Victorian pincushion on spindle stand by Victoria Sampler: 1 – getting started

I’m just starting the next embroidery project that I want to stitch, and I knew right off that it would be one of Thea Dueck’s lovely designs. I’ve got so many of her Victoria Sampler chart booklets in my stash, and several are already kitted up, so it shouldn’t take long to decide which one to get going on, right? Wrong!

This is the one I had planned to do – it’s the Victorian Purse – a beautiful shaped bag and stitching accessories set. I’ve had this in my stash for about 8 years already.

I bought the thread pack are the same time that I got the chart booklet. These seem pricey at first, until you work out that if you had to source all those speciality threads from scratch, it would cost way more! Plus, I love getting the little packets in the post  🙂

I chose some 28 count evenweave in pink and beige from my stash to stitch them on (originally bought from Sew and So, I think, but they are closed now).

So, there I was, mentally getting ready to stitch all that, when I saw THIS:

It’s a co-ordinating pincushion, strawberry and needlebook, to match with the Victorian Purse designs! Oh, how lovely! The wooden spindle had to be ordered as well, and at first it was out of stock, so I had to wait, but eventually it arrived from Canada, so I had no excuse not to start. The Victorian Purse will have to go back in the stash cupboard for later.

This project has a lot of ribbon embroidery in it. I love the look of ribbon embroidery, but I’ve not done much before, so I looked at Thea’s YouTube videos to see exactly how to do the stitches. They are actually quite simple to do, and the project grows quickly.

I found, more by luck than judgment, that it really helped with the placement of the embroidery stitches for the flowers to EXACTLY  copy the position of the tacking stitches from the chart. What I mean is, if the central vertical tacking stitch line, for instance, goes over four threads each time, then reproduce that – don’t do six threads, then four threads, then five threads, etc., as if it doesn’t matter, because it will make counting out from a tacking stitch line to the starting point of a flower more difficult if your stitches vary in length from the chart. I think it will also be crucial when I stitch the little beaded flowers around the border.

It only took me a couple of longish stitching sessions to get this far, so I’m hoping this might be quite a quick project, and I might even have time to get the Victorian Purse done as well.

What do you think of it so far?

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John Clayton ‘Circles Series’ cross stitch 3: Finishing the ‘Sleepy Village’ cross stitch, and a problem!

This is my progress on the ‘Sleepy Village’ cross stitch design produced by Heritage Crafts, from original watercolours by John Clayton.

The buildings were great fun to stitch – especially after what seemed like years of stitching all that sky!! Some of the buildings and trees are stitched in just one strand, so it gives a good feeling of perspective. I really like that about John Clayton’s designs – they aren’t actually difficult, but very cleverly designed so that they look like they’re more difficult than they are really 🙂

The sky had quite a bit of confetti stitching in it, but the buildings were quicker to do, with blocks of colour. Limited backstitch helped define the edges of the buildings, and the branches of some trees too.

So, I cracked on with it, and got it finished without taking more pictures (sorry!). But then I hit a snag. I ‘d bought a picture fame and a circular mount made specially to be used with these John Clayton ‘Circles’ pictures, so I’d assumed it would fit. But when I put the finished stitching behind the mount (having taken it off my frame, ironed it, and put the frame away….) I found that the stitching was too small for the mount, and that I could see white fabric all the way round the edge, just a tiny bit. How annoying!!

So, I put it back on the frame, and stitched two whole extra rows around the edge of the design, matching the colours as much as I could. Then I tried the mount again – this time, it fitted! I don’t think the mount was cut wrongly – I think my fabric wasn’t quite an accurate ’28 count’, which sometimes happens.

Still, I got it framed eventually, and now it looks like this:

I’m really pleased with it!!

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