Finished: Asian Pear

I call this the Asian Pear, since those things are a hybrid of apple and pear. This little gem is technically a pear, but the fabric features pears and apples. Ok, so I thought I was being cute here...with all this word play. Anyhoo...

I have seen stuffies like this on numerous blogs and stuff. Some are made to be pincushions, some as ornaments, and some as pillows. I thought they were really cute, so I decided to try to make one of my own. Several attempts later and I finally got something that resembles a pear! The first few looked like warped and mutated versions of a red delicious apple. Sorry, I didn't save or take any pictures of the outtakes, I had ripped them up pronto when I had seen what a mess they were! I had also ripped them up so that I can see the shape...so I can avoid it for the next sample!

Image via B.C. Tree Fruits Limited

I had made this with the intent of giving it to a friend as a thank you gift but didn't like and am not proud of my hand sewing and embroidery on this. So it remains in my sewing room for now. I used fabrics from my stash - pink Alexander Henry Apples and Pears, and some pink Kona Cotton. I decided to use only one print and one solid, solely on the fact that my friend loves pink as much as I do and I knew for a fact that she really, really liked the AH Apples and Pears print after seeing the notepad holder that I had made using this fabric. The leaves and stem are handmade felt that I had bought at a quilting store some time ago but never used because whoever packaged/rolled the felt up made it so that there were hard-to-get-rid-of creases throughout the entire piece.

I think I'm going to attempt to make another one, but this time take more care in the hand sewing parts! I'm also thinking of sewing a tomato, seeing how my current one has gone MIA. Not that I really use pincushions all that often, as I use a magnetic pin holder. But I find the pincushion easier to use when pinning quilting pieces. I currently use the tiny plastic box that the pins came in (I like to keep my quilting pins separate from the general use ones), and that can be quite a pain in the arse. Hmmm...I wonder how long it'll take me...crap, another project to add to the list!

The photos are a bit dark at the bottom...this was taken in my kitchen in between spooning cereal into the wee one's mouth at lunch time. I couldn't find a decent background for this, so I plopped it onto a chair with some white cotton in the back. Natural light here wasn't my friend this time around.