Skipping Ahead a Season

My last post being Halloween-related but posted on the cusp of Thanksgiving was at least still somewhat seasonal, but now I'm moving way on ahead and showing you something very Spring-y!  This is my latest design, now appearing in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of Needlepoint Now:

Spring Garden Biscornu

These little oddly-shaped pincushions became all the rage with cross stitchers a couple years back.  I thought they would be very adaptable to needlepoint as well, either as a needlework accessory or as a three dimensional hanging ornament, as they look good from both sides.  Here is the back side of the biscornu:

  

I stitched the design on one of the hand-dyed mono canvases distributed by Zweigart-- this color is called Cherry Cordial.  It's a very pretty shade that looks great on its own but plays well with the thread colors too!  The softer texture of the hand dyed canvas (since it's lacking some of the starch sizing present in regular mono) makes it especially good for self-finishing projects like this one.  This is the front side, flat, before finishing:

The back side in an all-over floral pattern using Waterlilies and Kreinik metallic:

Step one of the finishing process.  The biscornu would be an ordinary square pillow-shaped pincushion if it were not for the innovative way the two square shapes are connected together.  Instead of matching corner to corner, you whip stitch one corner to the center line of the other square.  The "hedgerow" framework on the top side makes for an easy way to see your center line.  The whip stitching goes under two rows of chain stitch that makes the outermost border around the design.

And a quick jump back in time, when the design was still in the development process, here is the original batch of threads that I started with.  Most of these did make it into the final version:

I hope you'll enjoy seeing the whole project when your copy of Needlepoint Now reaches your mailbox.  As always, if you have any questions regarding this design, just email me here at the blog or on my website, www.EyeCandyNeedleart.com.  And if you do wind up stitching this project, be sure to hold on to your leftovers, as there is a companion piece coming along in the next issue that will use all these same materials, plus a couple of new additions too!  Until then, Happy Stitching!