French General Goodies

Here are more of the goodies I have been working on this week - twelve more pincushion tuffets....and a new item for my Etsy shop - a Stitch Starter Ruler with Pocket Sleeve. The pincushions shown and four of the Stitch Starter Ruler Pocket Sleeves are made from the fabric line Maison de Garance by French General for Moda. The pincushion tuffets have a pieced top and a wool felt fabric bottom...each has a coordinating wool felt heart embellishment pinned in place with a decorative button pin and two decorative pins (one dark red heart, one white heart). After completing the pincushions, I decided to work on a new item....pocket sleeves for my Stitch Starter Rulers. These pocket sleeves measure 3.5" x 3.5" and hold the 3" square ruler perfectly - they are fully lined with no raw seams...and they use fusible fleece to give them a bit of padding and stability. I have listed the six ruler pocket sleeves shown in my Etsy shop...and I have plans to add quite a few more in the near future...each ruler pocket sleeve purchase will include the Stitch Starter Ruler.

For those of you unfamiliar with my Stitch Starter Ruler:

• It is 2 mil acrylic plastic, making it durable.
• It has marking lines for 1", 2", and 3" seam allowances, so you only need one tool.
• It is clear, making it easy to see your fabric placement.
• It has 1/4" and 1/2" markings on three sides.It has complete 3" ruler markings down the left side - these can be used for: finishing work measurements, measuring between stitched designs, counting threads to figure fabric count
• A stitch Starter Ruler is included in the following Blue Ribbon Designs with charting and instructions to make your own cross stitch sleeve: BRD-100 Holiday Helpings and BRD-097 Blessed Beyond Measure - these two design charts can be purchased at your favorite needlework shop.
• Directions for using the Stitch Starter Ruler

My June "Just Because" Giveaway is still open until Friday at midnight, so if you haven't entered already, visit Tuesday's post for details...

Celebrating 100 Giveaway

It's a happy day....this weekend marks the release of my 100th design (not including magazine and teaching pieces); I am so proud to be a part of the needlework community and I truly thank all the supporters and fans of Blue Ribbon Designs...you keep me encouraged, enlightened, and inspired! To mark this big release milestone, I have decided to host a new giveaway...it is just a little way to say thank you for keeping my dream of Blue Ribbon Designs alive and thriving.

This time, I will be giving away copies of my brand new 100th design titled "Holiday Helpings" (a stitch starter ruler and holiday sleeve designs)...you will get the chart and the ruler...and never fear, if you have already pre-ordered this design, you may choose to receive "Blessed Beyond Measure" (the original starter design with ruler) in it's place.

How to enter:

Simply leave one comment (to this posting) telling me your favorite Blue Ribbon Design and why - for example: it could be the verse, or the colors, or a personal meaning behind the motifs - just tell me a little bit about why it is special to you. Make certain you leave an email address in your comment or it must be visible in your profile - entries without a valid email will be not be eligible...and if you enter anonymously, please also include your first name so I have a way of identifying you, should you win. Please leave only one comment - multiple comments will be deleted/disqualified.

I will choose one recipient for every 50 entries (comments) received....so the more entries, the more winners! For example, if there are 101 entries - I will pick two recipients....if there are 260 entries, I will pick five recipients. Feel free to tell your friends and have them join in on the fun!

The deadline to enter will be 11:59 pm CST, Friday, February 25th. Recipients will be chosen by random draw and posted on my blog on Saturday, February 26th. I will contact the recipients via email - you will have 48 hours to respond, if I do not hear from you in that time, I will choose a replacement recipient. So, there you have it....all the "details" - good luck to each and every one of you...and again, thank you supporting Blue Ribbon Designs - I hope to bring you quality designs for years to come...

Excuses, Excuses....

I know, I know, my posts have been few and far between lately...and I do have (what I feel is) a good excuse...I have been getting the new designs ready for release at the TNNA Fall Needlecraft Market (a large wholesale trade show for needlework shops, designers, and manufacturers) next weekend in St. Charles, MO. I picked up my printed designs several days ago and since then, I have been in a sea of charts, poly bags, and Stitch Starter rulers. Here is a brief look at the floor in my warehouse...keeping in mind some stock has already shipped for display/sales in St. Charles...

I am happy to say, I finished up the last of the bagging last night and now I am on to invoicing, packing, and shipping...so these new pieces will be arriving at your favorite needlework shops soon!

Although time for "me" has not really been an option for the last few days, I did manage to piece the quilt block I mentioned to you in my last post ...it took about 20 minutes to put together, as I had cut it the day before. This is block #4 (September) in the Accuquilt BOTM series I am working on and is called "Hourglass Star". I am super excited to have the first four blocks all complete and will be looking forward to seeing block #5 in October...

