2009 Winter Stitchery Contest

We asked you to use our pattern to stitch a project for our Winter Stitchery Contest! The first entry we received on January 16th would receive the prize of a gift box from Crabapple Hill, brimming with goodies..................... Well............. At midnight my blackberry started vibrating and ding-donging! A lot of you stayed up WAY TOO LATE at night to hit the "send" button and we thank you! The response was GREAT!!!!

Our first email clocked in at 12:00 from Heidi Brincken of Colfax, WA. She made this pretty pillow (looks like it goes with her decor!) in red & blue. A very patriotic bird just in time for President's Day! She send us a photo of the back of the pillow too. I just LOVE toile!!!! Don't you? Great work Heidi! We're sending you your first place gift box ASAP!!

Four entries arrived next ( I say that because they were all time stamped at 12:01 and were announced on my phone with the same frantic buzzing & ding-ing! LOL!!!) They're all going to receive a small gift box also!
First was Melody Baker from Manson, WA. She said that working on her project added some hope of spring to her dull, dreary, foggy winter. Boy! Can I ever relate to THAT!!! We're all fogged in today too, and a thick coating of ice is covering EVERYTHING! We need spring to arrive in the Pacific Northwest so that everything can be the colors of Melody's pillow! Pink like the apple blossoms and green ..... like everything else!!!! Very pretty Melody!

Next is Cindy Keery from Cilliwack, BC in Canada. Cindy used Weeks Dye Works floss to stitch her design and then made her bag by free motion quilting the front and using heavy weight interfacing on the back. She says her straps were made using the Moda twill tape that ties up Jelly Rolls etc.... REALLY CREATIVE IDEA!!!!! It's a beautiful bag Cindy!

Now comes the pillow made by Jan Thompson from McVille, North Dakota. She sent in her entry with a little note asking....."Do you know how hard it is to stay up til 1AM??????" Yes, we do, & we really appreciate all of you being such good sports!!! Next time our deadline will be.... oh.... 5pm or something........... after all, it's always a bad time for someone, somewhere!! She says that she's working on Hocuspocusville, Tea Party and Heirloom Romance. What a busy girl!!! I'm so impressed!!!! She used Shiva stick paints on the stitchery- SO pretty!... and I love the way she put it diagonally on the pillow & did that ziggy-zaggy border! Really, really cute!! She writes that it's going to be a shower gift.................hmmmm.... wish I was the lucky girl receiving it!!!

One of the other entries we've received is this pocket calendar cover made by Lynn Schumacher of Abita Springs, Louisiana. She writes that she tea dyed the background fabric, appliqued the branch, worked the stitchery in redwork with coiled French knots (bullion?) for the rose, gave the bird definition using trapunto, shaded the bird and leaves with watercolor pencils and then hand quilted it using an echo quilted design... WHEW!!! Lots & lots of work & a very beautiful result Lynn! Have fun using your calendar!

OK!.... Our next beautiful, beautiful project was submitted by Perri Dixon from Goondiwindi, Queensland Australia. Anyone who complained about having to figure out the time difference when sending in your entry should talk to Perri about it......... poor girl even had to figure out which DAY to send it in because they're so far ahead of us where she is!!! Her needlework case is so very pretty!!! The stitching is beautiful & look at the inside of the case! Using the Moda Aviary fabric with the bird's eggs was a stroke of genius!!! Wish I'd thought of it!

Now for Shellee Jensen (Hiccup Girl - we've talked about her before!!) She sent this adorable address book cover with a yellow bird perched on it. How stinking cute is THAT????

This is a sweet little pillow made by Kathi Schaffer. She writes that she had grand plans for her project but the closer it got to the holidays, the smaller in scale the project became. She said " I just know there are others out there whose Christmas projects started in May, become the Thanksgiving terror!" I love the way you finished this Kathi, it's just perfect the way it is!! Love the way you flipped the image for the other side. Very , very pretty!!!

Margaret Westbrook from Birmingham, Alabama sent this cheerful table runner! (Wish we could see both ends!) She did Madiera embroidery on both ends and then pieced with 1 1/2" strips embelished with rickrack. I love the old fashioned look!!!

This contest has been so much fun! We loved seeing your projects & I think it's so cool to see what you can do with a little pattern that has NO directions whatsoever. You're all just the nicest people & so talented!! Thanks SO MUCH!!!!!!! xox Meg