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

Meg's Flower -- Wool Applique

Before cutting into my new wool I decided to finish stitching an applique I started months ago. It's been sitting in a tin in my dining room all that time. Every once and awhile I would look at it, occassionally I would take it out and lay it on the table, sometimes I would carefully place all the pieces, there were even times I threaded the needle. Then I hastily put it all back and hid the tin behind something so as to not have it mock me. Like I said I'm new to wool applique (this is only my second project) and my confidence is a little low. Though I have to say I'm very happy with how this came out and and now have renewed confidence to tackle my other projects.

I used Gentle Arts Simply Wool for the stitching; I like the fuzzy look. As you can see I'm still not confident enough to applique something as thin as a flower stem so I decided to embroider the stem instead. The little lazy daisy flowers in the circles were my husband's idea or at least they were how I interpreted the little doodle he did. I'm still not sure how to "finish" it. Do I back it with wool, felt, quilting cotton? Do I stitch on the little "tabs" I see on penny rugs? Do I get another larger piece of wool to back it and cut little scallops around the edge? More circles within the tabs or scallops, maybe a few more daisies? Any ideas? For now I think it will simply lay on my hanging rack for me to draw inspiration from if my confidence wanes while working on my other projects.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn