Monthly Giveaway

This giveaway really snuck up on me. It seems that November slipped by before I even had a chance to notice it was here. Between illnesses, work pressures and the Thanksgiving holiday, November was here and gone in a flash. What little stitching going on was on a BAP, which makes it tough to build up a supply of gently used charts. Since my plans for 2012, stitching primarily class project UFOs, will continue this trend of stitching BAPs, I think I will have to suspend the practice of monthly giveaways in 2012. So this will be the last giveaway for a while. Depending on how many finished charts I manage to accumulate in 2012, I may resume the giveaways in 2013. Once upon a time, I used to complete nearly 60 projects a year, mostly smalls and medium/small pieces. That generated a lot of charts to give away. The past two years I have slowed to half that pace and have worked on a number of larger projects as well. And furthermore, my recent finishes have been of charts I wish to keep: Workbasket, Homespun Elegance, Prairie Schooler, Brightneedle, Blackbird Designs and Primitive Needle. I do consider some designers a little more collectible than others. Even the small pieces I have stitched this year aren't particularly giveaway friendly: most have been complimentary charts available to just about any stitcher through the internet or newsletters. Indeed, many of my smalls this year have been from the 2006 Indy Town Square CD-Rom and I still have quite a few of those pieces to stitch before I can offer the CD-Rom for a giveaway. Pesky little copyright details about not keeping paper copies when giving away the CD ... not to mention wiping the hard drive. And my recent habit of stitching primarily from stash means I have gotten down to my cache of favorite designers. It will be interesting to see what effect the absence of giveaways will have on my various stats. Well enough rambling! This month's giveaway will be a rather mixed bag: one opened but otherwise untouched kit from my mother's stash, one unopened quilting chart and one gently used chart from the recent Sturbridge Stitcher's Hideaway run by Sue Donnelly.

This first piece is an opened but not stitched kit from Jan-Lynn from my mother's craft stash. It features an Amish doll very much like the ones my mother used to make ... which I guess is why she thought she might be interested in it. I suspect she balked at sorting the floss included. In any case, a piece of white Aida [I am guessing 14 ct] is included. The interesting thing is that the Aida has a painted grey-blue shadow in the area where the doll is sitting. You can see this painted shadow on the kit photo. There is a rust stain in the very far corner of the Aida where the needle is inserted but it is so far from the design area that it can easily be trimmed away before framing or before a stitching finish. I don't stitch on Aida. I find it to harsh and coarse in my hand. It actually raises blisters on my fingers. Hence the giveaway.

Next up is an un-opened quilting pattern from my mother's craft stash. The motifs are all in the folk art style and are simple geometric shapes ... perfect for a person who wants to give quilting a try but clever enough and interesting enough to appeal to a more experienced quilter. Called Home Sweet Home, it can be the jumping off point for any number of projects, based on various combinations of the motifs included: pillows, banners, pin cushions, even a lap quilt. I am hoping it will find a good home since I do not do much quilting.

This chart, The Call of The Sea, is a really fun stitch, a giveaway from a recent Sue Donnelly Stitcher's Hideaway. One of Sue's own designs it came with some mother-of-pearl and faux sea glass pieces reclaimed from a summer necklace. Since I have already stitched the piece and used the shells and beads, the winner will have to provide their own shells and glass, but it shouldn't be too hard to find a similar source. Check the internet for relatively inexpensive beach-y necklaces. It was stitched on a very loosely woven turquoise linen but I suspect that any turquoise or sea blue fabric will do nicely.

Well, I hope you all consider these items a fitting finale to my giveaways, at least for the time being. Anyone interested in receiving them should leave a comment below explaining why they appeal to you. I will announce a winner on 12/10.