The Girl Gang Makes Candlestick Pincushions

There's a group of friends from North Little Rock and the surrounding area who have met together for years. They call themselves the Girl Gang, and up until now have met regularly at our favorite shop, Blossom Quiltworks. Well, much to everyone's dismay, Blossoms has closed it's doors, resulting in the Girl Gang losing it's "hangout." Cyberspace being what it is YOU and the Gang can still shop, though, at www.blossomquiltworks.com and we are glad of that. All that said, I was asked to teach a class on Saturday, May 2nd, here in the Nest, specially for the Girl Gang. No, the Nest will not become their next hangout...I'm too far away from most of them for it to work out, but I was excited that they chose this place to meet - if only for one Saturday.

The Gang wanted to learn how to make Candlestick Pincushions. One of the gang had purchased a candlestick pincushion from me last year. As a matter of fact, she was my first customer when I opened my etsy shop, purchasing her candlestick then. And, she has been a wonderful customer...so Sharon...thank you so much for all you've done for me! When I attended our guild's AWOL retreat in March, Sharon brought her candlestick pincushion and that's where the gang got the idea to have the class. Present here in the Nest yesterday was Sharon, Geannine, Letitia, Marty, April, Lynn and Shari. What a fun group they were too! Even though we are about to mildew here from all the rain (and rain MORE, it did) these girls drove up here determined to make a pincushion and have fun doing it. And, make them, they did!

I had the Nest all ready for their arrival, having made kits for them....complete with chocolate candy. I'm allergic to chocolate, but I have learned over the years that a group of women love to have their chocolate! It was fun making their kits, setting up the tables and preparing my three sewing machines so they could sew their wedges together. I even enjoyed setting the tables in the house for their lunch. I had heard that this group brings food. Boy, do they bring food!!! They had a bit of breakfast in the Nest, then lunch in my house...I love getting out the dishes and making things look nice. ( I even like cleaning up...yeah, weird, I know!!)

In one photo, you can see Shari sewing her wedges together on my Bernina. I forgot to tell her that she could raise the chair, I think it was as low down as it will go, so she probably was quite uncomfortable sewing there, but she didn't complain! Well, she's not tall either, so maybe it didn't bother her. I also had an old Singer from my son-in-law's family clothing store alterations department. They recently sold the store (Van Atkins, a Searcy store for many, many years) and Rick brought me the sewing machine, thinking I would like to have it. Yes, indeed! And, it sews like a dream after all these years. Also in use yesterday was my mother's old Singer Featherweight. It's the one I learned to sew on. I should post about it one day as it is now a beautiful color of RED!!

You can see Marty here, working diligently on her pincushion. I think I heard her say that one would be a gift. She always does such nice work, someone will be lucky! Also in this photo, you can see Sharon's hands....embroidering for the first time...isn't her stitching gorgeous?

Everyone did a fine job. They chose their own "bits" - (little pieces of crochet), covered their own embroidered buttons for the tops of the pincushions, made up designs, chose from my button and charm collection and threw out ideas for embellishing that were very exciting. We had lots of hearts - always showing up here in the Nest! Not to mention the cool ideas they had for using little embroidered bird patterns. While we could hear birds singing outdoors, birds were being created indoors too! That was "way cool."

I hope the Girl Gang had a great time. I think they did. I know I did as I love sharing this place and all the "stuff" in it. They'll find a new place to congregate...but meantime...it was great having them here! Take care. Pat