Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Pin cushion excavation

pincushion_before

 

I reached for a pin in my pin cushion the other day and had to hunt around to find one.  It was then I realized that the pin cushion contained a MESS of all kinds of pins and other tools, many of which I don’t even use. 

 

Time for an overhaul.  I removed everything from the old tomato and was surprised at some of the things I unearthed.  This pin cushion had belonged to my mother, and I’m sure some of the things I discovered were leftovers from Mum’s sewing days.

I found all sorts of pins.  The flower head pins don’t belong there, because I keep those in the pin cushion that hangs beside my flannel wall.  The ones with the large pink heads belong downstairs with the longarm.  T-pins and safety pins have homes of their own.  I threw away all the thick, fat, ugly, bent, corroded pins; they almost filled up the old film canister that I use for Sharps disposal. 

pins

I thought the job was done, but when I looked more closely at what I thought was an empty pin cushion, I realized there were a few needles that had been pushed down inside.  It called for pliers to get some of them out – I found 15!  And some of them look too big to ever have fit inside the tomato.  These I sorted out and put in storage (or discarded). 

needles

Then I refilled my pin cushion with lovely fine glass headed pins and put it back into the little pottery dish my son made in art class at school.  Doesn’t that look better! Now I know that whatever I find when I reach out for a pin will be something useful and a pleasure to use. 

pincushion after

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3 comments:

Ellen said...

Great idea about putting it in the little pottery bowl. I am sure it will help to keep it stable as you remove your pins and needles.

Ruth said...

I remember cleaning out that pincushian when I was living at home, I got quite a few needles out of it then!

Sandy Diehl said...

My great grandmother and my grandmother both had these! I certainly wish I had them now. Perhaps they also would have hidden away needles from years past! In a funny coincidence, I am from Louisa, Virginia and my maiden name is Robertson!