How I made my Carolyn Pearce Home Sweet Home workbox 2: the pincushion

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I am attempting to make this wonderful Home Sweet Home workbox etui set by Carolyn Pearce of Australia. Her book is wonderful, and very clear, but the project is a big one! However, as several people commented after the previous post when I wrote about it, if I stitch it, they will try to stitch it along with me, so maybe we can all achieve it together!

I’ve decided to make the contents before the box itself, which is not the way that Carolyn explains it in her book. Obviously, it would make more sense to make the box first, as then I’d have somewhere to keep the things I’ve made, but being awkward, I’ve decided to tackle the smallest things first, and work my way up to the biggest, as it’s less daunting that way.

So, I’m going to make the pincushion tuffet.  All the threads I’ve used for this project are from my stash, by the way, and not the ones that Carolyn lists in her book. I suggest trying to do the same yourself, as it would reduce the cost of this project enormously – Carolyn uses lovely threads, but LOTS OF DIFFERENT ONES, and sometimes only for one or two stitches.

So, I stem stitched the twisting stems first with fine Medici wool, and then stitched wound roses with French knot centres in a very pale peachy pink.

Then I stitched more roses using a deeper pink, and worked a few rosebuds in Vandyke stitch.

The sepals of each rosebud were worked by continuing the Vandyke stitch, but in deep green Medici wool.

Finally, I added the leaves in a bright green and more of the dark green Medici wool. The bright green really gave this a lift, as I was beginning to think I had chosen shades which were too dull. The pencil lines outside the tuffet edges, below, show where I will need to tie the tight threads around the assembled and stuffed pincushion, to pull it into shape. If I have stitched the roses in the correct places, then the tight threads won’t cut across any of the roses, but lie in the gaps in between.

Next part is to assemble the tuffet, then……

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