My First Giveaway

I've been wanting to have a giveaway for awhile now. It appears to be customary to have a giveaway when one reaches one hundred followers. I got a few things together for the giveaway last week but apparently I overestimated how quickly I would reach one hundred followers :) No matter, I have little patience and simply don't want to wait any longer. Perhaps the giveaway will help me reach one hundred followers. At any rate, having a giveaway has just always sounded like so much fun. So here are the rules:

1. You must be a follower and leave a comment in this post, that's one entry.

2. You get a second entry if you post about this giveaway in your blog. If you don't have a blog don't worry just tell a friend. You have to let me know either way so I know to give you two entries.

3. You get a third entry if you've purchased one of my patterns. It can either be directly through me or through Etsy and it doesn't matter if it's a printed pattern or an e-pattern. If you haven't had a chance to purchase one yet just let me know which one you like best.

4. Finally, you get yet another entry if you've stitched any of my patterns (including free patterns) and have sent me a picture of your finish. You can also simply send me a link to your blog if you've posted a picture there.

Enough chances to enter? I have to admit that last one I threw in for perfectly selfish reasons. I love seeing finishes!!! I'll post the winner on March 20th; hopefully that gives everyone enough time. I'll ship to anywhere in the continential US and for my international followers we can each pay half of the shipping to your home.

Now onto the prizes. These are a few antique linens I've had in my collection for awhile now. For years they came out in the spring and graced my hanging rack but haven't made it out of their box in quite some time. Two of them look to be table linens with the most beautiful hand embroidery on them. One has pink flowers with green leaves which seem to be done in feather stitch and french knots. The other has tiny pink flowers of french knots, green lazy daisy stitches for the leaves and an undulating border or pink and blue french knots. Both have delicate crocheted borders. The final is a hand crocheted piece. I know nothing about crochet; to my eyes they are simply tiny rings sewn together in a diamond shape. They all have the most wonderful age to them, the embroidery is perfect for Spring, and they smell of honey and orange (the scent of the sachet I had them stored with).

It's a shame to have them sitting in a box in my craft room. Hopefully they can grace someone else's home and I hope everyone has some fun with the giveaway.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Punch Needles?

I have decided to try punch needle . . . again. Instead of using the expensive hand dyed threads I went and bought myself some DMC threads. I thought I might feel more free to experiment if I didn't feel as though I was wasting money. I bought two of each skein just to make sure I wouldn't run out which has happened to me in the past. I have no idea how to gauge how much thread I'd need for a design; I just don't have enough experience yet. I think it's best to start with small, simple designs. I'm too easily intimidated by anything else. Since the designs are small in the past I've used only one thread. I've never been happy with the way that turned out so I've decided to step it up and use two. It's looking so much better to me so fingers crossed.

I did have a couple of questions for you ladies who do punch needle. Is there a way to gauge if one or two or three or six strands is best for a particular design or is it just a judgment call based on experience? I fear it may be the latter but I was hoping for some loose guidelines. Also the needle I have (don't ask me the brand, I have no idea, I bought it years ago, it's not labeled in any way and I'll be darned if I could find the packaging) only takes up to two threads. Any more than that and it doesn't slide through the needle. Also the needle is slender which makes it difficult to hold. What's your favorite brand of punch needle? Do they come in different sizes? How will I know how many strands of thread the needle will accept? Is there a good website to order from since my LNS does not sell punch needles? Okay that's more than a couple of questions but any help would be appreciated. Punch needle is so beautiful and I would love to learn. I'll be sure to post my progress. So far I'm still working on the leaves.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Butterfly Free Pattern

Here's the butterfly again. I was going to wait to put out the pattern until I had stitched both. Alas that will not be for awhile and I see no reason to make you wait.

Finished into a little pincushion? Combined with some pretty stitched flowers? I haven't decided what I'll do with it yet but I'm sure I'll think of something. Let me know what you do with this little flutterby and don't worry his sister will be along soon enough.

Click here for the free pattern.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Keeping Joy Sewing Book

Let a joy keep you . . .

Even the simplest of joys can carry you through the most difficult of times. Sometimes that tiny pleasure is all you have to see you through a hardship, so keep that joy and let it keep you.

That sentiment has helped me through more than few tough times in my own life. There are times things are so dark there seems to be no path to the light. This little sewing book is a reminder to myself to find and keep that joy.

It is a tiny little pattern that on and off took me the better part of a month to stitch; it spent most of that month untouched. For such a short month February has an awful lot packed into it in our house. I finally finished it yesterday morning; I was just waiting for some sunlight to take the pictures. I have to say I think it was worth the wait. I finished it into a little sewing book using some civil war reproduction fabric. I just adore that shade of pink; it has a wonderful age to it. I lightly tea stained it as well. The book when open measures 6 inches by 12 inches and has four pockets inside each of which is 3 inches square.

The pattern itself is stitched over two on 40 ct R & R Reproductions Park City Blend and measures approximately 3 inches square. It was stitched using Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Arts threads. The black thread in the design made me a little nervous so I chose not to tea stain the finished stitching, but of course you could. I chose the pink thread to coordinate with the fabric, but it is a lovely color. The skein I had of it was highly vareigated pink and cream. I wanted only the pink so I had to "fussy cut" the thread to get just the bits I wanted. There are times I've done that and ended up with only a couple of inches to stitch with; that can be quite a hassle. This skein worked much better though since half of every 18 inch length was pink.

The pattern includes finishing instructions to make the sewing book (it's really quite easy). A printed pattern is $7.50 which includes shipping and an e-pattern is $6.00. If you'd like to purchase the pattern simply e-mail me at appleseedprim@yahoo.com or use the link on my sidebar. The pattern will also be available in my Etsy Shoppe.

I do hope you like the pattern. Tomorrow I'll be posting another free pattern for the little butterfly I showed last week so be sure to check back.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Happy St. Valentine's Day!!!

Wishing you all a sweet valentine and someone to cuddle with.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Happy 1st Birthday, Mina!!!

Our youngest, Mina, celebrated her first birthday today. Isn't she adorable in her little tutu? It's been a while since I've had a little girl to dress up. She shares a birthday with Abraham Lincoln; just one of many indications she is destined for great things. She was born during the biggest blizzard our county had seen in twenty years. She is adored by her two big brothers who call her Queen Mina and occassionally bow to her (which always makes her giggle). She is spoiled by her big sister who often whisks her off to her room upstairs for "girl time" and refers to her baby sister as her best friend. There isn't a minute of the day she isn't being loved on by someone around here and she deserves every bit of it.

Happy Birthday, Miss Mina, we love you.

Decorative Sewing Pins

I had some unexpected quiet time this afternoon and felt like playing so I took out some of my little treasures. I've been wanting to make decorative sewing pins for awhile now. Basic sewing pins, silver jewelry findings, cream colored fabric flowers . . . if I had known it would be this easy I would have done it ages ago. Of course now I have to find the perfect pincushion for them to grace. I'm considering putting some sets up on etsy since I think I may have gone a little overboard and made too many. How do you ladies think they turned out?

xoxo

Jennie Lynn