Pointing Up Poppies

At some point last year I picked up a needlepoint kit at Value Village for $2.30. You can get needlework kits in thrift shops for very little sometimes. Usually they are decades old. This one had a date from 2000 written in ink on the package. I always wonder about the back story. Did someone intend to do it and never get around to it? Did they die with their needlework unfinished? This is a lesson to us all.

This kit was unusual in its technique, at least in my experience. Usually needlepoint involves a single diagonal stitch and fine mesh canvas. This one required a cross stitch technique and had a canvas that was more like a rug hooking canvas. The kit was easy enough to do and it certainly went fast: I finished in just a week.

The finished cushion. I made one change to the design, which was to replace the yarn provided for the floral designs you see in five places on the canvas: the two buds in the top right corner; the larger and smaller flower to the right of the poppies, and the flower at mid-left edge. The yarn provided for that was a hot pink. I gave it a chance, and worked all those areas in it, only to decide it was an abomination onto the eyesight. I bought a skein of tapestry yarn in a apricot or salmon shade to replace it, and though it was slightly smaller gauge than the yarn that came with the kit, it worked well enough.

This was an inexpensive project. When it came time to turn the canvas into a cushion, I found I had a suitable fabric remnant on hand (left over from making a handbag). I had a zipper of suitable size in my zipper box. I've used purchased pillow forms in the past when making a cushion, but this time after I priced pillow forms I decided making my own would be more cost-efficient, particularly given that I had some remnants of white linen on hand to use for ticking (left over from a jacket I had made). I did have to buy some stuffing for this project as I didn't have enough left in the bag of stuffing I had among my supplies, but then polyfil stuffing is one of those items I always keep in on hand.

The finished cushion in its natural habitat: the guest room. I considered putting it in the kitchen as it is to be poppy-themed, but a kitchen is not the best place for textiles.