Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 41: it’s finished!!!

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. At last, after nine months, it’s finished!!!

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Wow, this has been an amazing project to tackle. I had planned this one for several months before actually starting to stitch it, and decided to do it as a kind of shared stitchalong on this blog, starting at the end of January 2018. So, it’s taken over nine months to stitch (and write the 41 blog posts to go with that!). But I’m so pleased with it! Here’s the inside:

And here’s the outside:

It has this ingenious way of holding the four panels together, so that they fold in on themselves to make a little heap of hearts that reminds me of pancakes!

It’s a very clever design, by Carolyn Pearce, of Australia.

The design appeared in Inspirations magazine, issue 95. I wanted to make it the first time I saw it, on Pinterest, a few years back. Pockets like these, to hold stitching tools, are just so sweet.

And this little mother of pearl ruler, that used to be made by Kelmscott Designs, but is now like hen’s teeth to get hold of, is so cute and I love it now that I’ve got one!

The etui closes with a needlelace berry on a cord. The edges of the hearts have beading around the tops.

What I call ‘the three dangleys’ hang from the bottom tip – a thimble holder, a strawberry emery, and a pinwheel.

The needlelace berry attaches to a Dorset button by a cord. The button was really difficult to make! My centre isn’t very central……

This is my favourite piece – the heart shaped pincushion.

I also love the beaded chains that hold the scissors and ruler in their pockets. I nearly didn’t bother to make these, but I’m glad now that I did.

The second heart shaped pocket holds an antique button hook with a mother of pearl handle.

Three heart shaped mother of pearl thread rings, from Kelmscott Designs, hold some thread used in the project.

I learned several new stitches whilst making this – Glove Stitch is one of them. It’s a really useful joining stitch.

This image shows the doctor flannel used to make the heart shaped needle pages, held together with a flower button.

There was lots of beading in this project, making it look really special!

The thimble holder was fiddly to make, but holds a little silver thimble perfectly.

Although my pinwheel came out too big, I still really like it!

This project needed quite a few bits and pieces to complete it. Although a materials pack was available from the publishers of Inspirations magazine, I felt it was pricey, so I raided my stash for most things, which kept the cost down a lot. The whole thing cost me less than £60, including the elusive mother of pearl ruler, which I had sent to me from the USA to the UK.

Rather than put a tape measure in one pocket, I chose to put a bodkin and a ribbon-puller.

I bought an old mother of pearl gaming chip on Ebay to use as a thread winder, which fits neatly into the smallest pocket.

This is the antique button hook, which fits in the second heart pocket.

HINTS AND TIPS

Although this has been a great project to complete, there are quite a few things that need pointing out, if you’re going to tackle making this.

For instance, the project in the magazine runs to 18 pages – the longest article they have ever had in almost 20 years of the magazine. Then the construction text is on a separate pullout sheet, and that’s detailed too. So, you need to read through all of that to familiarise yourself with what you need to do, and the order to do it in. Hopefully, if you follow these blog posts, you’ll be fine! I have changed quite a few things though.

Despite the length of the article, it’s still a lot shorter than the ‘Home Sweet Home workbox’ instructions by Carolyn Pearce – as that was published as a book, with over a hundred pages. so there was more space to go into detail. So, some details have been glossed over with this etui, which is a shame. After spending hours and hours on a project like this, you need to trust the instructions.

You also need to trust that the materials pack will have enough materials in, and I have heard from several stitchers that they bought the pack (I didn’t though) and they ran out of some items. Not good, especially when the pack costs over £140!!

I think it would help, if you’re new to some of the stitches, particularly, to spend some time practicing them on spare fabric before attempting them on the project itself. There are several YouTube videos that explain things, that really help if reading text doesn’t ‘do it’ for you.

As I’ve said before, it helps to get together everything you’re going to need, and cut out all the pieces from all the materials, etc., before you start to stitch. It’s so much quicker in the long run than stopping and starting to cut one more piece of wadding, or to find the beads you need, when you’re in the middle of the project. Boring, I know!

