler, seam gauge, seam ripper, stiletto, pin and pins.   And still have two pockets to fill.  

The little scoop pockets gave me another opportunity to embellish with assorted embroidery stitches.  Always happy to find a place to play with a little pearl cotton floss and decorative stitches.

A final picture looking down on my new pin cushion.