I’m currently stitching this gorgeous pincushion on a wooden base from a Victoria Sampler chart booklet in my stash. Having stitched the pincushion itself, I’m now stitching the smalls – starting with the little needlebook.
This pretty needlebook takes motifs from the pincushion itself, as well as a Bargello wave along the bottom. Three little square eyelets at the top will become the method of making the ‘pages’ of the needlebook hold together – I’ll be threading ribbon through those at the final stage.
This didn’t take long to do, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out…..until I realised just as I was finishing the stitching that I had miscounted somehow, and made it eight fabric threads too long! I think it was when I was working out the placement of the little pearl beads.
Not being a perfectionist, rather than unpick loads and do it correctly, I decided to make my needlebook just a bit longer than the Victoria sampler one! It just means that I have to make sure the reverse side of the needlebook is adapted to be exactly the same shape as this front panel, and adjust the shaping when I assemble it.
It was easy to make the adjustment for the extra length on the reverse side, as there is a lot of ‘blank space’ between the eyelets and the main design.
Shhh!! No-one will notice…..
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Janet Granger's Blog 
Beautiful. Do you have trouble with the barbello? I was working on the V.S. Christmas Etui and the barbello drove me crazy. I put it away and went on to the Gingerbread house. You all make it look so easy. It’s beautiful 😍.
YES!!! I really dislike stitching bargello, although I love the finished look. It seems so easy to mis-count, and I haven’t found a simple way to mark my place on the chart yet, so that I don’t do it wrong 🙂
This is beautiful. I am so glad I found your blog recently. I bought the updated Home Sweet Home book, had the intention of kitting it up over time, and then found that the one and only source of Gumnut threads in the UK closed in August. I searched on sites in Australia, the US and Canada, and there wasn’t anywhere that was a single source. This left me with the option of getting the threads piecemeal, and paying the inevitable Customs charges and VAT, plus the Royal Mail handling charge (for putting a note through my letterbox telling me to collect at the post office and pay). So I decided to write to the Gumnut company, who have a stated policy of only supplying to a bricks and mortar shop. They have no plans to change that policy, but referred me to a shop in Sydney.
I then found your blog, with all the substitutions you had made. You had done such a great job and I thought maybe I could have a go. I then visited the site of the Sydney shop, and sure enough, a materials pack was on offer at A$ 385. On closer inspection, this pack also contained substitutes. The DMC threads were not present (although available elsewhere on the site) for example. Silk thread had replaced them. So the one place recommended still wasn’t offering the full designer’s choice. By the way, Inspirations is now also selling the whole kit and caboodle including interlining, scissors etc., for a sum of over A$1000, not including the book of course.
I came back to your blog, and since then have decided to go for it, using what I have with some supplements. Your confidence in using your own stash is infectious.
Your blog today, recognising an error and then matching the other side instead of what is euphemistically called reverse stitching, made me grin.
Thank you, and may your needle wield well for ever.
I’m so glad you’re going to give it a go. Although Carolyn Pearce’s designs are gorgeous, she does have a habit of using dozens of different threads in every project, which makes things expensive for those of us who want to stitch them! As almost everyone has a stash of some kind, it’s actually not that difficult to make substitutions from what you already have, most of the time, and it saves a huge amount of money. In the end, I bet you’ll be more proud of your stitched project than if you’d just bought a kit with everything in it.
The closing of the London Bead Company shop on Camden was a huge blow to the UK stitching world – Alex, who ran the shop, is Australian, and imported an amazing selection of threads and beads. We are really managing on very little, in the UK now 😦
Was the bargello stitch difficult? I struggled with it on the V.S. Christmas etui. Gave up.
Well, it was for me. I love the way bargello stitch looks when it’s done, but it’s a stitch I really struggle with – counting it off the chart just does my head in. I have to do one stitch at a time, and mark it off the chart as I go. It’s easiest if you start in the centre and work out to each side, rather than start on one edge.