Hello everyone,

I hope you are all staying safe and well and getting plenty of stitching done.  It's been a busy time for me but I thank you for your patience in getting these instructions ready.  Today I am posting assembly instructions for the Beelieve Sewing Set.  First up -- the box style pincushion.

 FINISHING: BEELIEVE PINCUSHION (Box Style)

Below are pictures of the box style pincushion for the Beelieve Sewing Set.  I want to preface my finishing description by stating first that I am NOT a professional finisher.  I’ve been sewing since I was a teenager and have a general knowledge of how to put things together, but if you have a better way to assemble this piece or any of the pieces in the set, please feel free to do so.  If you'd like, sharing it in the comment section of the blog would be most convenient for everyone and, I'm sure, most appreciated.  Thanks.

Pictures of finished pincushion:

Although the chart is designed using just cross stitch and petite stitch (for signature block on the back), I used a few specialty stitches in my piece.  They include: Spiral Trellis (flower center); Closed Herringbone (grass and border); and Smyrna Cross (basket).  I encourage everyone to try some specialty stitches of their own choice when stitching their piece.

Finishing materials needed for the entire set: (1) lightweight fusible interfacing; (2) Skirtex; (3) polyester fiber fill; (4) thin cotton quilt batting (such as Warm & Natural); and (5) thread to match the backstitching for joining purposes.  You will also need enough thread to create twisted cording for the scissors fobs.

The assembly of this sewing set is not suitable for machine stitching and must be hand stitched to control accuracy of the placement of joining stitches (ladder stitch) used to sew your pieces together.  Lightly press the stitched fabric prior to cutting out the pieces.  It is recommended that all cutting be done at the same time to avoid confusion about seam allowances which, in our case, would be  1/4" away from backstitched edge and nun-stitched edges.  I am going to explain the way I finished my piece in basic terms, but to see an in depth tutorial on how to construct the box pincushion with helpful pictures, please go to this site on the internet:

Lynn's Cross Stitch Tutorials

NOTE - Basting: I tend to do a lot of basting when I assemble my pieces.  It helps to hold the Skirtex and thin cotton batting in place without having them shift around while assembling.  I start my basting from the outside (right side of stitching) and randomly take long stitches to secure the materials together.  Once the entire piece is sewn together, stuffed and stuffing hole closed, I remove all the basting thread by grabbing the big knotted end(s) and carefully pull the basting threads out.

BOX PINCUSHION:  After pressing the stitched fabric, slightly trim 1/4" seam allowance around all pieces to decrease bulk in the seams.  Iron the lightweight interfacing onto the back (wrong side) of each panel to fit just within the backstitched border.  Cut four (4) pieces of Skirtex to fit just inside the backstitched border of each of the side panels of the pincushion.  The Skirtex will give additional support to the sides and give the pincushion clean, sharp edges.   (See Diagram 1).

DIAGRAM 1

After cutting the Skirtex to fit, place it on the WRONG side of your stitching and baste in place.  Do this for all four side panels.

For the top and bottom of pincushion, cut 4 squares of light cotton batting (such as Warm & Natural) to fit just inside the backstitched border (2 for top, 2 for bottom), place on the WRONG side of the pieces and, starting from the RIGHT side of your piece, baste in place.  The batting gives a smooth, plump profile to the finished piece and hides any lumps that may appear from the polyester stuffing.  After you’ve basted the Skirtex and batting in place, fold your seam edges over onto the wrong side of all the pieces and lightly press.  Picture below shows the inside of the top and sides “joined” so you can see the basted Skirtex and cotton batting in place.

Now you are ready to start joining the panels together.  Start with the top panel and one of the side panels.  With raw edges folded under, line up the backstitched border and butt it up to the back stitched border of the other piece, making sure each backstitch lines up with the backstitch on the other piece.  Thread a tapestry needle with one strand of thread that matches the back stitches and anchor the floss under the folded seam allowance at the upper left corner of the top panel.  (See Diagram 3 and 3A)  Bring your working thread through the fabric next to the first backstitch.  Starting with the first backstitches on each piece, use the ladder stitch (or whip stitch) to join the two sides together.  See Ladder Stitch diagram.  

Continue joining, making sure you go through the adjacent back stitches until you get to the bottom.  Attach the next piece at the bottom making sure the corner points meet, and continue joining the pieces together until you get them all attached. 

DIAGRAM 3

DIAGRAM 3A

Once the sides are attached to the top, butt the folded ends of the side panels up against each other so that the backstitches line up.  Starting at the join at the top of the corner, proceed to stitch each corner together with the ladder stitch.  See photo below.

After all the sides are stitched together you will join the bottom of the pincushion to the rest of the piece with the ladder stitch.  You will need to leave an opening to be able to insert the polyester fiber (see diagram below).  Once it is stuffed (and don’t be afraid to stuff it full) to your satisfaction, close the opening with the ladder stitch, making sure you line up the backstitches as you do so.

