Strawberry Faire by October House Fiber Arts

Well, I did it! Strawberry Faire is finally fully finished!

I actually finished stitching this lovely little design by October House Fiber Arts back in July 2025, using the called for Classic Colorworks and Weeks threads. Since then it has been patiently waiting for me to decide what on earth I was going to do with it.

Over a year later, I finally got there!

Project Details

Design: Strawberry Faire
Designer: October House Fiber Arts
Fabric: 28 count WGLY Linen in Chalk
Started: 6 July 2025
Finished: 24 July 2025
FFO’d: 18 August 2026
Finish: Cross Stitch Pillow

I really enjoyed stitching this one and actually finished it quite quickly.

The stitching was finished on 24 July 2025.

The fully finishing, however, that took me until August 2026!

I mean, what’s thirteen months between friends?

Now this is where the fun started, because although I’m very comfortable with my cross stitch, I’m still very much learning when it comes to sewing and quilting.

And one of the things I’m trying to get better at is looking at a stitched piece and working out how I can turn it into something a little bit more interesting than simply stitching a front to a back and stuffing it.

So this time I employed a little help from ChatGPT.

I pulled out some fabrics that I thought might work with Strawberry Faire, took photographs of the stitching alongside them and basically said, “Right, what can we do with this?”

And actually, this was really useful.

We played around with different fabric placements, panels, trims and even the idea of adding some machine embroidery. Eventually we came up with this ambitious concept for the finish.

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Now, did I actually make everything on that concept board?

Nope, it got a little too adventurous for a beginner.

The concept had a sage fabric across the top, a burgundy corduroy panel down the side, a taupe section along the bottom, ric-rac trim and even an embroidered section alongside the stitching. I loved it!

But when I actually had the stitching and fabrics in front of me, do you know what? It started to feel way out of my ability and a step too far for my comfort zone.

And I wanted Strawberry Faire itself to still be the star.

So I simplified it….a lot.

I kept the burgundy red corduroy, but instead used it as a panel along the bottom of the stitched linen, and then used the taupe corduroy for the back.

I think this is one of the things I’m really enjoying about learning to sew.

The original idea doesn’t have to be the final idea.

You can play around, change your mind, remove things and see what actually looks right once everything is sitting together in front of you.

The trickiest part of this finish was actually the linen.

I’ll be honest with you, I hadn’t really appreciated quite how unforgiving linen can be once you start cutting it down and trying to interface it.

It moves in every direction!

Keeping everything straight while I was cutting, interfacing and then sewing the linen to the corduroy definitely took a bit of patience.

But that’s all part of the learning, isn’t it?

And looking at it finished now, I’m really pleased I changed the original plan.

The burgundy corduroy picks up the deep reds in the strawberry beautifully, the taupe works really nicely with the softer colours in the stitching, and there isn’t anything fighting with the design itself.

It’s simple, but it still feels like I’ve actually finished it rather than just made a little cushion.

And for somebody who is still finding her feet with all this sewing and quilting malarkey, I’m rather pleased with that.