Sew Day and wrapping it up

Pin cushions that Nancy made.

I'm rich in pin cushions after our Sew Day annual Christmas gift exchange a few days ago. At the beginning of the year, we decided to make a pin cushion for everyone in the group -- there are five of us -- and the big reveal was at lunch during a day of quilt shop hopping.

The top batch is what Nancy made for everyone. She designed each with our unique interests in mind -- mine is the funky, colorful bird, which I love!

The batch above was made by Linda J. -- selvedge pin cushions with padded zipper bags. Carolynn, below, also made quilted zipper bags for her pin cushions -- log cabins with the buttons tailored to us. My button is the chili pepper, because I love the Southwest.

Linda P. made us each a tiny tomato cushion in a pretty glass dish. She also made thread catchers that unsnap to pack flat for taking on the road.

I made wool applique flowered pincushions inspired by some that I saw on Pinterest. I added a blue sea star since we live in the Puget Sound area, which is rich in sea stars.

Since it was the Sew Day group, you know food was involved! We all had French toast at a restaurant in Kent near one of the quilt stores, Running Stitch. We also went to Carriage Country Quilts in Des Moines.

Nancy, Linda P., me, Carolynn, and Linda J.

Here are some other cushions that I made for Christmas gifts this year. The bunny is an 8-inch wool cushion for my bunny-loving daughter. I filled it with ground walnut shells so that she can heat it in the microwave and use it as a heating pad.

I also made tubular pieced pin cushions for my STITCH group from a pattern on the Stitching' Post's blog.

Color directions for the new year,

from this week's purchases:

My color preferences are getting a little softer, but still colorful, based on what I bought this week. I'm starting to like neutral backgrounds and accents, which has surprised me. That little turquoise wool piece doesn't quite fit in, whereas in the past that color played a big part in my art.

I think I'm going to make napkins with the bird print and a coordinating table runner with the ivory and turquoise dots and the stack of wool below.

I bought the fabrics below the day before our Sew Day outing when I went to the Quilted Strait in Port Gamble with Nancy. Again, I was drawn to softer apricots, greens and grey.

This final picture is from a quilt I did this year that uses most of those colors. I guess I'm not going in a major new direction, just softening it up a bit with some ivory and grey. (Just like my hair.)

Here's to a great year!