Botanical Bee cushion

I bought this Bothy Threads needlepoint cushion kit from The Fox Collection with a view to making a birthday gift for a bee-keeping son-in-law. It is a long time since I did needlepoint, I loved the design, and I thought it would be relaxing fun to return to it. 

Unfortunately I got a bit bogged down in other projects, leaving myself only about a fortnight to work it. This, I soon discovered, was not quite enough!

I set myself up with the canvas on a scrolling lap frame, with a 60cm rod - the upper limit of the frame. It fitted on a long, narrow sofa cushion which I could place on my lap. The alternative was to use a slate frame and my Lowery floor stand, which limits portability.  With the lap frame I could work the left hand side of the canvas with my left hand below, right above and vice-versa for the right hand side. Awkward, but workable.

I think the only printed canvas I have worked before are Christmas ornaments. Mostly I have worked from counted charts. While the printing was excellent I had difficulty distinguishing some of the shading. Fortunately the full charts were included and I did a lot of referring. The area marked here, is, for example a pale blue/grey flower with a yellow centre.

I made reasonable progress on the flowers, but struggled a little on the body of the bee. In the end I used the general colouring of the body sections and free wheeled with the range of threads indicated.

As per the instructions, I finished the figures then filled in the white background. 

That's when reality set in. The cream section here took about 10 hours of stitching - very slow work! The edges, in particular, were difficult in the lap frame, because they were loose. I had a Friday afternoon stitching session and a Saturday evening at a daughter's place coming up so persevered.

On Saturday night, I changed over to a fixed roller frame and my Lowery stand. It still took me 8 more days to finish, but it was a lot faster, and more controlled, than the lap frame. 

           

I increased the size of the panel from 14" square to 16" by extending the cream background and adding a black border. I had ordered two cushion backs from The Fox Collection, one white and one black. The white was too white against the cream background wool, and the black more practical. I initially worked the extra incrementally to test if I would have enough wool, but it was soon evident I'd have plenty. I commend Bothy Threads. As well as a lovely design, they were generous with their supply of wool. Only two colours ran out - and they were sufficient. I obviously needed more black for the border, but  my stash of tapestry wool from long-ago projects contained 6 skeins of black - more than enough.

I finished it late on Sunday night, but couldn't resist attaching the back, inserting the filling and taking a photo before I went to bed. I really like it.

I had also bought some appropriate fabric to make a gift bag for the cushion, in lieu of wrapping paper. I didn't realise when I bought it online that it was flannelette!

I used it nevertheless. It is at least soft to touch.

I'm a little sorry to have finished this one. Although on a tight timeline, It's been a really fun project to work on.  

I am currently shelving the suggestion that two matching cushions would be a good thing.