1 lucky slot left for Let's Play! - CLOSED

I've got one last slot left for my Let's Play post. So far Jennifer, CherryTreeLane, Cornflower, and Jessica have responded and can hardly wait (!) to see what I'll be creating for them! Come on, claim the final spot in my group. I know there are positions open on some of their blogs - check them out, they are quite a creative group. Let's have some fun!

Update: Lynn Z filled in my last spot - congrats! Well, I've now got to get busy and start thinking of some great things to send these women.

Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club (SBBC)

I just packaged up my partner's birthday presents that I will be mailing off tomorrow. I've been collecting things for this exchange ever since I received my partner's information. I've really enjoyed doing this and I hope I get to participate next year! This is my last exchange for awhile since I want to get some personal stitching finished. Edgar is our host for this exchange and he does the most amazing cross stitch. He posts daily during the week and I look forward to reading about his latest projects and the movies he watches - it's very entertaining. If you haven't checked him out, I encourage you to do it.

Well, here's a photo of everything wrapped up and ready to send. I know by the time it arrives, all the pretty bows will be smashed, so I wanted to have a picture of it while it's still really pretty! Once my partner receives it, I'll post some pictures of the main present (I didn't take photos of all the other goodies I included).

I really hope she likes everything!

How gorgeous is that ribbon?! I wish you could feel how smooth and silky it is. It's hot pink dots with a black background. It's a 50 yard roll that I scored at Costco for $1.97! That's right! They were having a close out on all of their ribbon and I bought 8 rolls of difference patterns and textures and colors, all 50 yards each, and all for $1.97 a roll. I very rarely score great deals - this has to be the best one ever.

This has absolutely NOTHING to do with crafting!

It was just fun! I found this site that let's you create your own superhero. Once you finish, it shows what you would look like on a comic book cover. I was hoping that the weapons of choice would have something "crafty" but no such luck. Go create your own superhero! I created two identities for myself (of course they had to be in pink!):

Let's Play

This is inspired by my niece, Jenni. I've decided to play along. Everyone is encouraged to play - worldwide! It's open to everyone who reads my blog.

The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It will be done this year. (that's right, before December 31, 2009!)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. Just because I cross stitch, doesn't necessarily mean that's what it will be (but it might!). I dabble in quite a few mediums. Who knows?
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. But I would never send something that I didn't like myself!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and make the same offer to the first 5 people who respond on your blog entry, thereby continuing the fun! (Though you can keep it local if you want, I don't fear international postage!)

The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Sounds like fun, right? So, let's play!

Valentine - maybe next year

I've been wanting to post this for awhile and I now have the opportunity. This was the first design I was going to use for the Valentine swap. I think it's really cute, however the backstitching was taking way too long and I abandoned this design after finishing two of them. The balloon is from a Tatty Teddy design and I designed the "love" string.

I wasn't thrilled with the hoops and I was unwilling to get my sewing machine out to make little pillow-type ornaments out of them. I'm keeping the one in the oval hoop and I'm thinking about doing a giveaway for the one in the round hoop (it's a 5 inch hoop), but it's not perfect.

Do you like them? Should I use this design next year if there is a Valentine ornament exchange? How would you finish it? Should I do a giveaway for the round one? The fabric isn't as tight in the hoop as I like it to be but I've already glued it in place!

More playing around with small motifs

Before the threads came for Cherry Hill, I was playing around again with creating my own designs. I had so much fun with the last umbrella I did, I quickly charted a couple of other umbrella layouts (it's an easy design to figure out). I did two in red and then tried one in a varigated blue. Loved the red ones, hated the blue one and threw it away (do cross stitchers really throw things away? Yes!). Here are the two red ones.

Here's the first design:

And here's the second:

Both of these are on their way to two people who have no idea they are about to receive them. I hope they can find a little space in their craft areas to hang them up and I hope they enjoy them.

My last exchange before I get back to my WIPs

I have one last exchange commitment that is due in mid-March. It's a birthday cross stitch exchange. I don't know who has me, so I'm assuming my person doesn't know I have them (huh?). Anyway, as I mentioned, I was waiting on some threads awhile ago and they showed up last week. I started working on the piece that I'll be sending her and thought I would share it with you. It's just adorable and I may have to make another one for myself. Since I signed up for this exchange (back in November), I've been collecting little surprises to include in the package. Once I have this piece finished, I'll take a picture of everything I'll be sending. This is definitely an exchange I'll sign up for again.

I haven't decided on how I will finish it, but you will definitely see it when it's complete. After this, I'll be working on one of my WIPs so that I can enter it into the county fair (it's all about the ribbons!). I'm thinking the multiplication sampler. Even though it's a really large piece, I think I can finish it by the end of May (entries are submitted at the end of June).