A New Finish and a Giveaway!

Hi, stitching friends!

"Two Red Houses" by Little House Needleworks
16-count rustico/natural Aida
Called-for DMC threads with two exceptions
(substituted DMC 640 for ecru in fence and white for ecru in checkerboard)

It has been a wonderful week in my world. No appointments, which means my days were my own. I've had a few busy nights with typesetting for my at-home gig, but nothing overwhelming, and the extra money is nice. It helps balance the budget for the shopping I've been doing lately! I have a mountain of projects to finish so I've been on the hunt for things to embellish, ribbons, fabric, and so on. This weekend, I went to Hobby Lobby for the first time in my life (can you believe it?), and oh, baby, I am in love. So many pretty things...

I love my latest finish, "Two Red Houses" by Little House Needleworks. I stitched it on 16-count rustico/natural aida with DMC threads. I substituted white for ecru, and I used DMC 640 to stitch the fence because the called-for thread (ecru), and even white, didn't show up at all on this fabric. I stitched the farthest-left segment of the fence three or four times trying to decide which color to use! I like my final choice.

I mounted it on sticky board and glued some lacy trim on the back. My husband found a nice old board for me at the ranch, and I cut it down to size and added a natural bow to give it a little extra pop (and to cover the cut I made on the left side of the board, which was less than perfect!). I adore how it turned out, and it's a great addition to our guest room.

My first giveaway!

I want to send out a heartfelt thank you to my faithful readers. I don't have many followers, but that doesn't matter to me. Each time you take a moment to leave a comment, it means the world to me. When I started this blog, I wanted to meet people who share my love of cross stitch and to have an outlet for sharing my work. Because of this blog, I have met some of the most wonderful people I could hope to know. So whether my following is 35 or 350, I appreciate you and am so glad to know you.

What is your favorite thing you found at a thrift store or yard sale?

In previous posts, I've mentioned the great secondhand store in my hometown, the HUB. On a visit there this summer, I found this sweet ornament kit - "Traditional Santa Ornaments" by Janlynn, and I'd like to offer it as a giveaway. The kit includes heavy-duty perforated paper for the Santas, but you could stitch them on any fabric and finish them as pillows, or use fabric stiffener on aida or evenweave if you don't like working on perforated paper. Look at their beards! So cute! The kit includes everything you would need to complete the ornaments, including jingle bells and star sequins.

If you would like to enter the giveaway, please be a sidebar follower and leave a comment letting me know you would like to enter. I will draw and announce a winner Tuesday, October 16, 2018.

Happy stitching! Have a wonderful week.

Autumn House Freebie

Hi, stitching friends!

Heavens to Betsy, it seems like I have been working on this forever! I mentioned in May that I was working on a series of seasonal houses to release as freebies.

A few hours ago, I finished my autumn house stitch into a beanbag--technically, a rice bag! I've been wanting to try using crushed walnut shells as pillow filler, but I saw a YouTube video by McKenna of Stitching in Sequins where she used rice. Since I had a brand-new bag of plain old white rice in my pantry, I thought, Heck, yeah! And it worked like a charm. It has a nice weight to it, and I did not have to stress about getting fiberfill stuffed tightly into the corners and seams. Yay! I did not add a hanger since this will sit in a tray with my other autumn stitches.

Can you believe I found that lace in a secondhand store in my hometown this summer? Three to four yards for twenty-five cents! The volunteer who rang up my purchase said, "How did I miss seeing this? Oh, this is lovely." I gave her as much as she wanted and still had plenty left over for lots of projects of my own.

I'll show you a few more photos of the finished pattern. You can use any neutral color linen. If you don't have the over-dyed threads I've called for, substitute anything you have and it will be beautiful. I do recommend using "Autumn Leaves" by The Gentle Art, rather than substituting for that color, though, because the variegation of the yellow, green and orange is perfect for the leaves and leaf piles.

The pumpkin vines spell out "Love." This is my love note to my favorite season.

The finished size of the design, if stitched over two on 32-count linen or evenweave, is 3-3/8" x 2-3/4", so it's a perfect project to use up a small scrap of linen you can't bear to waste.

I hope you enjoy stitching this as much as I enjoyed designing it. I used the artwork of Charles Wysocki as a jumping-off point for my sketch, but as I sketched and stitched the final piece, I made it my own.

You can download a PDF of the pattern here.

Happy fall!