Cross Stitch Finish: Keeper of the Pins

I finished my Keeper of the Pins pillows last week. I had finished stitching them about a month ago and now, it was time to fully finish them.

They are a With Thy Needle and Thread Design. The chart came out at market in 2022. It is still available and can be found at your local needlework shops or online. You can find it at Stitchery Nook HERE.

I wanted this chart the second I saw it. How could I not? I’m a quilter so of course, it’s perfect for me. I also loved the idea of having everything coordinate for its own bowl fillers.

Some time ago when I was at Marker’s Market a vintage/gift shop in Sumner Iowa, I saw a wood tray that I thought would be perfect to display the little pillows. I bought it then with making these pillows in mind.

Now that I have them in there, I’ve been doing a debate on if I want to keep them there. Here’s the trouble, you can’t see the other pillows that are on the other side. See?

I wouldn’t mind that but right now, I don’t have a place to display it where I can see both sides. I’d love to put it on the coffee table but between grandkids and dogs that could easily reach it, the display wouldn’t be safe there.

I love the mix of vintage sewing goodies with the pillows. I’ve collected a few things along the way and am so glad I did.

The pillows that are pictured on the pattern all have mini rick rack around them. I’m kind of a plain girl. I bought the rick rack thinking I would add it but AHH..I didn’t add it. I like them plain because, to me, they are more vintage looking.

I sometimes think that some trim “dates” a piece…it kind of says, trim was popular in the early 20s and everything had trim on it then. You know, kind of like we all groan and say country blue and geese were the thing in the 80s.

I think a lot of people don’t like how they stitch the opening shut on pillows and like to cover that up. So, they use trim to do that. I don’t. I use a ladder stitch to close my pieces. I wrote a bit of a tutorial for that and will post that in the evening post. I want them to be separate so that it’s easier to link to down the road.

I ended up pulling the goodies out of my wonderful wooden tray and putting them in the container I have at the dining room table. I ended up liking it much better.

I pulled a few more vintage notions to be able to fill it. I had trouble figuring this out at first. I ended up pulling a small box filling it and putting that into the larger box. It was what I needed to do because the pieces were all sinking too far into the large box.

I ended up pulling out this other piece that I had stitched back in late 2020. It also is a With Thy Needle and Thread chart.

I’m so happy I stitched these. I really want to stitch other pieces that aren’t seasonal. There are more days that aren’t connected with seasonal times than there are seasonal so it only makes sense to stitch more pieces that can be used at any time.

That’s my goal for now…We’ll see if I actually follow through with it.

For now…I’m loving this new display. I’m so thankful I took the time to stitch these.

If you want to see how to do the ladder stitch make sure you check out tonight’s post.

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