Spring Garden Humbug, Plus a Decision Has Been Made!

The January/February 2013 issue of Needlepoint Now should be arriving in your mailboxes and at your LNS too, so I thought it was high time to share some extra photos of my latest project to be found in this issue.  Spring Garden Humbug pincushion is the companion piece to the Biscornu pincushion from the previous issue.  You will be pleased to see that the Humbug uses all the same materials as the Biscornu, plus just a couple of additional threads and buttons that I think you will like.

Here is the finished Humbug, viewed from the side:

To better orient you as to how this piece is stitched and assembled, here is the piece stitched and flat, prior to finishing:

A Humbug gets its shape from being stitched together along its shorter edge, making a tube, then having each of its ends closed in different directions:

The photo above shows the whip-stitch technique I use for assembly-- the needle is slid cleanly under each pair of chain stitches and the edges are pulled firmly together.  The edge at the bottom of the photo has already been closed, with the far corners folded inwards to meet the center.

In the photo below, the stuffing has been added, and the edge is being closed, this time in a simple fold right down the middle, with the far corners meeting each other:

Here is that same edge from the photo above, closed and finished:

Here is the finished Humbug, viewed from the backside:

And finally, the bottom side:

I hope you will enjoy stitching this piece, and as always, if you have any questions, please do email me here at the blog.  And please do share photos with me of your finished pieces, as this is a very adaptable design and I would love to see how it would look on different canvas, with different threads and buttons too!

Additionally, if you read my last post, you will recall I was trying to decide among five canvases to work on for the Stitching Games over on Stitcherie.  I did finally choose one, after much deliberation-- I'm going with the Patti Paints witch design.  Her corset seems to be the obvious starting point, since January's clue is "shape up", now I just need to get to work.  Meanwhile, we have had loads of stitchers joining in on the fun, with 22 official entries thus far and quite a few of those participants are stitching celebrities in their own right-- Kelly Clark, Sandy Arthur, Sheena James, Janet Perry, Sharon Crescent (of Crescent Colors fame) and Ruth Schmuff-- quite a distinguished group, right?  There is still plenty of room, come on and join us, or just cheer on your favorites-- it's all good!  Hope to see you there!