What Are You Stitching?

‘I was given a copy of Inspirations issue #113 with a pattern by Christine Burton of a small blackwork pincushion Squarely Check. To give myself a break from what I was doing I thought it would be a fun and quick project to do.’

‘I attached some sparkly white 32 count Belfast Opalescent fabric on a 12” square stretcher bar system and started the pattern in the middle with regular DMC black cotton floss.’ 

‘I finished the middle square quickly and realized that I had all this extra fabric around the middle panel. I just couldn’t let all this spare space go to waste!  This is where the pattern morphed. I did the four corner panels and that left space in between.’

‘I could have designed my own little fill in blackwork for the space left in between, but this was only supposed to be a quick diversion for a few days. I looked at my library of books and found that I had a book called A New Model Book for Spanish Stitch by Kathleen Epstein. So, I looked through Kathleen’s book and picked out a couple of patterns and Bob’s your uncle.’

‘As I was embroidering this piece my bead drawers began calling my name. It was hard to ignore, and I made the mistake of opening one of the drawers and the next thing I knew all of the bead drawers were opened, all the bead boxes were out and the beads, bead caps, and spangles were having a big fat party.’

‘I stitched right on the blackwork pattern some crystal Rose Montees pink and black SS12 beads. Caw, Caw Caw. I used 13/0 green and black petite beads on the frogs and plain white 11/0 seed beads in the frog’s side panel borders. There are other regular seed beads used too.

Around the main middle panel I added cupped sequin – upside down with a silver bead cap also upside down covering it. A petite black bead was added in the center to hold down the bead cap. I like doing this as the sequin shows its colour in a slightly revealing way through the bead cap’s filigree slits. Reminds me of some of the Elizabethan sleeves in painting that have their sleeves with a slit showing colour underneath.’

‘Now this piece was much too big for a pincushion, so I turned it into a cushion. I used black velvet as the main fabric. Using Kimono thread, I hand sewed a wide green ribbon onto the black velvet fabric along the edge of the Opalescent fabric. I then hand sewed on a thinner pink ribbon centring it over top of the green ribbon.’

‘I used a buttonhole stitch and some Black Petite Very Velvet to embroider along both sides of the green ribbon. Then I embroidered raised chain stitch using Black Very Velvet and some combination of White Very Velvet stranded with Pearly White Sparkle! Braid by Rainbow Gallery threads right down the middle of the ribbon on all four sides. Gosh, I could just embroider raised chain stitch until the cows came home. It’s a fun stitch. 

I finished the cushion by sewing machine. It took a little longer to do than I planned but what the heck…. I had fun.’

Bunny, could a project be any more gorgeously be-dazzled?! We love that you tackled this project for something quick and fun and it provided that and more! We’re sure Christine will love that you elaborated on the design to make this beautiful cushion, as much as we enjoyed reading your passionate process. We love all the details you have added but particularly the little frogs and the flowers on the edge remind us of lily pads! A truly exceptional piece, well done.

Have you stitched a design from the pages of Inspiration magazine? Do you adapt the design as you see fit? Or have you completed a smaller ‘fun’ project in-between stitching a larger one?

Whatever you are stitching, we’d love to see it! Email photos of what you’ve created with needle and thread along with a few details about your stitching journey to news@inspirationsstudios.com