Right now even I am surprised by how little knitting I've been posting about lately. Somehow, MS&W inspired me to get crafty in different ways with wool and thread. I've been doing some knitting and spinning (and I'll be posting more about that later in the week), but it seems to be woven fabrics and thread that are grabbing my attention when it comes to me grabbing projects to work on.
Have you all heard about Julie's Pincushion Challenge? It's similar to some of the other projects out there to encourage people to get crafty and creative. This month's theme is "fruit", so the challenge becomes making a pincushion with a fruity theme.
I have to admit, that I was initially going to pass this one by. I thought it was a clever and neat idea, but I just wasn't coming up with any ideas that I thought I could run with. And then my Weavette came into my life and I picked up my tapestry needles again. What, I thought, about a rustic pincushion that involved cross-stitching somekind of fruit onto a woven square made out of my own hand spun? A trip through my small collection of cross stitch magazines and charts turned up a tomato that was just perfectly sized for my woven squares (you can find it in the March/April 1992 issue of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts). A tomato is a fruit, I thought, and it's also the traditional pincushion form. So it seemed like something I could work with.
I started the cross stitching Thursday night and finished it on my way to Ann Arbor Friday night. I really like the rustic quality of the stitching on the woven square made out of my rustic wool/silk handspun. I decided to use all 6 strands of DMC floss over 1 thread in the woven fabric. The backstitching was done with 3 strands..
I've made another plain even weave square to make up the bottom of the cushion, but because of the relatively large gaps between the threads in my woven square, I think I need to have a liner made up of a finer weave fabric that will both hold in the stuffing to poke the pins into and provide a firmer substrate for the pins to be attached to. Enter some muslin that I got from my mom over the weekend. I'm going to sew it on the inside of the two handwoven pieces in the final assembly. Because I like the scalloped edge that resulted when I pulled the square off the loom, I'm going to run a little bit of backstitching along the outside edge and sew all 4 pieces together, leaving a gap where I can insert the stuffing. This will get me a pretty little ruffled edge detail, and be a lot easier than sewing everything inside out and then turning it right-side out to get a pretty seam.
OMG! That tomato is amazing! Now that's something I never thought I'd say!
Great job - kudos on creativity this morning.
What a great idea! I love the little weavette, but had no idea what I could do with a whole bunch of little squares. You are sooooo creative!
Lovely! What a fun pin cushion!
That is adorable. I have a few of those old magazines laying around. I remember one had really cute Noah's Ark animals at some point.
My mom has a pincushion that is a tomato - it's been around for as long as I have!
Thanks for the great idea....I might have to get my cross stitch books back out!
I *love* the look of that and can't wait to see the finished pin cushion!
what a great idea! i'm really getting the itch on the weaving front - i love these little squares i see floating around lately.
Love it! It's the first woven entry! Thanks for linking to the pincushion challenge website too!
I have been looking at the adds for the Weavette for ages in Spin-Off. I didn't know they came inother sizes. Since MS&W everyone is out of the 4x4 size!! I got so desperate I made an 8x8 with the intent of making washcloths out of it. It took a long time to nail all of the nails in and the wood is cracking. I guess I will have to be patient. :-(
Get that silk spun so you can weave it!
Brandy: try emailing the folks at Haltwhistle Fibers (just google for them), I think she had lots of all the sizes. I don't think she advertises them on her website, but I'm imagining she'd probably still sell them to you,
Lisa: There are lots of great things you can do with little squares. Think of all the modular knitting projects out there. Most of them involve connecting small squares and triangles
This is definitely a fun way to use up small bits of handspun yarn. Although for something that was going to be a canvas for counted cross stitch, you probably want to use a fiber that has some silk, hemp, linen or cotton in it -- i.e. yarn that doesn't have a lot of elasticity.
Nice job! A very creative use for a Weavette square, and I can't wait to see the finished pincushion!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for using the word 'substrate' in a post about a pincushion. I'm not sure why, but it made me giggle out loud. Beautiful work!