Pickle Dish and Pincushion

first pickle dish block

Here is a picture of the centre block for a quilt I'm making in a class with Chris Jurd.  I've always wanted to make one of these and Chris was doing a paper piecing class in Bathurst at Anni Downs lovely shop, The Home Patch.  I've been to two lessons so far and love the paper piecing technique,easy and accurate..right up my alley.  The pattern is a variation of a pickle dish quilt by Chris with some applique in the corners.  I'm planning on leaving the applique out so I have nice big areas for some pretty feather quilting.  I have plenty more piecing before this one is finished!

The other picture is an oversize pincushion I made from a tutorial I found on a kind lady's blog (I'm ashamed to say I can;t remember which one).  If I do find the tutorial I'll post a link because I just love this pincushion.  I find some small pincushions are so light that I end up chasing them as I attempt to put the pins back in especially when I am madly piecing as fast as I can go.  This one is approx. 8 inches across, a serious pincushion that goes nowhere!  I've shown the underside as well so you can see the 6 pointed star that makes the top and bottom, the sides are hexagons.  There were instructions for both hand  and machine piecing, I chose to machine piece.

It's really late so I'd better try to get some sleep,
bye for now, Rowena