Cross-Stitched Pincushion

If there's one thing I just love, it's a gift that is PRACTICAL.  And this one is a double score, because it's practical AND pretty!

I made the pincushion pictured above a few weeks ago as a gift for my sister for her birthday, using a pattern from Blackbird Designs, and 32-count Vintage Maple Sugar linen.  I used over-dyed floss, which has some color variations in it, and I really like the subtle shaded effect that the floss gave this project.

The pincushion took a little lest than 2 days to embroider, and then I got stuck a bit on putting it together.  I couldn't seem to find the type of crocheted edging that I was envisioning, and then I couldn't find the right stuff to fill the pincushion with.  But, eventually I found everything and finished this little pillow up on the sewing machine.

Size-wise, it's about 4 x 5 inches, so it's not a tiny thing.  I gave this to my sister together with a limited edition pair of patterned 4-inch Gingher scissors.  My sister doesn't do embroidery, but she has recently started sewing, so I thought she'd like a small, good-quality pair of scissors to keep by her machine to clip threads and so forth.  And it's nice to have a good pincushion, too.  It helps keep your pins nice and sharp, and I find it so much easier to grab pins from a pincushion than sticking your fingers into a box or cup of pins.

Oh, as a final little bit of loveliness, I stitched my sister's initials into the top right hand corner of the pincushion, and the year in the bottom right hand corner.  I always find that personalization makes a gift just that much more special.