Stitching Friends Forever

Post one/Christmas in July
Grab Bag/Annual Give-a-way
Stitcher's choice/June

Welcome to Stitching Friends!   It is time for our annual big give - a - way. We are calling it "Christmas in July".  It is packed full with lots of great stitching items that we think you will love.  So make sure you sign up.  Details for entry are below.  We also have added a Stitcher's Choice at the bottom of this post that we made for last month but did not get posted in time.

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Annual Give-a-way

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 starting the month of July with two annual give a ways for our followers.  One is a collection of stitching and finishing items SANTA happily found 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 any PDF designer on Etsy.  We would love to send the box outside the US but shipping costs prevent us from doing so.

All that is required to enter our yearly give-a-way is to be a side-bar follower and to leave a comment letting us know if you wish to be entered and if you are within or outside the U.S.  

If you have a blog and  tell your readers about our give-a-way, we will enter your name twice in the drawing.  Winners will be announced on our first post in August.

The drawing includes everything you see except the basket that they sit in.  You will find seasonal charts, scissors, needles, pom pom trim, lace on a wooden spool, sled for a stitch, a bag of charms and buttons, needleminder and beautiful fabric for each season.
  

We have included seasonal charms and buttons for you to use as embellishments on your future stitches.  Most of these charms can be found at Bohemian Findings on Etsy.                   

We think you will love this cute little needleminder from the talented Michelle Palmer.  Her drawings are the sweetest and will look great holding your needle.
                                   

We fell in love with this pretty French linen and hope you will like it too.   The give a way also includes elegant lace on a wooden spool and fun pom poms to add to your stitches.                                 
 

Three of our fabrics are from Moda and the other from another favorite line that were all found at a quilt show.   There is a pretty quarter round for every season.  You will enjoy them, a cute pair of scissors and two Pat Carson needles in an adorable magnetized sewing tin.                 

And lastly, we have included a pattern for each season.   You will enjoy having Hello Spring by Hands on Design, Season-Summer by Lila's Studio, Autumn Acres Farm-a-collaboration with Priscilla and Hands on Design and Twilight Santa by Foxwood Crossings for Winter.  Twilight Santa includes an adorable wooden sled to showcase your stitch.

                                                                        

For our outside the US followers, we have some examples of Sub Rosa's beautiful charts that you can find on Etsy here    You choose a chart and we will purchase it for you.  Or, you can pick from any other Etsy seller who sells PDF charts.   So have fun and find one you love.   Here are just a few to tempt you:  

This one is adorable for all stitchers.  We are ordering this one for sure.

How about a strawberry pattern for the summer months?

We know we have bee lovers...isn't this one sweet?

Or how about a new holiday chart?

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Stitcher's Choice
We were unable to get our June Stitcher's Choice Post done in time so we thought we would add it to this post.   We followed our "Christmas in July" theme and made some Christmas stitches for our projects. 


RJ's Stitcher's Choice

I have finally started to finish my French Christmas Village ornaments.  What took so long you ask?  Well, I just could not make up my  mind on how to finish them.  Should I use the same fabric on all 15 of them or mix the fabrics up?   Should I do them all in the same finish or mix them up?   I played and played around with ideas and finally decided on using the same finish for all but doing a different fabric on each one.  The fabrics all come from one group from French General called "Petites Maisons de Noel".   Here is the collection I will be choosing from: 

Well things weren't working out too well as I finished my first ornament.   My small jingle bells did not arrive in the mail and I didn't like the ribbon. I wanted to run out to the store but we were having a huge storm and were advised to stay home.  

It is kind of done but I will change some things later.   I will add a ribbon tie and bow with tiny jingle bells at the top.  And, instead of a button on the yo yo I would like to try a jingle bell there too.   So far, I put the herringbone stitch on the ornament and a  yo yo with button .   More to come later with added changes.

Herringbone stitch and yo yo added

Florist
Hometown Holiday series
by Little House Needleworks
40 ct. country mocha linen
called for floss

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Mary's Stitcher's Choice

My Stitcher's Choice is "Santa's List" by Country Cottage Needleworks.  To assemble this fun stitch, I cut a piece of matboard to the size of the opening, covered it with fleece, and then placed the stitch on the matboard.   I left about a half inch of extra fabric that was wrapped under the matboard.  Then, I glued it to the frame.

I did not care for how the edges looked so I hand sewed cording to the stitch while it was in the frame.  That little frame spins around so it made for quite the sewing challenge.  A little checked bow adorns the stitch.

Cute swivel frame I found in Michaels

Santa's List
by Country Cottage Needleworks
40 ct. country mocha linen
called for floss
frame from Michaels

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We hope you liked our give a way and will be signing up.  As always, we thank you so very much for coming by to visit with us today.   Your visits and comments mean so much to us.  We will be by to see all of you and what you have been up to.  This was our "Christmas in July" themed post but next post will be dedicated to our patriotic stitches.   Have a lovely week and keep stitching!


                                                            Stitching Friends


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