Another Start

I saw this design for a pincushion 'mattress' a few years back but it was part of a stitching club from Soed Idee from the Netherlands and not available to the general public. 

I liked the alphabet around the edge. It would have been easy enough to design myself, I guess, but I distracted myself and then forgot about it until I recently saw the pattern online. And it was available as a .pdf download - bonus! She has several other patterns for sale in .pdf as well.

I started it on Sunday using my favourite red variegated floss - DMC 115. There are a few specialty stitches and several French knots. I don't mind doing French knots but I hope to substitute some HotFix 'bling'.

I'm using some random 32ct linen from my stash. I wanted to use 40ct but couldn't find any this tea-dyed colour.  And I'm really trying to stitch from my stash. Now that I think of it, I could have dyed some but too late. Rather than use the DMC 115 for the backstitching, I'm using DMC 815 instead. 

I did A to G and the backstitching yesterday at stitching. 

I learned a couple of things with this pattern: 1. the cool way the buttons were attached. 

and 2. the assembly instructions (in Dutch - Google Translate was my friend) suggested cutting several layers of batting and inserting them in the 'mattress'. That way it wouldn't puff up like regular fluffed batting would. This closeup also shows the star stitches in the bottom diamonds.

Last night I finished twirling the fringe on my Excavation blanket.  (bad lighting - so gloomy today)

Basically I took two strands of each colour and twirled them together.  Now I just need to decide how long to trim the fringe, then tie the end knots to that length and cut off the excess. If I don't tie knots, the fringe will unravel.

It's an ugly, narrow blanket - perfect for staying cozy in the car. It did make a bit of a dent in my worsted yarn bin but I think I can crank another one out and use up more yarn.