Pumpkin Pincushion

While rummaging around in a pile on my desk, I found another abandoned project - a partially done Blackwork Pincushion that I started (then abandoned) back in 2022. Kim Beamish's design was in the October 2022 issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine.

The partially completed  piece was stapled a printed copy of the chart. I'm doing it on 14ct Aida because it's full coverage. This makes it very easy to stitch as one doesn't need to be quite so careful counting thread than if it were on an evenweave or linen.

I was missing one of the colours - DMC Variations 4124 and ventured to Michaels after stitching yesterday to pick it up. It's a variegated orange thread. 

Michaels didn't have it so I bought 4130 instead.

Well that didn't work at all. Instead, I decided to stitch with one strand each of the lighter and darker pumpkin colours in the pattern. That worked out much better. Then I added the blackwork.

There are two charts for this pattern - one for the top and one for the bottom. Initially I was going to use quilting fabric for the bottom but didn't find anything appropriate in my stash so have decided to stitch the bottom after all - basically the same.

Then came the hunt for more 14ct Aida fabric...

I seem to have given most of it away or stashed it someplace that I've forgotten about. The only white 14ct Aida I have is some Fiddler's Lite that I must have bought back in the Mesozoic Era for only $4.86 (plus tax, I'm sure).

Just out of curiosity, I did a search for what it costs today on the open market.

Yikes!

Since it's all-over coverage, it doesn't matter that it's a different colour fabric - as long as the fabric count is the same. 

Thursday's going to be a BIG DAY. The girlies are taking me out for brunch for my birthday, then I'm heading up to Quilter's Cupboard to take advantage of my 20% birthday discount. I have my eye on the wool felt appliqué kit - Fine Feathered Friends.

Not that I need any more fabric or projects (cough), but there may be something else that appeals to me.

Then I'll scurry home and get packed up to head to Brampton for the first weekend of the Stitch North Retreat with Barb and Poppy that begins the next day. 

There will be lots of vendors there selling hand-dyed fabrics, stitching supplies, project bags and stitching mats, needle minders, patterns, etc. Who knows what I'll be tempted to buy there?

But before all that festivity, tomorrow I'll be visiting my dentist to see about a broken tooth. The lingual cusp of one of my premolars cracked last week and is only held in place buy suction and the gum. I'm hoping it can be patched up so I can again chew on the left side of my mouth.  More work will need to be done on it, in fact I'm scheduled for a root canal on that tooth mid-May.