Summer Garden Pincushion Tutorial Part 4 and 5

I hope you haven't given up on me! My life has been so crazy busy these days. I have been struggling with everything lately. Whew its been a tough year. The good news is that I am going to be a grandma for a second time! The challenge has been that this little one is giving his poor mom a bit of trouble. She is healthy and fine, but poor mom has needed lots of rest. I have been blessed with taking in my 1st grand daughter more than usual. She is the love of my life but her enthusiasm and energy keeps me hopping.

I promise to give you the final flowers in the next week. Here are 2 fun flowers. I put them in every pincushion I make. I also get requests for pincushions with nothing but sunflowers. Here is one of them-


One of my favorite flowers is the daisy. I gave this one a bit of flair. It may be more of a Gerbera Daisy which has so many fun color possibilities. As with all of the flowers in this tutorial, please feel free to mix up your color choices. If you do, I suggest that you do a little test flower on a scrap of linen, just to see how things will look when different colors play together.

You won't have to learn any new stitches this time. We will be using a few old favorites for both flowers.
The Lazy Daisy is the perfect petal stitch. When you add them together, one after another you will be making the Chain Stitch.
That same stitch can take on a new look just be opening up the base of the stitch. That is called an open Lazy Daisy. When the stitches touch at the base, it is called a Closed Lazy Daisy Stitch.

Here is a simple illustration. (please check back for photos)


I think you will find that most of the embroidery you may do involves just a few stitches. The variation comes in how you place them and the size and color you choose.
here are some examples how the Sunflower looks just by changing up the colors.



The daisy is just as easy. (I'm having a bit of a problem getting photos to load. Check back soon to see examples)


If you shrink and simplify the daisy, use a variety of blues, you suddenly have a Forget Me Nots. How fun is that!?!


I love them all! Even the pincushion on top is another variation on the same flower using a different combination of stitches. It can be just that easy.

I have 2 downloadable instruction sheets for you.
Summer Garden Sunny Sunflower Section
Summer Garden Dearest Daisy Pincushion Tutorial

Here are a few larger photos of the sunflower and daisy. Its hard to see each stitch when showing 3 strands of embroidery floss. I've used Perle Cotton in size 5 to show you how I've created these flowers.




I am having a bit of problems getting my photos to load so I am going to end for now. Please check back in a day or so. I hope to have all of the illustrations up soon.

The next post will have our final flowers. In the interest of giving you enough time to get your stitching done, my posts may be a bit more brief than I had hoped. I will be giving you at least 2 more flowers. The last post will include Hydrangeas and Geraniums. They are incredibly close in how they are stitched, so you will find them to be very easy to make. In fact, you know the stitches. If you are impatient, give them a try by looking at the completed pincushion on the top of the page. Use a bit of practice cloth the first time you give them a try. They have such tiny stitches!

I know you would love to have the roses on your pincushion. They involve one last new stitch. I'll be tackling that flower next. The rose involves a bullion stitch center, surrounded by open lazy daisy stitches. They will be easier than you think.
If you are adventurous, there are many rose tutorials on-line using a wide variety of stitches.

I hope you had a very wonderful Thanksgiving. I know that I am very grateful for your support, your kind comments and the creativity we share.
I'll be back soon!