Victorian Pincushion on spindle stand: 4 – stitching the needlebook

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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Victorian pincushion on spindle stand by Victoria Sampler: 2 – beaded flower border

I’m currently stitching this gorgeous pincushion on a wooden base from a Victoria Sampler chart booklet in my stash. I’ve done the ribbon embroidery centre of the design, and now I’m up to the beaded flower border.

As I said last time, I found, as I started to stitch this border, 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 as I was marking out the fabric in advance of doing the stitching. 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 found this out when I started doing the first little beaded flower:

The actual flower is easy – two tiny seed beads stitched in place on each side of a square, with a larger pearl bead secured in the centre. What was really difficult at first was working out the exact PLACEMENT! I kept getting it wrong! Each beaded flower is quite a long way away from any other element, and to count out from a ribbon embroidery stitch was too hit and miss anyway. The tacking stitch lines made it easier.

What I also found to be really helpful was to first make a cross stitch in beige thread that matched the fabric as much as possible, in the space that the pearl bead would eventually be stitched, and then place the little green beads around the four sides of that cross next, and stitch the pearl bead in place last, pulling it into position so that it nestled down among the green seed beads.

Finally, once the beaded flowers were all done, I added the outer border of dark green leaves using the silk ribbon.

At this point, it was important not to go ‘Great! I’ve finished it!’, and undo the tacking lines, as they are necessary for the assembly part next.

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All Our Yesterdays cross stitch collection project: 2

Here’s an update on the little cross stitch pictures featuring cute children from a series called ‘All Our Yesterdays’, designed by Faye Whittaker. I’m planning on doing several of the designs from Faye’s range, so that I can have a collection of them on the wall of my coastal-themed bathroom.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my bathroom is having to be re-decorated as we found mould in it, and the person who had come to test the house to see if we had any mould (because I’ve got an allergy) had a fit when he saw that the bathroom was wallpapered instead of being painted or tiled. Hence, this stitching is aimed at giving my bathroom something a bit more interesting than just painted walls, which I find boring!

I started with one of the designs from the ‘Collector’s Edition’ booklet – this one is called ‘Watching the Tide’. It’s a picture of a little girl and boy, standing looking out to sea. It’s very simple, but cleverly designed, as the blues used for the sea and sky are sometimes in full cross stitch and sometimes in half cross stitch, so the colours look more faded, as more background fabric shows though the stitches. It’s subtle, but it works!

I was going to do the figures first and then the background, but I found that doing the detail for a long time made me want to do an ‘easier bit’, so I alternated between detail and background instead.

The cross stitch is transformed when the limited amount of backstitch is added – it really brings it to life.

At about half way through, I photographed it to show you how much difference the backstitch makes. It looks nice just with the cross stitch completed:

But once the back stitch is done, in a dark grey single strand, look how different it is:

I just need to stitch the little boy who stands next to her, and do a bit more background….

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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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