A Bluestocking Knits

I'm embarrassed to say that I've had these photos for a year and not written up the post — so here it is. 

I wanted to make something for my choir director — she quilts, and so I didn't want to quilt something for her just yet … and so I thought of these Quaker-style pin-keeps that quietly show up around the interwebs now and again.  It didn't need to be all from my stash, but it turned out that I could, and so it was frugal as well as plain — also very Quaker.  This seemed an entirely fitting quotation for a choir director and musician —

This was testing colors.  The "Shepard's Blue" has a lot of purple in it (pretty, but not the effect I wanted), and "Blue Jeans" is a handsome mid-range blue, but I went with "Brethren Blue" (the wrapped one).  "Collards" and "Schneckley" were my first choices for green and gold, respectively.  "Lancaster Red" is definitely more scarlet than "Williamsburg Red," which has a slightly muted note to it, but I went with "Old Brick" since it played well with the other very-saturated choices.

The assembly is a bit fiddly, but fairly straightforward.  Between the mat-board round and the needlework are two layers of cotton batting, just to give it a bit of softness.  The needlework is gathered around the edges with small stitches, then inveigled onto the mat-board round, and stitched across the opening to keep it in place.  I don't much like the idea of glue on needlework, and so I whip-stitched the two rounds together.  The stitches are covered with a narrow ribbon, and glass-headed pins stuck in at regular intervals to hold the ribbon in place.  (Historically, you could actually use this as a pin cushion, lining them up all around the edges.)

I was very pleased with how this turned out — although I would rather that it was a bit smaller, this was the fabric I had, and the design and the beautiful colors are very pleasing.

I'm happy to share this chart, which also has finishing instructions (though without pictures) — Download Pin Keep 1 (Make a Joyful Noise)