V and Co: How to make a little string block pincushion

One thing is for sure, you can never have enough pin cushions. Okay maybe you can and I just lied, whatever the case, you can't have enough CUTE pincushions. Am I right? Yep, thought so.

This little guy finishes at 4" x 4" and uses up any of those favorite little scraps you have left behind from a project. 

For this particular pincushion I used Amanda Jean's- Crazy Mom Quilts- new fabric line called Good Neighbors.

Materials Needed:

- scraps of material to make 1/2" strips 

- 1 white square with measurements of 5"x5"

- 1 charm square (5" x 5") for the back of the pincushion.

1. Cut the white square into 4- 2 1/2" squares. 

2. Cut scraps into strips with the width of 1/2" and with enough length to reach across diagonally from point to point of your 2 1/2" square.

 3. Place your first strip with right side facing up diagonally on your square.

4. Place a second strip directly on top of the first strip with wrong side facing up (and right sides together)

5. There's no way we can do a 1/4" seam so use 1/8" or less to sew your strips together (we want this to look scrappy and not perfect so sometimes use 1/8" seam and other times use less, this way you can achieve this not perfect look)

6. Press open with an iron.

7. Repeat on the second strip

8. Continue until you get close to the corner. Find a slightly larger piece of scrap fabric and continue to place right sides together for the last time making sure it covers all of the corner.

9. Flip the block around so you can start sewing more strips onto the other side, starting with your very first middle strip again. Repeat what you did on the first side to this new side.

10. You should end up with this mess of a thing. Don't worry we will make it pretty next.

11. Flip over your sewn block, and align your foundation block to 2 1/2" on the square ruler

 12. Trim off the excess strips

13. Flip around the block and again align and square up to the 2 1/2" mark and trim off excess strips

 14. Turn it over you now have a perfect 2 1/2" string block.

 15. Make three more to make 4 total string blocks

16. With right sides together sew the top two squares together and then repeat on the bottom two squares.
17. With right sides together sew the two top squares to the two bottom squares to create a 4 1/2" block

 18. Square down your back fabric (charm square) to 4 1/2" place right sides together and using 1/4" sew around all four sides leaving an opening on one side to be able to pull inside out and fill with filling.
**(What you put inside is up to you, you can do crushed clams, sand, seeds, and so forth. These are just a few options! I went with seeds.)
19. Hand stitch close your side opening.

Enjoy your cute pincushion!
And now:
Winner of our charm pack giveaway is:
Vicki H!
We'll talk soon!