I woke up horribly early this morning so decided to get going on my pincushion. I’m pleased with the outcome but had I known how fiddly cathedral windows are, I think I would have gone with another design!
As I haven’t made a cathedral window block before, I followed a couple of online tutorials. I mainly used this one from Making Ends Meet, but instead of hand-stitching the two squares together, I machine-stitched them, following this tutorial from hyena in petticoats.
The fabric was left over from my first baby quilt and was cut to size with a rotary cutter following this tutorial from the purl bee. It was my first attempt at rotary cutting and it seemed to work well.
So what did I learn from this project?
- I NEVER EVER want to make a full cathedral window quilt. The pincushion only has 2 windows and it drove me up the wall!
- Rotary cutting is much easier and more accurate than using scissors to cut fabric
- Keep a quick-unpick handy when sewing (not that I needed one during this project, of course…)
EDIT 5th July 2010: I’m now working on a tutorial for this and hope to have it up here soon!
what kt made next 
Aug 01, 2009 @ 12:58:23
And now you know why I only sew “instant gratification” pieces! It looks great though! I am super impressed!
Aug 01, 2009 @ 17:33:21
Well done! I made one of these too, also from hyena in petticoats’ tutorial, and it’s now my constant companion. I really like the modular nature of cathedral window quilts, and can see myself making one over years, doing the occasional block in between other projects. One more project for the UFO list… 😉
Jan 23, 2010 @ 22:01:45
ok, think I might be going off the idea!! If you found it difficult – then I dont have a cat in hells chance!!!
Jan 23, 2010 @ 22:36:19
Too late, I have it in writing that you’ll be my tutorial guinea pig 😉
Feb 03, 2010 @ 10:52:15
I would like a copy of the pin cushion pattern .thanks Pat
Feb 03, 2010 @ 20:19:24
Hi Pat!
It’s kinda a work in progress at the moment! I’m aiming to get it done this month though and I’ll get it up here as soon as it’s ready!
HTH,
KT
Jan 02, 2011 @ 04:53:15
The Cathedral Window quilt is my all time favorite. I made my first full size quilt when I was only 17 yrs. Forty-one years later it is still being used & in wonderful condition!
Since then I’ve used this quilt design to make handbags, pincushions, pillows, eye glass holder, holder for scissors … and lots of other items … including several more quilts! LOL
It’s a LOT of work, especially when you do it all by hand, no machine use at all … but the final product is well worth the work!
Aug 19, 2011 @ 17:41:56
Do you have a tutorial for your pretty Cathedral Windows pincushion?
Sep 04, 2011 @ 09:14:39
Thanks for stopping by Janice! Unfortunately I don’t have a tutorial. It’s been on my todo list for a while, but I’ve never found the time to get it all written up.