Liberty Clamshell Pincushion

One of the projects I've made to use in my new studio, is a cute Liberty clamshell pincushion. It's the perfect size to sit in the bed of my sewing machine, and carelessly ram pins into as I'm sewing small projects.I've had a clamshell project on my list to make for a long time, and a few weeks ago I finally bought a template, and decided that this would be the perfect project. This liberty is courtesy of the lovely girls at Ava&Neve, who always curate such beautiful bundles!

If you'd like some tutorials on making clamshells, I'd recommend Sue Daley's videos on english paper piecing...I used some lovely old crochet lace that I was given, and happily had clamshell shapes in it already to echo my clamshells. As you can see I got a bit lazy and decided to save fabric along my bottom row as I was planning on cutting off the bases.

I paper pieced the top, and realised how much I love this for accuracy...you just can't beat it! I paired this with a gorgeous cream essex linen, and love how it ended up matching the lace...

I hand quilted around the top, and sewed it onto the side strip. This time I left off the last clamshell, and added that when I was finished the whole thing, but if I did it again, I would have added it after I'd joined the strip, and before I joined the base.If you'd like a refresher on how to box the corners neatly, here's the link to my butterfly pincushion...

Here's the hole waiting to be sewn up...and then nicely closed. Once again I filled it with a mixture of rice and polyfil. I just love the weight that rice adds, and the nice shape of the polyfil.

Here it is all completed, with a cute little bead added for a blossom. So...just wondering if there is any interest for a pattern for this pincushion??

Can't wait to show you the progress on my studio, and all the other projects as they happen...my holidays are fast running out, and my to-do list is still painfully long!