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Monday 10 May 2010

new teacup pincushions

Here's something I have been working on for a while. I actually made the first of these teacup pincushions at the same time as I made my hanging patchwork fishes.
I made the 5 teacups first from old pattern book scraps and my own pattern. It would look a bit more like a teacup if I didn't keep putting the handle on the wrong way up the cup! (I will get this right next time, sigh). If I can work out how to make it into a downloadable PDF I will share the pattern with you and do a quick tutorial (I know I have said this a few times before but I will do it soon I promise!)
The reason for the hold-up is that it has taken me a while to decide which 'animal' I should feature popping out of the teacup. I actually did the mouse first. He turned out a bit tall and has been mistaken for a rabbit.
The problem is that though you can just about imagine a real mouse in a real teacup, it is hard to find another animal to fit the bill. So I made the chicken (which if you imagine him as a baby chick (yes I know he wouldn't have a coxcomb if he was a chick but just go with it!) you can just about see him in a real teacup.
I would have liked to do an elephant but that seemed to stretch the laws of physics a bit too far!
Weirdly though, an owl and a pig seem to work in a whimsical, surreal sort of way (in my crazy world anyway...)
The pig is my current favourite which is why he is at the top of the page. I always like to start with my best photo.
When I was making my latest batch of mini owls I made this really tiny mini owl to pop put of this teacup.
Here they all are together ready to go on sale in the shop. Bye bye animal teacups (hopefully)!
I have one teacup left waiting for its creature. Any ideas readers? I am toying with a duck or a cat but you lot might come up with something better!
I also managed to solve a design problem with me 'little tree pincushions' which has been really bothering me. They were just too likely to topple over despite the pebble in their base. If I put anymore hard weights in the base you would not be able to get any pins in, so I was stumped. And then I came up with this brilliant idea of a saucer! (must have been the teacups in my subconscious).
Here is a close-up. Just 2 circles of felt sewn around a circle of card and one of wadding and then stitched to the flowerpot. And it really works! I have only the 3 left above out of the original 6 and have been put off making anymore by the design flaw, so I am really pleased to have worked out a solution.
That's all for now, my posts are less frequent at the moment as I am so busy quilting my sister's birthday quilt (with only a couple of weeks to go!!). I will speed up again once that is out the way.

Remember to let me have any 'animal in a teacup' suggestions please!

7 comments:

  1. You have come up with a delightful idea of tea cup pin cushions - they are just lovely, and yes, the mouse does look a bit like a rabbit!
    What about a little bird (basically i loved the panda you did for Olivia's quilt) but as they have to be more realistically small enough to come out of a tea cup then a little bird would work.

    Keep on beavering away with my quilt, three weeks' tomorrow, ash cloud permitting to - opening the birthday quilt parcel! xxx

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  2. How about a ....BEAR! Or at least a bear paw!

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  3. LOVE. THAT. MOUSE.

    And I knew he was a moos and not a bunny! See, now, I'm weird (shut it, you lot) and think the elephant idea is magic! Although, yes, a wee bear would be most appropriate! I've been trying to think of a play-on-words of storm in a teacup but I'm just not that smart (and again with the shutting it!!). I'm still loving those fruit trees, too. I'd actually have trouble choosing what to have. Ooh, the spouse says we're due a trip to your neck of the woods in the next week or two!! Woot!

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  4. How about a fox? I little fox sipping on some lovely tea.

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  5. Thanks for all your ideas! I will definately be thinking about foxes, birds and bears!

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  6. Oh my gosh.. those are so cute! :) How fun.

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