Last summer I went browsing on the net after receiving a promotional email (as you do) and I ended up spending money (as I do). In the past, www.sewandso.co.uk used to have really good regular sales. I bought this cushion kit in what is probably going to be their last really good sale, judging by their recent ones, which have had hardly any price reductions. Sew and So appears to have been taken over by another company because Paypal payments go to an entirely different place now. Anyway, I’ll still keep looking now and again but I don’t expect to find any more bargains. This however, was a fantastic bargain!

I paid less than £10 for this cushion kit. It finished at 16” x 16”. I didn’t post about it at the time because it was all finished before I could put it down and then I forgot about it. It was like stitching with rope. With only 5 holes per inch, it made up incredibly quickly. I think it only took a few nights to complete.

As you can see, there’s loads of lovely pre-cut wool and this kit has the canvas printed so it was really easy to do with no charts to follow. I’d definitely buy another Pako kit, even at full price. Look how clear the canvas is. In case you don’t already know, you simply stitch the colour that is printed on the crossover part of the grid. It’s easy! I’ve done the bit in the centre on this photo but then I got so into the rhythm that I didn’t take any more pictures until it was all done.

Here it is all finished but, like I said earlier, I forgot all about it so it isn’t made up into a cushion yet. I’ll let you see it when it’s done.

Thinking about the Pako brand (no affiliates whatsoever here), I do still love the needle organiser my daughter gave me a couple of years ago so it deserves a plug. It saves time changing threads when doing embroidery or cross stitch. You need to thread up several needles, each with one of the colours that you’re using and store them next to the relevant symbol in the holder. I’ve found cross stitching so much quicker to do since I got mine. The needles don’t fall out because they’re pushed into a foam insert made from the kind that florists use for flower arrangements. You just need to copy the symbols from your chart onto the card that slots in behind the holes and away you go.

I think this is probably the most time saving gadget I use at the moment for crafting. What’s your favourite time saving crafty gadget?