Busy, busy, busy . . .

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile. This really is such a busy time of year for me. Spring is the time of birth for so many things including most members of my family :) Birthday season in our house starts on January 10th and continues on from that date. February 12th, March 1st, April 5th and 6th . . . For that time my house is never without a bouquet of helium balloons in every color of the rainbow, I make upwards of twelve dozen (that's a gross) of cupcakes, I am forever finding pieces of wrapping paper stuck with tape to my clothing, and there is an almost constant stream of family, friends, and well wishers through our door. On top of that is Spring cleaning, Easter, the start of the Spring soccer session and rehearsels for the Summer ballet recital. Thank goodness my two youngest are too young for after school activities; short of cloning myself I have no idea what I will do when they're no longer too young.

During my "off" days I am working on my punch needle, wool applique and the Spring Peacock. I'm also hoping to start work on a rag quilt and some make-do's. I don't think I have enough "off" days. Most days it's nice to have a project you can pick up for a moment or two and then leave for hours at a time. This past weekend, in between three soccer matches on a single day (10am, 1pm and 5pm) I covered my first paper mache box. Believe it or not this is one craft I have never attempted before. I have purchased painted and fabric covered boxes in the past but I thought I could give it a try. One can never have too many boxes . . .

I assure you the Spring Peacock pin cushion and needlebook will be finished this week along with my mud room and boiler room being cleaned of Winter clutter. Sring can be a wonderful time of year, but I can do with a little less hustle and bustle, and a little more sitting and stitching.

Don't forget about my giveaway!!!

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Spring Peacock Sneak Peak

I'm still working on my punchneedle. For something that sounds so easy I can't figure out why I have such difficulty with it. *sigh* At any rate I've decided to distract myself with something I find a little less challenging. I've begun work on my Spring Peacock. So many people enjoyed my Wynter Peacock I'm looking forward to releasing this pattern. I was originally looking for a 1950's reproduction fabric to coordinate. The design is in pink and blue-ish green which so much reminds me of that time period. Instead I found this Civil War era fabric and it's perfect. I've been wanting to work with GA Lexington Green for awhile now; I adore the color. I used GA Roasted Marshmallow in my butterfly and it's now my new favorite color. And who doesn't like pink? I think I'll really enjoy stitching with these shades. I've already decided to finish the patterns into a sewing book and pincushion. Hopefully stitching this will make me comfortable with saying goodbye to Winter and more welcoming of the arrival of Spring.

Don't forget about my giveaway; antique linens that are also a wonderful way to welcome Spring.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

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