Sweet Strawberry by Victoria Laine

‘The most important aspect of a good pincushion is the stuffing…’ This is the advice of designer, Victoria Laine, when asked about her lovely contribution to our brand-new book The Design Collective | Pincushions.

While we agree with Victoria, we feel she’s also being rather modest as we would suggest the most important aspect of a pincushion is the glorious design that appears on top.

Sweet Strawberry is a beautiful pincushion worked in needlepoint and employing a stunning colour palette ranging from subtle pink through to deep burgundy.

It features a central strawberry motif with two little flowers sporting golden centres. The background is a wonderful chequerboard pattern in pink and yellow and the whole design is surrounded by a fabulous border that cleverly throws the light in different directions creating a fantastic, variegated effect.

As a technique, there is much more to needlepoint than just tent stitch or half cross stitch worked on canvas. Although tent stitch is used, the countless variety of stitches available in needlepoint is amazing. Victoria has limited this design to just a few stitches, making this project perfect for someone starting out with this technique.

By combining the tent stitch background with Florentine embroidery in the strawberry, Victoria has produced the optical illusion that the strawberry is actually sitting proud of its background, ripe and ready to pick.

Victoria recommends working the piece on a slate frame to give the perfect tension and to help ensure your stitches are even without any distortion of the fabric.

Once you’ve completed the design, then you can attend to the important task identified by Victoria – the stuffing.

Choose a high-quality filling and stuff it tightly, all the way into the corners to ensure the pins don’t fall out.

Sweet Strawberry will be a lovely addition to your stitching kit and may just be a perfect introduction to needlepoint if you’re yet to employ the technique in your stitching journey. Once you’ve tried out this technique, you’re sure to be looking for more.

As you explore the world of needlepoint further, you’ll always have this beautiful accessory to remind you of just how enjoyable it is.

Make Your Own Sweet Strawberry

Step 1 – Purchase Project Instructions

Sweet Strawberry by Victoria Laine from the book The Design Collective | Pincushions features a colourful strawberry motif and background in counted thread embroidery with metal thread highlights.

Step 2 – Purchase Ready-To-Stitch Kit

The Inspirations Ready-To-Stitch kit for Sweet Strawberry includes everything* you need to re-create this pretty pincushion: Fabrics (unprinted), pink sewing thread, fibre-fill, embroidery threads and needles.

*Please Note: To cater for flexibility of purchase, instructions are not included with our kits. For step-by-step directions on how to create this project, please refer to the book.