A Crazy Pincushion

 I have been enjoying myself this week with embellishing the little pincushion that I showed you in my last post. I have been taking photographs as I go along as some of you may be interested in how I worked the embroidery - skip to the end if you just want to see the finished pincushion!

So this is how the basic block looked.

The pink fabric in the centre section was not lying as flat as I would have liked so first of all I added some tiny colonial knots to flatten and hold it in place, then some beads in the spaces.

The next job was to position the mauve lace and I decided to add it across the corner.

I then added the chain stitches around the edge to hold it in place and some straight stitches to emphasise the flowers.

I like a curve to lead the eye around the piece so this stem was added in next using stem stitch.

I then moved onto some seam treatments. This first small section uses some flower shaped sequins held down with beads then some fly stitch and chain stitch flowers.

For the seam next to it I worked a row of closed buttonhole. In the open spaces I sewed alternate tiny hearts and chain stitches. In the closed gaps chunky colonial knots. I topped the points with chain stitch and straight stitch flowers. Note the gap on the left - a little heart will be added there after construction as it would otherwise get in the way of the sewing line.

I used a simple row of colonial knots along this third seam.

Next I decorated the stem with ruched roses, leaf ribbon stitch and some straight stitches.

Which just left this last seam. I didnt want anything too fancy or complicated here so following the dotty theme of the last seam I used a row of beads to decorate this.

Now all that was left was to add in a spider for good luck. At this point just the legs as again the beads for the body and head would get in the way of the sewing machine during construction.

After I had machined the pincushion together and turned it through, but before stuffing, I added the missing heart and the beads for the spider.

And there we are, one crazy pincushion!

I am back to quilting now - a nice, simple, narrow border on my Red Manor House.