44 Cent Swap, part II

Mama made a contribution to the envelope going to my swap partner: three chicks in sunglasses and calico cloaks. She did not stitch this; it was in a container of stuff she got for $2 at a garage sale. The original piece was a bit larger and would not fit in the envelope, so I thought to cut it down into a bookmark. A bit of Stitch Witchery later and it was done. The backing fabric also came from Mama's stash.

I'm planning on including several skeins of overdyed floss, some trim, a tiny pastel striped binder clip, some beads and a beading needle, and a magnetic smiley face. Some of this may come out if the weight is over 1 ounce.

[Note: The tiny binder clip had to come out. :o( The envelope was just a smidge over weight. How much is a smidge? The weight of a tiny binder clip. The envelope and contents, sans binder clip, was 1.0 ounces.]

[Note II: Partner received her envelope - with postage due! :o( Seems the contents shifted during the mailing process and it no longer met the 1/4" thickness requirement. Just like cereal, some settling ocurred during shipment. Guess I need to remember to tape everything to the inside of the envelope next time.]

44 Cent Swap

I've signed up for the 44 Cent Swap over on Craftster. The idea is to put as much as you can into an envelope to send to a partner and still stay within the limits of a single 44¢ first class stamp. One of the goodies that I'll be sending to my partner is a needlebook I made this evening. It's about 2.5" x 2.25". I designed the chart for the owl this afternoon at the office while I was waiting for a test to complete. (Busy hands are happy hands!) I'll also be including some over-dyed floss, some ribbon and some hand-tatted trim. No, my hands didn't do the tatting.

This is the inside of the needlebook. Have I said how much I love Stitch Witchery? It really saves a lot of time putting a backing on a piece. It doesn't take a real long time to do a nun stitch or a buttonhole/blanket stitch around a needlebook, but the Stitch Witchery is fast. And the fused fabric really does look good.

Where have you been?

It would take a very long time to explain the lack of posts for the last *cough* six months. To quote a friend, "I could complain but it wouldn't do any good." So, let's pick up like nothing happened.

I've joined the Totally Useless SAL hosted by Yoyo at Dragon My Needle. This is a first for me but she's been so sweet and kind, it should be a lot a fun. The idea is to keep all your stitching orts in a clear glass container and post pictures of it on the new moon of every month. Since Flossy Lady (the blog, not me) was inactive last month, she posted my entry for May's new moon. Now that FL's going again, I felt it was only fair to post May's picture, too. Thanks for the help, Yoyo!

The huge ball of orts came from the massive frogging that took place with the SGD practice piece. A lot of perle cotton and Watercolours went into that ball. And then it was just the usual orts from stitching using the Jade Watercolours. Lots of scraps for a lot of stitching. When the finishing is finished I'll put up a picture.

What else has been going on? Well, stitching buddy AS was in dire need of a needlebook, so I made one for her using her favorite colors. I'm happy to report she was delighted with it.











NA in Germany was a Craftster swap buddy back in the winter. She was a sweetie and sent along some extra goodies so I made another little pin cushion/box to send along to her. This was one of those unfinished blond pine boxes from the craft store. I stained it using green neon food coloring, added rub-on transfers and then varnished it. Then I stitched up a circular poof and ta-da! pin cushion/box. She should be receiving it tomorrow; the post office said it would take about a week. Hope she likes it!

'Nuff for tonight; I'll post more pictures tomorrow.