Mattress Pin Cushion Tutorial

Hi everyone, I have been re-uploading some of my original posts from my old tutorial blog and decided to post them on here.

This is a mattress pin cushion I made quite some time ago.

Materials required

Finished cross stitch piece

Lightweight interfacing (Pellon in America)

Sharp scissors 

Polyester fibre fill or flat quilt batting 

Embroidery thread to match your design

Needle

You can make any design into a mattress pincushion as long as you stitch an outline around your pattern and create the panels with the same amount of stitches to line up with other pieces, you will see what I mean when you look at all of the photos.

Iron lightweight interfacing onto the back of each panel piece just within the edging lines.  

Cut all panels like this

..

Line up edge so that each backstitch lines up with the backstitch on the other piece 

.

Like this.......

You should have exactly the same amount of back stitches on each side.

 

  Attach the next piece at the bottom, see the next picture for a close    up! 

Can you see?  As long as you have exactly the same amount of stitches to match each side then it will be easy!

When you have stitched all four sides it should now look like this.

Fold over the corners and stitch them together

There are two ways to fill your mattress, one with fibrefill, which is the way I did it or you can cut pieces of quilt batting the same size as your mattress pincushion and place them inside the mattress before attaching the bottom of the mattress. 

Using the quilt batting will give a much sharper finish  to your mattress, I have made one with quilt batting and I think it was much nicer.

Attach the bottom piece and stitch to the top section and fill with fibre fill before you close the opening.

Your mattress pincushion should now look like this.

I think there are a few hundred french knots in this!

If you would like to see more mattress pin cushions then type Mattress Pin Cushion in the search bar or here are a few links below…

Mattress Pin Cushion from an Exchange 

Red and White Alphabet Mattress Pin Cushion

Little House Needleworks Mattress Pin Cushion 

Sew Pretty Mattress Pin Cushion

Until next time, happy stitching!

Sew pretty needlebook to match sew pretty pin cushion

Hi everyone, I have just completed the finishing on this needlebook to match the sew pretty pin cushion I finished a few weeks ago. Both are free patterns from my blog, you can get the pin cushion pattern here and the needlebook pattern here. There is also a printable gift bag to match. 

Mattress Pin Cushion Tutorial to finish into a fully finished object (FFO)

If I were to make this again I would make the button loop smaller and use  a smaller bead, I thought it was a bit too chunky.

Until next time, happy stitching! 

Sew Pretty Mattress Pincushion and another project

Hi everyone, remember the free pattern I posted here on my blog a couple of weeks ago, well here is the design finished into a mattress pincushion, I decided to change the design slightly by adding more flowers, you can download both versions of the pattern here from my blog.


Stitching news 

The mattress pincushion was stitched on 28 count Permin antique white linen, it is quite a stiff fabric which ensures such a crisp looking finish to the edges of a mattress pincushion, it is probably the best fabric I have used for this type of finishing. 

Edited: Link to my mattress pincushion tutorial. It is not showing this actual pin cushion but it shows the same process for each one.

I have made a Needlebook to match, you can see it in this post here.

The pattern for the Needlebook is available on this page here…

The pattern for the Mattress Pin Cushion is available here on this page

Stitch for Syria

Have you seen the Stitch for Syria Campaign that is running at the moment?  
It is a campaign designed to help the women of Syria learn embroidery, stitchers volunteer to stitch a particular design, the pattern is sent once you sign up for the project, you then send your completed squares and they will be made up into a special piece of artwork.

The square on the top right was stitched using silk thread, sorry I don't have the colour it was  just a random piece of thread I had left over, the other two squares are stitched using dmc variegated thread, I particularly liked the one at the front.

Variegated thread 1345 (front square) appears not to be available anymore unless they changed the colour.

Until next time ......

Happy stitching!

Rose Cottage Mattress Pin Cushion

Hi everyone, I finished Rose Cottage, (my latest cross stitch design) into a sweet mattress pincushion.

