Crafty Christmas Gifts

2018 = This year's selection for a crafty Christmas gift for all the ladies in our family (his and her sides) was a pincushion and I found the idea at YouTube on a video titled "Easy Pincushions with Jenny, Misty, and Cindy" by Missouri Star Quilt Company. I really enjoyed shopping at thrift stores for the containers and bought the Lizard Litter and some pillow filler fluff. Just a warning - the smallest bag Petco carries of Lizard Litter is a ten-pound sack of crushed walnut shells! 😁

Many of the pots were still dirty from their last use, so almost as soon as I got home with them, they got scrubbed in a warm, sudsy bath. I looked them over carefully at the store for cracks and chips and a couple of them didn't transfer home so well, so I had to touch up a couple with matching paint. All in all though, they were so cute when I finished making them. 

If you decide you have to make some too, here's what I suggest: several of the containers were deep and I stuffed the bottoms of them with plastic grocery sacks and foam packing before adding the glue around the top edges and then stuffing the pincushion bubble in and adding more glue where needed. To make the pincushion bubble,  I put the center of the fabric upside down into the top of a little cardboard tea package lid that was about 1 1/2 inch deep (you could use a custard cup or other small container), spooned in about 3 scoops of lizard litter, then drew it up into a "bubble" and stuffed pillow fluff into the opening (which will be the bottom of the pincushion), while twisting some strong crochet thread around the "neck" to tie it closed (secret: tie a slip knot first with a 3 inch tail and pull tight, then wrap the thread around the neck two or three times and tie off) and cut off the excess fabric. I used a thumbnail and a Chinese bamboo chopstick to push the pincushion pillow into the opening of several of the containers and tried to smooth them out until tight. Then I stretched a couple of large rubber-bands around the top of pincushion and the bottom of the containers to hold the pincushions in until the glue dried and set overnight. Added a couple of straight pins and a safety pin on top to finish them off. Made 25 in all and the gals had fun picking out their favorite one to take home!

If you want to see details, click on the photo to enlarge!