A Teeny Tiny Biscornu Pincushion

No travel kit would be complete without a pincushion. I decided I wanted to try a tiny biscornu style out, but I couldn't find a pattern I liked. So I made my own pattern. Here's the pattern if you'd like to make your own. You can stitch the whole thing twice, but for my bottom piece, I just stitched the 5 inner squares. If you stitch one, I'd love to see it on Instagram under #lovelybiscornu

Mini Ort Catcher for Travel Kit

I save my orts (thread bits) to put in Christmas ornaments, but they are harder to hold onto when I'm out and about. I knew I wanted a little ort catcher for my travel kit so I cut a square of wool felt with my pinking shears a little smaller than where I wanted it to go.

Next, I cut 2 pieces of fabric and a piece of thin batting a little bigger (maybe 1/2" bigger on each side) than the felt square and sewed them together right sides together leaving a space to turn them right side out. I then sewed around the edge. Also, I sewed around the edge about a 1/2" from the edge all the way around.

I folded the corners together and made a few stitches to hold them together to create a small tray. Lastly, I sewed the felt down to the center of the fabric tray.

Now, I have a cute little thread collector for my travel kit that I can empty out when we get back home and it will keep my orts from spilling out everywhere whenever I open the box!

Stitching on the Go

I carry some form of needlework with me wherever I go. I stitch while standing in line or while on the bus, train, subway, or plane. I stitch at restaurants while waiting for food. I'll stitch anywhere. But, get stuck by pins and needles when I put my hand in my bag is no fun so I wanted a small plastic box to keep my stitching supplies and maybe even a little stitching in.

In China, people travel with very small bags. When my husband and I go on school trips, we don't want to have a huge amount of luggage with us so we pack as light as possible which means keeping my stitching to a small amount. School trips also involve train or plane travel which means at least an hour wait time each way, plus the actual travel time, plus an hour or so out to the main campus from where we live in addition to more time on buses or waiting at various locations along the way. A three or four day trip can mean 10 or more hours of stitching time easily. I need something to work on.

I had this small, plastic box that I thought would be great to hold everything I needed for cross-stitch, embroidery, some English paper piecing, and some crochet or knitting. (Crochet hooks or knitting needles, but not yarn.) I am not a monogamous stitcher. I get bored easily so I need some variety. I also wanted to be able to finish a few projects.

A Lovely Little Needlekeep

I'm putting together a little travel kit in a small plastic box for some traveling we are doing later this month and I wanted a simple little needle keep rather than a needle book to keep a few extra needles in that would also keep them corralled so they weren't just loose in the box where I would stab myself on them.

After stitching "NEEDLES", I was able to see how much space I wanted and stitched a border of 21 x 32 squares (1 square = over 2). I added a small piece of wool felt which I realize I didn't center, but that's okay. I normally would have chosen a natural colored linen, but I wanted to use something from my little scrap bag and this light blue was the size I needed. I believe it's 28ct, but I'm not sure since it was in the scrap bag.

For the back, I decided to stitch my design, blog, and Instagram name of Kind-n-Lovely Stitches so I could also use it as an identifier in my photos.

I sewed through the border stitches to stitch the front and back together and started with the top and the two top corners so that I could slide this tiny bit of Timtex in to add a bit of stiffness.

It should be the perfect size to hold 5 or 6 different needles which should be more than enough to suit my needs for a little bit of cross-stitch, some embroidery, and a bit of English paper piecing.

I'm really excited about how it turns out. If you make one, please post a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #kindnlovelystitches

Happy Stitching!