There are over 200 french knots but I love stitching them so it was easy, can't say that about the finish though as I always find mattress pincushions to be quite fiddly and this was no exception. 

When I was a little girl I used to draw a cottage with a picket fence and roses around it, this is where the inspiration came from.

Hope you like it!

Happy stitching.

My exchange has arrived in Russia at last!

Hi everyone, I am thrilled to say that the exchange I sent to Yana in Russia on the 29 March has finally arrived, I had actually lost all hope of it ever getting there, in fact, I had made another one and was ready to post it next week! 

I made the  toblerone using this tutorial here ,although it is in French the pictures are quite easy to follow, I also used some of the fabrics I bought from Shabby Fabrics in America. The cherub pattern was a free pattern from Arianne Pierre, I could not find the link to it, however a nice blogging friend sent me the pattern. For the rose detail on the toblerone I used part of a pattern from the Gazette 94 blog here, just scroll down and you will see the roses as part of this large sampler.

The polymer clay rose pins, buttons and thread holder were handmade from Fimo clay and glazed with varnish to give a shiny finish. If you wish to know how to make the roses just type in polymer clay roses on You Tube and you will see a video showing how to make them. 

I used DMC floss for the cross stitch. 

More pictures below.

     

  

       

I have just sent another exchnage to Hazel from Quietly Stitching blog here , I will show pictures in my next post.

Happy stitching everyone and thankyou for your visit.

Little House Needleworks

Hi everyone, I thought it was time I showed a cross stitch finish after all the felt projects I have been making lately. 

I started this Holly Berries design from Little House Needleworks before Christmas but I have only just got around to finishing it. 

I decided to make it into a mattress pin cushion following some really helpful instructions over at Andreas blog - The Craft Room here.  

Thanks Andrea, your instructions are really easy to follow!

This is the reverse side

Stitching news

I have received a beautiful surprise gift in the mail from Jane, a lady whom I sent a random act of kindness to at the beginning of the year. Jane has sent me a lovely mail art with some delicious threads to match. I am unable to post a photo yet as I am trying to edit the personal address details off the photograph and I am unsure how to do it.

Thankyou Jane for this wonderful surprise!

I have also received a photograph from Connie who has made a lovely biscornu from one of my patterns, I shall show that in my next post. 

Talking of surprises ( well, not a total surprise because I gave him the list of choices) I received this Country Cottage Needleworks Pattern from my son for Mother's Day today, I cannot wait to start stitching this! 

    

Thankyou for visiting and leaving such wonderful encouraging comments, I really appreciate them all.

Happy Stitching! 

My exchange has arrived from Mylene!

Look what arrived in the post today from Mylene!

Thankyou so much Mylene for a lovely exchange, everything is beautifully stitched and finished, I am thrilled with both pieces. Mylene stitched the pillow and scissor fob in my favourite colours and also used one of my favourite designers - Prairie Schooler.

The stitching on these two pieces are perfect in every way, in fact Mylene could teach me a thing or two about finishing!I love these exchanges because I think we all learn how to improve our skills just by looking at how they are finished.

Reverse side

Stitching news

I have just started experimenting with polymer clay, I have made some roses and a couple of other little creations, I do think this will become another addiction of mine! I will post some pictures later in the week.

Happy stitching and thankyou for visiting.

Miniature Mattress Pincushion - Freebie Pattern

I have finished the Mattress Pincushion, isn't it cute!

It measures 8cm x 5.5cm, I stitched it on 25 count Dublin Lugana Linen 1 over 1 using DMC 115 variegated thread.

The pattern is a freebie from Mon Ami Pierre.

Happy stitching everyone.

Here it is!

What a beautiful mattress pincushion this is, the photographs do not do it justice. The stitching was perfect and the goodies were a lovely surprise too, thanks for reading my wish list Jennifer, I am really looking forward to using this blue silk thread!

I was so thrilled with it, I took it to work to show the ladies and they loved it too!