I’ve continued with the abstract Bargello pincushion, mainly in shades of pink, but also made a level edge with mauves and purples at the top (or will it become the bottom?). I had done the longer stitch of pink, following the single stitch row of mauve, before I realised it would make the canvas piece too big for the pre-cut patchwork piece of cotton. I undid the pink, having counted the holes to make it square, but decided the canvas would fold over the three stitches of mauve. I should have counted and set my boundaries before I started with the fun bit, but was too impatient….. more haste, less speed. I did the fuschia pink pattern two stitches wide.

Then I followed that with a double row of yellow, picking up the colour from the variegated thread. Initially I thought it would be too dominant, but it balances out with the rows in the rectangles. For all the yellows I have, it was tricky to find the right shade, but in the end I was happy with the choice.

I continued to fill in the spaces with different shades, textures, matt and shiny threads, totally forgetting to take photos as I worked. I only remembered after I’d put the pale backing fabric behind the canvas (see Abstract Bargello), and machine stitched round following the edge of the canvas stitches, then the darker one for the real back leaving a gap to turn through and trimmed the corners.

I decided not to make the corners really square and left them nicely rounded, which somehow made it feel more cushiony. The top edge is ready to be ladder stitched once I’ve stuffed it.

Then I considered doing a beaded edging, and even sorted out beads, before I saw coral knot stitch being worked on another pincushion, and decided to do that. I tried a couple of thinner perlé threads then settled on two strands of perlé 5 in a dark purple, which tones with the back perfectly. By the time I’d got all the way round I’d got sore fingers. It was tough pulling it through all the layers, but I’ve learnt a new edging stitch and it’s finished, more than two weeks before I need it!