A free needlepoint pattern with pretty nasturtiums.

needlework magazine april 1995 and a pretty needlepoint pincushion

Last week when sharing my Cottage Garden cross stitch pattern I mentioned that back in the 1990s I’d had several designs published in craft magazines. I’ve dug out my copies of those old magazines and found one of my early designs, a needlepoint nasturtiums pincushion.

I’d entered a pincushion design competition at the tail end of 1994 and was lucky enough to be one of the winners - 2nd place! The magazine featuring the winners came out in April 1995. I’d already had a few designs published in magazines at this point but this win really boosted my confidence. I had concentrated on cross stitch more at the time which was very fashionable then, it was nice to stitch my design in a different medium to mix things up.

Imagine my surprise when I realised that I still have that pincushion! The magazine must have sent it back to me after the photoshoot. It would often take a while but the magazines did used to return most physical items eventually.

Considering that this pincushion is 32 years old it really is in pretty good condition. There are a couple of marks on the underneath and some slight fluffiness in a couple of places but not too bad at all.

This is not my main pincushion, I think it would be in a worse state if it had been, but it has been in regular use. It’s been in the drawer of my bedside table for years. I keep a pincushion handy in the bedroom so I can put a quick stitch in my clothes if I need to, sew a button back on in a hurry etc. I keep a few safety pins in the pin cushion too which are always useful.

It won’t be a massive surprise if I confess that I have quite a few pincushions - 4 at last count! I like to keep them everywhere so there is always one to hand!

Needlework magazine doesn’t exist any more so unless you have an old copy or can find one on Ebay or in a charity shop the designs are lost.

Let me share the chart for this nasturtiums design with you here so you can stitch it if you’d like to. Please note this chart is provided for your personal use only. Please don’t reproduce the whole thing as a chart. You can stitch things for yourself or to sell using this design if you’d like to.

Nasturtium Needlepoint or Cross Stitch Free Pattern

You can download a printable version here:

Nasturtium Needlepoint Pattern

The DMC colours on the key are the ones taken from the original Needlework magazine article. I have no idea if they are the ones I originally used, it was quite a while ago after all! Use the photos as a guide and choose whatever colours you prefer. I used an orangey red, orange, yellow, light green, mid green and black. I worked my needlepoint on a 5” (13cm) square of 16 count single interlock canvas.

You can use one of the charts below if your prefer. You can right click on it and copy, then either paste it into a word document or save it however you prefer.

Because this nasturtium design was originally stitched in needlepoint the black background is all stitched. Of course this takes a while, it’s a full cover design, although it’s not a big design so we are not talking weeks and weeks!

You could easily adapt this design for cross stitch. Work it on black aida fabric for the same overall look or on white or ivory aida fabric for a whole different look.

My cross stitch design software has a setting to show what designs will look like on different backgrounds so I used it to see how it looks on a pale fabric where only the flowers and leaves are stitched.

It’s quite pretty isn’t it?

Turning the needlepoint into a pincushion

To turn the design into a pincushion I just backed it with a small piece of bright fabric - I remember I had a summer dress I’d made from this bright print.

It was a while ago so I’m not completely sure what I did but I am assuming this process:

Cut a piece of backing fabric the same size as your finished needlepoint
Place the finished needlepoint and backing fabric right sides together and stitch around 3 sides on the sewing machine
Turn right sides out
Stuff the pin cushion with fibrefill
Stitch the remaining side closed by hand

You can just make out my hand stitches on this side if you look closely.