This was made for the #stitchingpirates Tiny Pillow Cross Stitch Contest! . I was planning on something rather larger and more complicated but time was against me I decided that since this was a mini pillow competition I'd make mine *really* small

As one of my main goals in art is to use what I have on hand as much as possible I applied the same principals to this project.

Materials used:
Embroidery fabric: a 2 1/2 inch/ 6,5 cm scrap of 18 count/7 squares per cm white Aida
DMC floss in 12 colours: 699, 700, 701, 702, 703, 704, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745
A 2 1/2 inch/ 6,5 cm scrap of Bali batik
Stuffed with mini scraps of quilting fabric

Stats
Finished size: 2"/5 cm
Number of stitches: 1024
Size of corner tassels 1/2 " / 1,25 cm

I have for a long time thought of doing something with quilt blocks in embroidery and although I haven't actually done much with Log cabins in quilting I do love the resulting look of them. I made this pattern based on 4 blocks of the "uneven log cabin" (an example of the quilt pattern is here: [link] ) turned so that the skinny "logs" were all in the centre and the wider ones made the outside edges. I had originally planned on adding backstitches in black to show where the "seams" would be but when I did some on the embroidery it looked horrid so I spent an age removing all the backstitches and wished I'd had time to do a sample first.

My stitches aren't as even as usual for 3 reasons:
1) I'd used a piece of Aida that was too small for any of my embroidery rings and so couldn't put it under tension to keep it even and had to make do with the way I held the bit of fabric.
2) My hands didn't like the above and complained bitterly but time was too short to put it away for a few days as I was expecting to need at least a day for all the backstitches that I didn't do in the end.
3) When removing the backstitching some of the time I caught a stitch and pulled it - I have done my best to return them to where they should be but it didn't always work and 2) means I can't go back and re-do stuff as I need to rest my hands.

Solution for 1 will be to use a larger piece of Aida next time OR baste it to some fabric and then put it in the frame (didn't remember that trick till I was writing this lol)
The solution to the other two is to start sooner, or choose to wait for the next competition if I'm too short of time.

I chose the colour of the backing fabric because it had the colours of the embroidery in it.

I made 1/2" tassels with the darkest embroidery thread as I like how that looks on pillows. It was a bit of a challenge to make them look nice and even as this was the first time I'd ever made tassels.

After I'd finished the embroidery I washed and pressed it and then carefully attached the tassels to the seam allowance of the embroidery to keep them in place while I sewed and after it was finished. I then pinned the backing fabric to the embroidery and hand sewed it all in place leaving what turned out to be a too small a hole to turn the stiff Aida through easily but with a bit of patience, a *lot* of easing and a chopstick I was able to turn it the right way round.

Next time I will first sew on a border of normal fabric before sewing it to the back as that will mean that the side seams are all the same fabric strength and stiffness and it will make the corners easier to turn and more pointy (although with this pillow I am not too displeased with how the corners turned out ) I will also leave a larger opening to turn through.

Keeping the work the same way round was a bit of a challenge as it looks the same from every angle so in the end I used a bit of thread to baste a couple of stitches to the top so I'd know which way round it was. With the frame on I don't have this issue as it's easy to tell which way is up due to the closure.

Overall I'm reasonably happy with the results

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Edit:

WOW!

I won joint first prize with *pinkythepink !! Thanks!!