Hickory dickory nursery versery

It's going to be a two-post day. Have you seen the competition Rachel has going over at Stitched In Color? There's a whole bundle of the new Heather Ross Nursery Versery line to be won. As Heather Ross is one of my favourite designers and I'd just got a few of the Nursery Versery prints, my ears pricked up.

Then I looked at the first entry. OMG the cutest little trousers you've ever seen. I decided right there and then not to bother.

But... I've barely cut into any of my HR prints (I just bring them out occasionally and stroke them). And I've been wanting to try reverse needle-turn appliqué (actually Rachel's fault as one of our MQG members showed off what she'd been doing in Rachel's hand stitched class)... And I really could use a thread-tidy with pin cushion near my sewing machine... And those little mice are just so darn cute.... so... with no expectation of winning, but just because...

There's a mouse about the house!  I love this wood print - perfect skirting boards for a mouse hole - and the Pear Tree fabric seemed just the right match for this colour way and makes pretty good 70s style wallpaper and carpet.

I made a little bag and used some boning around the top to make the bag stay rather than flop closed, and put a nice loooong tab on it to sit under my sewing machine.

I then made another little bag out of Nursery Versery and stuffed it with rice for a pin cushion (should have used batting - rice is a bit too floppy for pins to stay reliably, but the rice does give it enough weight to hold the bag without any weight on the tab.

I velcroed the pin cushion on so I can move it if I need to.

Here it is in use.

 And one more look at that little mouse-house. (I was considering free-motioning a shadow of a cat's paw above the hole but decided not to...)

There! I love it and I will use it so I'm so glad Rachel's competition prompted me to cut into my Nursery Versery. Do go and have a look at the other entries and see what people have done with this gorgeous line of fabric!