Stitching Friends Forever

June birds and bees

Post two/Grab Bag 
Give Away
Stitched challenges


Give Away details

Blogging gives us the opportunity to meet so many kind and helpful stitchers and we wanted to show our appreciation to all of you.

We are ending the month of June with two annual give aways for our followers.  One is a collection of many of our favorite items that we use for stitching and finishing  projects for our US  followers.  The other give away will be for our followers outside the US who will win a PDF pattern of their choice from our talented friend Ezster of Sub Rosa or any other PDF designer of your choice. We would love to send the box outside the US but shipping costs prevent us from doing so.


"A few of our favorite things"

Included in the US box you will find:

There are three fabrics that you will love.   One is a pretty Moda fabric with bluebirds and rose buds.   Another is a sweet Moda bee fabric.   And the third is black and cream ticking which is one of our favorite fabrics for many of our projects.

We have added a pretty bird pattern from one of our favorite designers With thy Needle and Thread called "The Sewing Bird".   And a second pattern called "Be Kind" by Stoney Creek which is a sweet bee chart.

These pretty embroidery scissors are great for stitching because they are sharp and perfect for cutting your threads.   They have a pretty vintage look which works great in photo displays.  We think you will love them as much as we do.

Our favorite needles are by Bohin and we have included a package of them for you.

Mary and I love using vintage buttons on our ornaments and bowl fillers and you will be getting some from our collections.

There will be a mix of trims from our collections for you too (pom pom fringe, rick rack,lace and ribbon).  They are perfectly sized for ornaments and bowl fillers.

Some of our favorite charms are included in this give away. There will be birds and bees and other designs (sunflower, sheep, acorn, snowflake, friend and hearts) you will enjoy.  We have purchased most of these from Bohemian Findings on Etsy.

I've stitched this cute bee pattern by Heartstring Samplery for you.   I will surprise the winner with a cute finished pin cushion.  It will have a pocket on the front with the stitch.  It is lined for strength so that you can put your embroidery scissors, small ruler and even a rolled working copy of your pattern in the pocket.   The top has a wool heart to keep your needle.   And there is a  loop  on the top that holds a ring where you can put your floss for your project.  It will make a great travel piece because it will have everything you need except your linen and q snaps.

Everything you see below plus a box of buttons and charms will be included for the US give away except for the sewing machine drawer.   It is being used for display only.  Mary and I hope you like some of "our favorite things" we like to use.

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For our followers outside the US we will buy a PDF pattern for you of your choice.   The winner may select one of our friend Sub Rosa's charts or tell us another PDF designer you may favor.

Here are some examples of Sub Rosa PDF charts.   You will find more here

This one is for sunflower lovers

Wouldn't this be pretty for one of your friends?

We know there are lots of  stitching bee fans.  It's perfect!

We love this one...the back is as sweet as the front!

Here's a great thread holder with those sunflowers we all love

Calling bird lovers!

I have stitched this one and it is adorable and a fun stitch

Who can resist this pretty Robin?

How about starting early for Valentine's Day or for someone you love?

Another pretty Valentine stitch!

Give Away Rules                            
To enter our give away all that is required is to be a side bar follower and to leave a comment that you want to be entered.   If you are a follower from outside the US, please let us know your choice of PDF designer and we will buy a chart of your choice.  We will choose our winners at the end of July so you have a whole month to sign up so don't miss out.  

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Stitched Challenges:

We have some of our challenges stitched up and would like to show you.

RJ's challenge
My French village is coming along really well since I last showed one.   Each shop is cuter than the next!  This month I am showing you the Candy Shop which I really enjoyed stitching.   There are some additions and one change.   The original pattern is called a Sweet Shop and has a cake in the window with candy canes.   I wanted it to be just a Candy Shop so I changed the cake to a lollipop.   And, then I added a white sign on top of the red stripe awning where I can put the word candy in French.  A cardinal on top of the tree was added too because almost all the other shops have one and because I love cardinals.   

You can see the added cardinal on the tree, the added white sign that will have a French name and a lollipop changed from a cake in the window.  I'm still considering a French name to put on the white sign.

Sweet Shop
from the Hometown Holiday Series
by Little House Needleworks
40 ct. country mocha linen
called for thread colors

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Mary's challenge
I was inspired by Carol of Stitching Dreams who is stitching the Hometown Holiday Series over 1 on 28 ct black Monaco.

I loved how the colors popped on the black and decided, I too, would complete this series on28 ct black linen and to make it easier  2 over 2.

Well friends, you see here my one and only project on black!  Stitching this was a nightmare for me.   I persevered though despite it never getting any easier and finally with a sigh of relief put the last stitch in.   I could have easily completed this 4 times on 40 ct in the time it took me to stitch this!! 

I made a few changes, substituting Valdani brick Med for the house color. GA dried thyme and endive for the trees and GA barn grey for the tires. 

I would love to know how many of you have stitched on black and did you enjoy it or struggle with it as I did. 

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What's Stitching
If you have noticed that this is a June post but dated July 2, it is because I was running late.  I've been running back and forth to the hospital for tests and will be having exploratory surgery tomorrow.   I would really appreciate if you say a prayer for me.  I thank you so much in advance.  RJ


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We hope you all like the give aways and that you will sign up.   Next month we have lots of patriotic projects to share with you.   We will be back to three posts a month in July too.  So happy you stopped by for a visit to our blog and we always look forward to visiting yours.  We hope all of you "stitching bees" have a great fourth.   Hope to see everyone in about 10 days.

found on pinterest