Embroidered Mattress Pin Cushion

Last week I gave you a little update on my Angel Swap gifts and showed you a sneak preview of the embroidery on the last item I am making for this swap. Well, it is finished and I'll show you how I did it.

While cruising around and in and out of lots of different websites, I ran across this tutorial for a beautiful mattress pin cushion at Cote Passions which I am guessing is from France. Even though I could not understand one word of the writing, the pictures told the whole story. I just HAD to make one of those!

Then I came across another mattress pin cushion in the making at The Twisted Stitcher and after reading about the method, I knew I had figured it out correctly from the pictures on Cote Passions.

So I set to work.

First I took the entirely-too-cute Blue Wren's Nest design from Natalie at Cinderberry Stitches and traced parts of it onto my linen. Using DMC Perle cotton I backstitched the entire design. Then using the blue from the birds as my main color, I backstitched around the edges of all the pieces - front, back, and two sides.

This is what the linen looked like at this point:

It took a lot of counting and recounting and envisioning how the side pieces would go before I finally finished backstitching all of the outlines, but I did it!


Aren't Natalie's little birds just the cutest? I added the red blanket stitch edges on the back along with some of the lazy daisy stitch flowers so the little bird family wouldn't look so alone.


For the side pieces which I had stitched before I knew exactly how I would place them, I had to work the outlines off set from each other so the stems would end up on the long sides and the blank sections would be on the top and the bottom.


I stitched my initials and the year on the side section that would go on the bottom and the left, then I stitched the name of the wonderful lady who will receive this on the other section so her name will be on the top. Then I cut out all the pieces leaving a generous edge so the linen would not unravel.


Using the same blue Perle cotton of the embroidery, I stitched the sides onto the top with a whip stitch, matching up the backstitches from each piece. If I counted right, everything would fit perfectly.


When I got to the end of the first side piece, I stitched the second one on using the same whip stitch method, then continued stitching the top onto the second side.


Here you can see it is beginning to take shape. After the sides were stitched to the top and to each other, I stitched the back on in the same way, leaving the last little bit open until I had stuffed it firmly with batting. Then I finished stitching it up.


This is how the back looks all finished. Those little birds just crack me up!


And here is the front of the Blue Wren's Nest Mattress Pincushion. I just love the tree and the swirly leaves. The red flowers are pretty darn cute too. Thanks, Natalie, for sharing that pattern for the Angel Swap!

This project was fun and interesting from the very beginning and I loved watching it come together while sewing up the seams. Three dimensional sewing is something I find very satisfying.

Don't forget to enter my fall giveaway by October 14th for a chance to win a very nice pincushion bag and other fall goodies. Good luck!

Happy Stitching!

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