Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 39: how to assemble the pinwheel, and attach the needlelace berry to the etui

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. This week, I’ll explain how to assemble the pinwheel, and how to attach the needlelace berry to the back heart panel. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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This is the third of the ‘dangleys’ that I am constructing, that hang from the bottom tip of the heart etui.

First, cut out the front and back embroidered pieces, place a circle of felt and a circle of acetate on the reverse of each one, run a line of gathering thread round the edge of the fabric, and pull up to draw the fabric over the shapes, lace across the back, then tie off securely.

Take an 8 inch piece of grosgrain ribbon (mine was 3/8 inch wide), and attach it to the back piece using beaded Knotted Pearl Stitch, starting at the centre top, and leaving a 3/8 inch overlap of ribbon that goes beyond the centre point.

As you approach the completion of beading around the circle, trim the ribbon and fold the excess under so that the seam is right at the top. Finish the beading, then slipstitch the join in the ribbon with matching green sewing cotton.

I am not attaching the cord in the way that the instructions in the magazine suggest – which is to attach the thimble holder at one end of the cord, and the pinwheel at the other end, and then attach the cord part way along it to the bottom tip of the heart etui. Instead, I am making a separate cord for each piece, and I will attach each one on its own. For the pinwheel, I used a cord four inches long from the neat end to the knot in the cord that I attached inside the pinwheel itself.

I used a bodkin to poke a large hole through two layers of ribbon at the top of the circle (from the inside to the outside), then I threaded on a daisy spacer, a cloisonne bead, then another daisy spacer, then I knotted the cord to hold the three close to the top of the pinwheel, and trimmed the spare cord inside the pinwheel.

This is all done before attaching the front panel of the pinwheel.

Then the front panel is attached with beaded Knotted Pearl Stitch. Stuff the shape firmly with a small amount of wadding just before completing the circle of stitching.

This is the completed pinwheel. It was at this point (i.e finished!), that I realised I had made it too big. Not sure how that happened, but I must have cut it out following the wrong line of tacking, and it just went downhill from there. It should be much smaller in diameter.

…like this one, from the magazine. Oh well.

The next small job was to attach the needlelace berry to the back panel at the top of the V, with green quilting cotton.

When the etui is folded closed, this cord is pulled between the heart shapes across the V, and the cord is then wrapped around the Dorset button to hold the etui closed.

 

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~~~INFORMATION~~~

The Strawberry Fayre design, plus the complete list of materials, appears in Inspirations magazine number 95. The publishers do sell a full materials pack  (not including the mother of pearl ruler though!), but it’s rather expensive, so if you can use your stash, and just fill in with bits and pieces, then so much the better! The magazine is published in Australia – if you live in the UK, as I do, it is cheaper to buy a back copy from Manor House Magazines, and save a lot on the shipping. 

EDIT: The materials pack from Inspirations, and the magazine from Manor House in the UK are not available any more as at March 2018 – I don’t know if any more stocks will be available now, unfortunately. The publishers may bring out a digital pattern pack later, which they sometimes do with popular projects from their magazines, but we’ll have to wait and see…..

To read about this project stitchalong from the beginning, start here. The post about which FABRIC to use is here. The post about the THREAD SUBSTITUTIONS that I made, plus WHERE TO BUY the threads and beads, etc., is here.

To look up all the posts in this series in the sidebar, see under the CATEGORIES list, under: Embroidery / Full size (others’ designs) / Strawberry Fayre heart etui, or use the SEARCH BOX at the top of the blog, and search for ‘Strawberry Fayre’ to get a list of all the posts (but it’s in reverse order, sorry!).

I’d be interested to see images of how your project is progressing – please email large, clear, well-focused images to mail@janetgranger.co.uk  Please bear in mind that any images sent may be used in this blog and/or social media such as Facebook or Pinterest.

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