Pin cushions

For some reason lately I have had a "thing" for pincushions. Not any particular style just ones that I think are fun or cute.
I think that hedgehogs are so cute to look at although I have never had any personal experience with one. I found the picture for this one on Pintrest and hunted up the pattern. Years before I had made a special mohair teddy bead for my eldest  daughter and remembered the wonderful fabric. I thought that they made mohair tipped in a second color that would be perfect for the hedgehog so I went hunting on the internet for that specific fabric and finally found it. It was the perfect color but not spikey enough to look like the spines of the hedgehog. So I cut off a piece of the fabric and got it wet and played with the fur so that it stood up like I wanted. The face and ears are linen with black beads for the eyes.
She is perfect - just like I had imagined....

As part of the class for the Needlework Cabinet, we have small projects so that we can practice different techniques. This glove is one of the pieces. I actually followed the directions for the cuff but made the glove out of some thin leather that I had. Turned out to be a bit harder than I thought it was going to be. The leather tears if you are not extremely careful  so the stitching is not quite as even as I wanted it to be. I am pleased with the result.
The scissors are hand made antiques from the mid 1800's. They are so delightful to look at.

Embroidered Cabinet

I have signed up for a fantastic on line embroidery class. It is The Cabinet of Curiosities by Thistle Threads. I have always wanted to stitch what is called an embroidered casket ever since I first saw one. Here are a couple of pictures of the 17th century originals.

The class will run for 18 months and at the end we will have most of the knowledge that we need to stitch our own box. The first stitched piece of the teaching lessons is a pincushion. Here is mine with a picture of the back also. I love daffodils so I decided to stitch one for the front of my pincushion.

Cauliflower pincushion

I love Inspirations Magazine. It is eye candy for any embroiderer. Several months ago they had a pin cushion contest and the one that won was later published in volume 75. It was designed byJulie Kniedl of Australia.  It is the most wonderful   dimentional cauliflower. If you just glance at it you would think that it was real and not stitched. It is created by stitching 9 leaves and 24 circles of french knots that are then stitched together to create the lifelike head of the cauliflower. Here is one of the leaves.

Here is the whole pincushion.