Flower Pincushion - Pincushion Swap

Two weeks ago I mailed off my pincushion swap to my partner in England.  She got it yesterday.  Here is what I made for her.  It is a flower pincushion that uses a jar lid as its base, and I also used eco-fi felt for it.  Eco-fi felt is made from recycled plastic bottles.  I used 3 different shades of blue felt for the petals, and then I painted lines on them with puffy paint.  The petals are good for storing sewing needles.

On the top are some green sequence with yellow paint dots in the center.  Then I lined the base of the yellow center with blue shiny trim.  My partner likes shiny stuff.

I also added some sequence to the base as well.

Here is what I received from my partner: two pincushions, the small one is a bottle cap ring pincushion.  The large one uses a sock around the outside of it.  Here is what my partner said about them: "Hi Hun I am so glad that you liked them. You are right about the sock. The strawberry fabric was left over my friends little girls dress. The black part on the side of the bottle top pincushion was the strap off my old velvet top and both of them are stuffed with wool from my friend’s pet sheep Bertie."


It was fun making the pincushion and getting some in trade.  I want to make another flower one for myself so that I have a good place to store all of my sewing needles as well as my pins.

Bottle Cap Pumpkin & Zero Waste

I having been saving my plastic bottle caps for at least a year now in the hopes of making some cool projects with them. I have done a few things with them so far. See last year's plastic bag wreath and this year's Halloween wreath. I wanted to see if my small hole punch would work on the bottle caps. It did! Oh the possibilities! I punched 4 holes in all of my small orange bottle caps last night. Then using all purpose thread and a tapestry needle, I strung them together to form a circle. I then punched a few holes in 3 green (Sprite) bottle caps for the stem of the bottle cap pumpkin. Now what to do with it? Do I glue it to felt and make a trivet? Do I glue it to something else and make a wall hanging? I'm not sure. However the hole punch opens up a whole world of ideas for ornaments for Christmas this year.

In 7 days I have made 7 knitted items using 4 whole skeins of yarn and a third of 2 other skeins of yarn. Six dishcloths and 1 hot pad. Not bad for single skein September. Also not bad for making gifts for Christmas. There are also 4 birthdays coming up that I need to make and / or buy for.

I started participating in zero waste week last Wednesday. I follow Julia on Easy Eco To Go. She has completed 3 weeks without filling up a whole trash bag! You can follow here journey called Bash The Trash on her blog. One of my biggest obstacles is my family. Why do I keep finding banana peels in the trash can? Zero waste does not mean that you don't throw anything in the trash. It means throwing as little away as possible. Can you recycle the item via your town, a store (like recycling ink cartridges or cell phones), or in your own home by crafting with it? Can it be composted? When shopping, think about the packaging of what you are buying. How much of the packaging can be recycled? How much of it will go in the trash? Also think about buying reusable items vs disposable. Handkerchiefs vs tissues, cloth napkins vs paper napkins, dishcloths and dish towels vs paper towels and sponges, items like the Diva Cup vs tampons, etc. So far so good. Today is day 7 and I don't have any trash to throw out tomorrow (trash day). I made a few flannel hankies just in time for a cold to hit my house. My husband said he wasn't going to use them until he found out that they get softer after every wash.