MY CONCLUSION

I really enjoyed making most of this etui – I wasn’t so keen on making the Dorset button, as I needed too many hands to do it successfully, but that’s just me! I’d have preferred to have photographs of the stages, rather than line drawings in the magazine to follow, but I suspect that this project was written up a long time after the etui was actually made, so process photos weren’t available. Also, I think some of the instructions are just plain wrong – things are suggested that are impossible to do, such as threading a half hitch knotted cord through beads with tiny holes! You really do need some experience of assembling needlework items to tackle this one with confidence.

This is probably the most ambitious needlework project that I’ve ever made. But I’m so pleased with it – I can see me actually using this as I stitch future things, which is a good sign  🙂

Compared to the Home Sweet Home workbox, also designed by Carolyn Pearce (my version of that is shown below), this project, I feel, is quite a lot harder to make. There are more unusual stitches to learn, and more stages to it. But there is also more repetition – I found I was getting a bit bored halfway through, when doing the four inner panels …. all the same, and the rectangular pockets …. all the same. With the Home workbox, all the smalls were different, so it kept my interest going.

But look at this now! A very different type of project, and one to take pride of place in my display cabinet  🙂

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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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Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 40: attaching the 3 smalls to the etui, and making beaded cords

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. This week, I have been attaching the 3 smalls to the etui, and making beaded cords for the scissors and ruler. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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When I started this project, months ago, I read through all the instructions in the magazine itself, and on the pullout sheet, to get my head around what was needed to make this gorgeous project. But how to attach these three ‘dangleys’ had me stumped for ages, and yet they are crucial to the finished look of it. If I left them off, it would have really detracted from it. But the magazine instructions seemed really unclear to me, so I devised my own way of doing it.

I made a separate cord for each dangley, and now I’m at the part where I could join them all to the bottom tip of the etui.

I had bought a large cloisonne bead on Ebay specially, with a diameter of about 12mm, and a large hole of around 3mm, to use as the decorative feature bead at the tip of the heart etui. The large hole is really helpful now! First, thread all three cords through the cloisonne bead. Securely attach a length of green quilting thread to the bottom tip of the back heart panel, then take the needle through the neat ends of all three cords. Then secure the thread to the tip of the front heart panel and pull quite tight. Go back round – back heart, 3 cords, front heart – several times, to make sure the three cords are securely attached.

Lastly, make one knot in all three cords together, under the cloisonne bead, to hold the bead close up to the tip of the heart etui. For added security, I put a drop of Superglue inside the hole of the cloisonne bead and held the cords against it for a couple of minutes to make sure it was all held as one, just before I made the knot.

I hadn’t planned to make beaded chains for the scissors and ruler, when I first started to make the etui. I’d planned to just use twisted thread cords. But as I kept looking at the magazine’s pictures, I felt I wanted to do it like the one in the magazine! So, I bought some gold beads from Spellbound Beads, and made my own beaded chains, as per the instructions on page 57 of the magazine (more or less – I couldn’t get exactly the same beads).

I adapted it though (again!) so that I used gold coloured quilting thread instead of tiger tail for the threading, as it’s easier to manipulate, and these beaded chains don’t need to be particularly strong. I started by threading on a bead and tying a knot in the thread, then threading on the calotte crimp. This bead on the end stops the thread from slipping out of the hooked calotte crimp. Then I threaded on gold ball beads, green hex beads, and feature beads, until I’d made  a length about two inches long.

Then I looped the thread through the handle of the scissors, and, leaving a small loop of beads, went back through most of them to the hooked calotte crimp, and knotted the thread to the starting thread. I put a large drop of Superglue on the knot before cutting the thread ends short, then I closed up the calotte crimp with jewellery pliers, slipping a jump ring in the loop with  a lobster claw attached, just before closing it.

I worked out where the chain would come to on the etui once the scissors are in the pocket, and stitched another jump ring to the heart panel fabric alongside the scissor pocket, so that the lobster claw can attach there.

Then I made another beaded chain for the ruler. With this one, I attached it on the right hand side of the pocket as you look at it (rather than on the left, as the instructions suggest), as I had more space there to do it.