Congratulations!  You’ve made a box style pincushion! Coming up next week: Assembly for the “Working Needle Book”.

Stay safe and well and Bee forever blessed!

                                                        Yours in friendship & stitches,

                                                                Theresa

Beelieve - A Sewing Set

 Hello everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to my blog but we've experienced some crazy weather in my neck of the woods -- Middletown, Delaware -- A TORNADO!  Three weeks ago, on Tuesday, we had a tornado touch down and travel a full 29 miles on the ground from South of Dover, Delaware to Glasgow, Delaware.  Some parts of Wilmington, Delaware had damage as well.  My neighborhood suffered a lot of downed trees and tree damage, as well as damage to some structures.  The telephone poles were snapped and power lines scattered.  We were without electricity (no WiFi, etc.) for almost 5 days.  It was very scary but, thankfully, we are all fine and we only lost one tree, had some torn and fallen branches, but my house was spared.

Being without power really set me back in my work schedule, but I'm up and running and trying to get caught up.   I had a few other things I needed to take care of before I could post all the information regarding the updates to "Beelieve - A Sewing Set".  When I originally designed the piece I just wanted it to be a small chart to give away in an effort to cheer my fellow needleworkers up during the Covid-19 quarantine of 2020.  After I stitched my piece, I thought that it would really make a pretty sewing set and then it was off to the designing and stitching races!  I love the way the set turned out and am offering the complete chart to everyone as a gift.  We still need some cheering up, don't we?

My computer skills are a little above average, but for some reason I could no longer make my PDF files posted on my blog printable from Dropbox.  I finally figured out a way you can download the chart but you will have to follow my instructions below to be able to print it.  

Notice in the upper right hand corner of the blog there is a link to the Beelieve chart.  Just click on it and you will be taken to a screen that looks like the one below:

Move your cursor over to the side bar on the far right then down to the icon at the bottom that looks like three dots (see below).  

Click on it and move the cursor to the Download option in the menu.  Click and download the file to your computer.  You can then print the file out.  Note:  if you try to print from the main menu, you will only print blank pages.  You have to download it to your computer.  If anyone reading this knows a better way of doing this or how to override the glitch in printing from the main menu, please email me at Heartseaseew@gmail.com with the instructions.  Thanks in advance.

NOTE:  This email came from someone with another option for downloading the file if you have a MAC.  See below:

I didn’t have any trouble downloading the pattern, but maybe these notes will help you help others. My computer is an Apple Mac, and I noticed from your picture that yours is Windows. But I expect Windows users will see a page similar to what I see on my Mac.

When you go to the Dropbox page in your browser, I believe yours looks different because you are signed in to your Dropbox account. When I click the link on your blog page, I get a different view, that has a download button near the top right. When I move the pointer to the bottom of the window, I get some controls to page through the PDF that also include a print icon. For me, clicking the print icon opened the PDF in a new browser tab, where I can then print using the browser print command (on a Mac, choose File > Print).

Rather than just printing the pattern from the dropbox page, I think it is better for people to download the file so it is saved on their computer, and then print it. That way they always have it to go back to, especially if they need to print it again or print an enlarged section of a page.

Yippee!  Now the entire chart is available to you without having to go through me directly.  If you have any questions or find any errors, again, email me at the above email address.  I will be posting pictures and explanations of my finishing of the pieces over the next few days.  I just wanted to make the complete chart available to everyone first.

Take care, stay well and have a great week ahead.

Yours in friendship & stitches,

Theresa

Below is picture of the back of the set:

I'm Back!!!

It has been a very, very long time since I have posted anything on my blog and I truly apologize for being away so long.  I've had some major life events since I last posted but before I go into that I'd like to finish up the last bit of information regarding "A Time Forever Gone."  Below is a picture of the finished, framed sampler.  Yes, I finally finished stitching it and am proud to say that it won a First Place Ribbon at the 2018 Woodlawn Needlework Exhibit.

For those who joined me originally in the Stitch-a-Long for this design, you will notice that I switched out the Florentine Stitch section above the verse for a blackwork design.  I did however stitch a small section of Florentine stitch on either side of the signature cartouche.  If you've purchased the chart and haven't stitched your sampler yet, please contact me at HeartseaseEW@gmail.com for a free PDF chart of the changes I made.  You can then decide to stitch it as it was originally charted or make the changes I did.  Either way, I'm sure you will be pleased with the final results.

There really aren't too many things to address regarding the instructions for completion of the sampler, but if you have any questions please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to help in any way I can.

As I said in the opening paragraph, I've had some major events take place in my life since I last posted in 2016.  On Thanksgiving of that year, I suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and it took me a good year to recuperate and get back to stitching and designing again.  I'm very pleased and grateful to say that, aside from a little weakness in one leg, I'm fully recovered!  Thank God!

I'm planning on updating this site with some of my newest projects and hope to use it to make available some information on finishing and freebies for the needlework community.  In the meantime, stay safe and stay well.  It's good to be back!