I recently came across this photo from Country Living’s website of a pickle jar full of old tomato pincushions. I couldn’t get the image out of my mind for days.
So, I began collecting vintage tomato pincushions. I picked up a few at the second-hand craft store (yes, there’s such a thing in our area, The Legacy in Sebastopol.) Then I started scouring eBay and Etsy for reasonably priced ones. And within a week I had my collection. Ok, sort of a cheater-collection, but I have a thing about instant gratification.
I even found a fun pickle jar for 5 bucks at the antique fair last weekend. So now I’m overflowing with darling functional produce and so many ways to display them!
Do you have a quirky collection? I’d love to hear about it!
And speaking of pickling, I thought I’d dig up a post from the past that I did for my guest mom stint on the Design Mom blog, enjoy! LINK
They look super cute in the truck!
Hm… I can’t think of anything quirky I collect. I really don’t collect much at all except funky artwork and vintage stained glass windows.
Now that I think about it, I do have a small collection of antique glass insulators. I made them into hose guides for my flower beds!
That is so stinkin’ cute!!! What a great idea. I’m a sucker for pincushions, anyway…
thats funny, I saw the same pic and loved it!!!
I’ve been collecting those tomato pincushions for years, I’ve got a big jar of them and love them madly. Quirky? Maybe. Fun. Absolutely!
I don’t really have any quirky collections but I do have an obsession with buttons. LOL. I have tons of them!
We have several collections. I collect old wooden gears and wheels. We hung them on the wall of my dining room. I also collect old printing letters and ampersands. Oh, and suitcases too… I could just go on and on.
Oh! and Potato Mashers, Valentines and Road Maps. Wow. I really have a collecting problem.
What a neat collection! I never thought of collecting pincushions. I collect thimbles. I have about 250 that I have collected over 40 years.Have a good day!
I collect vintage tooled-leather purses. I have them displayed on the shelves of my kitchen hutch. Kinda strange, but I love them! All the workmanship that went into each makes them works of art.
I love your tomatoes in the pickup! So cute.
Collections are so fun. I collect teapots, snowmen, lighthouses, but my quirkiest would be miniature chairs. I love them!
These are awsome! I’ve always loved pincushions, but I think I only own one. Maybe now I’ll have to re-think that!
I have jars full of dominos and jars full of Anagrams..and now the grand and I have a collection of ROCKs going on..I have a collection of ‘church keys’ and a collection of buttons…srabble letters, smashed bottle caps..I can just keep going if you want..lol..Love the pinnys in the jar! That rocks!!
My goodness! I have not even made the cushion for the back of my hot rod yet. Now you have me thinking I should put my three measly tomatos in it instead and find more. You come up with the best ideas. Thanks!
I collect rescue animals…and they are ALL quirky! I love the pin cushions…especially in the old truck! Red is my favorite color.
ah Cathe that’s so funny – I think we all have a thing about instant gratification when it comes to crafts!
Great post as usual!
These look doubly cute since you could actually can tomatoes…My pantry has 10 glass jars of various ingredients. My sewing room has jars of yo-yos, empty spools, ribbons, buttons, Scrabble tiles.
It just occurs to me that I have a collection (of 3) of the strawberry-type pincushions – gotta go and put ‘em in a jar.
–Vicki K.
I collect tea pots, buttons, blue & white pottery, unusual kitchen or knitting gadgets… my son collects bottle caps… my daughter collects rubber ducks and everything pink.
Funny thing about the pin cushions, my father-in-law read a story about someone hiding money inside an old pin cushion, so he is always buying them at auctions and CUTTING THEM UP
hmmm, let’s see, glass shoes, teapots, little chairs, frogs, woven baskets, glass baskets, bunnies, chickens, gloves, purses, perhaps i have a problem!!!! lol well, let’s just keep that between US! LOL but i AM getting better! i LOVE your little tomato pin cushions! i know i have AT least ONE of those too! lol Thank you so much for sharing the FUN!
Have a WONDERFUL weekend! 
The red houses fabric you have in one of the shots, is on eof my FAVORITE prints!!
I can’t help myself with jars and wooden bowls. I just picked up some really cool one today from a yard sale and thrift store.
My quirky collection is shopping bags (the fancier, the better) which I display as a border around my studio. My walls rival 5th Avenue!
Ellen
I have a very small inkwell collection – maybe 8 to 10 and my cute husband gave me one for Christmas.
I am almost ready to figure out a way to display them. Any ideas? Anyone?
My daughter has a collection of coin purses
I have a collection of goofy souvenir plates, but I’m pretty much done (I only collect plates from the places of significance in my husband’s and my lives.)
I have such beauties as Johnstown, PA that features a large center image of the Inclined Plane (go ahead, look it up). And a plate featuring the Turnpike. Yup.
I think flower frogs would be a cool thing to collect. Not that I even have ONE.
Do we have to count the 700 boxes of rocks in our basement?
Carol
Extreme Cards and Papercrafting