So, that’s it! Finished! There’ll be lots of images, and a list of Hints and Tips for doing the whole project, plus a comparison with the ‘Home Sweet Home’ project of Carolyn’s that I previously made, coming up next week…..

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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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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.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ***  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 38: how to assemble the thimble holder

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. This week, I’ll explain how to assemble the thimble holder that hangs from the bottom point of the heart etui. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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This is the main part of the thimble holder, which I embroidered earlier. It will have a separate lid, which is lined with a tiny embroidered circle of fabric. So, this is a rather fiddly thing to assemble!

First, cut out the embroidered piece, leaving largish seam allowances (more than 3/8 inch), as I have found that these tiny 3D pieces can use up fabric more than you think, when you come to turning them inside out, etc.

The muslin backing fabric needs to be cut away from the top half of the embroidered piece on the back, to reduce bulk.

Fold the fabric into a tube, right sides together, and stitch carefully along the back seamline. I hand stitched mine.

Then flatten the seams out with your thumbnail, and turn the fabric to the right side. Now, I found that mine had a ‘gap’ with no embroidery. The instructions suggest that the embroidery should almost meet here, and that you only need to stitch a couple of lines and one more forget-me-not flower over the seam, to complete the pattern all the way round. I *almost* re-did the seam smaller, but if I had, the lid would not have fitted, so I think this is a mistake in the pattern. I decided to just have a gap in the embroidery, and never let people see the back!

Make a ring from template plastic, and stick it together with sticky tape.

Turn in the top edge of the fabric, and the lining, and tack the seam allowances down (separately). Do the lining with sewing thread that matches the fabric, as you won’t be able to remove this later. Slide  the plastic piece inside the tube so that the top edge of the circle aligns with the foldline.

Fold the lining in and down over the plastic ring, to make a tube with a stiffened bottom edge.

At this point, I decided to make the cord for my thimble holder in a different way from the instructions. Their instructions say to use ONE cord, that has the thimble holder on one end and the round pinwheel on the other end, and you’d eventually join the cord to the bottom tip of the heart etui part way along it. I didn’t like the sound of that, so I made a separate cord for each ‘dangly’. The thimble holder cord is 4 inches long from the neat end to the knot, and I stitched the knot inside the thimble holder at this point in the construction, hiding the knot between the lining and the embroidered fabric (so you don’t see it when you look into the holder later!). Make sure you secure it in place between the lining and fabric, then run a gathering thread round the top edge of the thimble holder fabric, pull it up firmly and secure by going back and forth across the gap, going through the cord as well.

Lastly, thread on a bead cap, cloisonne bead, and a gold bead to the cord, then knot the cord to hold them close to the holder. Stitch through the holes in the bead cap with matching thread to hold it down onto the fabric.

For the lid, cut out the fabric with 3/8 inch seam allowance, and run a gathering thread round the circle. Gather it up, over a plastic circle and a felt circle, for padding. Don’t overdo the padding – this is a very small piece. I found that the templates for the circles were far too large – carefully measure the diameter of the thimble holder at this point, and make your circle template whatever diameter it needs to be to fit. I had to reduce mine by 1/8 inch, which is a lot for such a small piece.

Do the same with the embroidered lid lining piece, which is a tiny circle barely 5/8 inch diameter. Slipstitch the two together, wrong sides facing, with strong sewing cotton.

Work beaded Knotted Pearl Stitch around the edge of the lid itself (not the smaller inner piece).

Start the beaded Knotted Pearl Stitch at the back, near the centre line. When you have gone all the way round, for the last couple of stitches, work through the fabric of the holder itself as well, to create a hinge for the lid. Stitch a green crystal bead on the centre front, and work a buttonhole loop on the edge of the lid to act as a closure.

This is it when it’s finished – about an inch and a half high, and very sweet! Carolyn Pearce’s thimble holders are always very ingenious, and a bit tricky to make, but so cute when they’re done!!!

Next time I’ll assemble the pinwheel….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ***  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~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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