I am off to do a little charting tonight - I am working on some teaching designs for 2011...and if I can keep my eyes open, I may do a little prep for my upcoming class at Stitcher's Hideaway. I can't believe I am heading to Mystic, CT in a few weeks to meet two new groups of students...it is going to be a wonderful event...and since this is my first trip to Connecticut, I can't wait to see the area. I still have some work to do on the class kits and binders (and a few surprises), so that will be on the agenda! I will do my best to make time to post this week - I have several things I want to share with you...

"Blessed Beyond Measure" - Stitch Starter & Sleeve Designs

Today I want to share with you a sneak peek of my new design "Blessed Beyond Measure". I am both excited and nervous to share this with you - this design has been a dream of mine for almost 10 years....and I hope you will be as excited about it as I am! First off all...the tool...it is called a "Stitch Starter" and is a 3" square ruler for marking your seam allowance when starting a new project. Here are a few details that make this ruler special:

• It has marking lines for both 1" and 2" seam allowances, so you only need one tool.
• It is clear, making it easy to see your fabric placement.
• It is 2 mil acrylic plastic, making it durable.
• It has complete 3" ruler markings down the left side - these can be used for:
  - finishing work measurements
  - measuring between stitched designs
  - counting threads to figure fabric count
• It has 1/4" and 1/2" markings on the other three sides.

I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of this product - it seriously has been a dream of mine since before I started designing. To go along with this special tool are five sleeve designs - these sleeves are designed to hold your "Stitch Starter". The chartpack will contain: one stitch starter tool, charting for all five "Stitch Starter Sleeves", stitching instructions, complete finishing instructions, and an alphabet/numbers for personalization....it also contains instructions for using your stitch starter (which I will be posting on my website soon...so if you are confused, please be patient - answers will be forthcoming). The sleeve designs would also work great for ornaments, small framed pieces, needlework smalls...you name it. The designs are stitched on 32-count Strawflower from Lakeside Lines with Weeks Dye Works cotton floss....and the finishing is quite easy. In this industry, it can be a struggle to keep needleworkers excited, intrigued, and happy - I am always striving to come up with designs that are unique....designs that will interest and challenge you - I hope this design does the trick! "Blessed Beyond Measure" will be released later this month at the TNNA St. Charles Needlework Market....meaning it will be available from your favorite needlework shop at the end of September/beginning of October....and you, my friends, are seeing it here first!

Las Vegas Vacation - Part 2

I bet you thought I would never return with the second half of my vacation photos...but I finally have a moment to post. I have a good excuse...I've been finishing up the new release design files for my printer and getting caught up on the 984 emails that came in while I was gone on vacation - I am still working on replies, so if you sent me something that needs attention or a response, please be patient with me, I will get back to you. The good news is the three new designs are now at the printer getting ready for production...and tomorrow I will finally be sharing "Blessed Beyond Measure" with you (you know, the new needlework tool and accessories I have been working on). Today, however, I am going to share a few more photos with you from my fabulous Las Vegas vacation...

One of my favorite places to visit on the Las Vegas strip is the Conservatory & Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio Hotel. The current summer exhibit was whimsical and wonderful - an unbelievable gardening exhibit - filled with over-sized flowers and flower pots, gardening tools, bumble bees, ladybugs, butterflies, mushrooms, snails, frogs, and even hot air balloons suspended from the ceiling. I think I took over 100 photos while visiting the Conservatory. Bumble Bees and ladybugs are some of my favorite things...and seeing these large floral "happy insects" immediately made me smile!

One of our most amazing experiences was visiting Valley Of Fire State Park. This is the oldest state park in Nevada and gets it name from red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes 150 million years ago. The vibrant colors and unique formations had us speechless. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this park and stopped at each of the viewing areas along the way. At the Visitor Center, we were totally amused by the white-tailed antelope ground squirrels...we could see what seemed like hundreds of them running all over the rocks and formations. The most adorable thing - they would flatten out on the concrete to cool off (I spoke to a park ranger to find out about this - she also told me they can fan out their tails like umbrellas to shade themselves). I had so much fun watching them - they were super cute! But, the most awe-inspiring thing we saw was a group of four bighorn sheep in their natural habitat in the "White Domes" - we couldn't believe this sight!...and although we were not dressed in the proper attire, nor are we rock climbers, we couldn't resist climbing as high as possible to get an even closer look and some photos - it was truly a once in a lifetime vision. It was a phenomenal afternoon.

I hope you have enjoyed these images from our vacation - I have had so much fun sharing them with you! Remember, tomorrow I will be back with a new post...giving you a glimpse at the upcoming release "Blessed Beyond Measure"....