| Deer Skye Quilt and Home Design

When organizing your sewing and quilting studio, surround yourself with supplies that not only make you efficient but that also look cute like sewing up the cutest cottage pincushion you can make yourself. Use your scraps or choose fabric that you love. Make several to give as gifts to sewers and quilters you know.

What you will need:

A variety of scraps for cottage topper, backing, and appliques.
Free Pattern Hint
Some buttons and ribbon type flowers
Cotton Quilting Thread
Perle Cotton Thread
Low loft batting for hand quilting the top
Applique a door and a window on your cottage pincushion
Some ingenuity and creativity

A pincushion at your side while sewing and quilting is a must. Why not make it cute! I don’t know about you but I like to surround myself in my quilting studio with things that I love. There is something about entering an area where you spend time creating and looking around and seeing things that you have made to make your time in that space more enjoyable. I know you are thinking, “It’s just a little pincushion” but that ‘s the secret. It’s all in the details. I love that about my life knowing that God is in the details of my life and your life. Well He truly is! You can be in the details of your studio no matter how big or how small it is to make it a happy place for you.

Pattern

To make your house pattern you are going to get really creative here. Just draw up your own pattern like the picture above. I designed two different cute cottages using basically the same pattern shape for the cottage. I added strips sewn on the diagonal to look like wood to the blue cottage pincushion.

I wanted the look of wood on my cottage so I cut out two strips of brown fabric the same size. Then cut a diagonal line through my cottage. Sewed one strip to one side. Then cut another diagonal line going the opposite way and sewed the next strip to the other side. Saavy?

Add applique doors, windows and flowers aka buttons to your pincushion.

Keep reading for more specific details on your DIY cute cottage pincushion. I am showing you how to create two different styles but you can create yours the way you want to using your own creative license. The brown checked chimney I added by cutting out a brown gingham square, sewed it to the edge of my cottage and then cut it on the diagonal for a cute and very easy chimney.

Make a cute English Tudor cottage pincushion by sewing strips together.

Scrap Happy

I got a little fancy with this cute cottage. I sewed brown and white strips to look like a fence. It was actually a part of another quilt I was making but it didn’t fit the quilt. I was tempted to throw this block away but instead held on to it and put it in the orphan block pile just in case. Guess what! Just in case was perfect for this project. I cut my cottage using the same pattern above. Use some fun scraps and see what you can come up with!

Add a Chimney if you like to your cottage.

I added a wonky chimney to the top of my English Tudor cottage pincushion. Your cottage does not have to be symmetrical or perfect! I love whimsy and these pincushions would fall into that category! Just cut and sew the piece of fabric you want to put on the top of your cottage for your chimney.

Applique the details on to your cottage pincushions.

Applique Details

To give your cottage pincushion some snap personality you will want to add your own windows and doors. Do this step before you sew and stuff your cottage. Cut out the shapes you want to applique and use this method Needle Turned Applique Made Easier With No Fusible Web & Stunning Results to applique your details on. This is what makes your cottage cute! Once you sew your windows and door to the cottage you are ready to hand quilt the top of your pincushion.

Hand Quilt Your Pincushion Topper

With your low loft batting cut out the same shape as your cottage at this point. Now put the low loft batting behind your cottage topper. Hand quilt using this method but don’t use the hoops to quilt. How To Quilt A Baby Blanket By Hand Free hand it. If you would feel more confident quilting your cottage topper, draw measure and draw straight lines to quilt by. Use DMC Perle Cotton thread to quilt it with. You can either match your thread to your quilting fabric colors or use a brown color to give it contrast like I did.

Sew Backing On

Cut out of your scrap fabric or muslin the same pattern you cut your cottage out of using the photo at the beginning of this post.
Put right sides together and sew around the edge leaving the bottom of your cottage open.
Trim around your cottage.
Turn right side out.
Turn edges under and pin the two edges together.
Hand sew opening closed with Perle Cotton. The stitches will show but they only add to the charm of your cute cottage pincushion.

Stuff Your Cottage

There are a variety of ways to fill or stuff your cottage. I chose the simplest way of what I already had on hand and that is Poly-fil. You could also use a type of wool stuffing or crushed walnut shells. I used Poly Fil when I made a doll pincushion to hang on my sewing machine. Details are here, How To Make A Pin Cushion For A Sewing Machine?

Sew on fabric flowers, buttons, ribbon flowers whatever you want to accessorize your cottage.

Add Pizazz To Your Cottage

This is where you get to be really creative with your cottage. Add buttons, ribbon roses, fabric roses, appliqued roses, whatever you think will give your cottage that added umph! I love details on simple projects like this. I sewed an appliqued heart to the top of the chimney on each of my cottages. I added a couple of leaves and stem to my English Tudor cottage pincushion. Use your creative vibes here to give your cottage added cuteness. Now smile with the satisfaction of knowing you have made something useful and cute to look at!

DIY A Cute Cottage Pincushion