The Hard Way... back up for grabs

If you're interested in reading the advance copy of my friend Julie's book, The Hard Way, it's back up for grabs again. Stop over and visit Linda, who will be drawing a winner on Friday (tomorrow). And while you're there, be sure to check out Linda's photos of her holiday decorations. She's got some gorgeous vintage pieces on display!

If you want to know more about the book or pick up your own copy, it's available at Amazon.com or most any other book buying source you use. The book even has its own blog - The Hard Way.

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

Okay, maybe not a chicken dinner, but there are flosses to be had, my fellow stitchers. And a bit of news. Since the election went so well yesterday, I was inspired to revisit the skeins of floss I have yet to twist up and put away (yes, they are still on the drying rack in the dining room. I'll get to it, I swear) and pick a few more to give away.

And the flosses go to:

American Girl - Wendy (Wendy Home at Work)

Candy Corn - Jennifer (Running with Scissors)

Sweet Pea - Kathryn (Threads of Desire)

Rainbow Sherbet - Cathey (Pumpkin Patch & Co.)

And the Bonus Flosses -

Election Day and Rock the Vote (similar to American Girl, not as much white): Laura (Maude and Mozart) and Courtney (Santa Stitches)

More Candy Corn (as fun as this was to make and as cool as it turned out, I am just not that into Halloween) - Barbara (Mainely Stitching) and Angela (A Bit of This and a Bit of That)

Ladies, please email me at sweetpeastitches @ yahoo.com with your mailing addresses and I will try to have these out to you by the end of the week.

Thank you to everyone who entered and left such wonderful, encouraging comments. I have been mulling over the idea of selling some of the threads, either on Etsy or as custom dyed threads. If anyone is interested in the threads and would like to purchase some, please feel free to email me and let me know. Perhaps we could work something out. I can't guarantee I can exactly replicate the colors, but I can come pretty close, and if you were looking for several skeins of the same color, I'd could dye the entire set at once.

And if you didn't win this time, don't despair. I had a blast dying the threads, and this most likely won't be my last giveaway. Stay tuned to this station for more details. :-)

Thanks also to the lovely folks at Random.org for their ListRandomizer.

Close ups of the floss colors

I thought you might like to see close ups of the floss colors I am giving away. I took these outside this afternoon so I could take advantage of the gorgeous weather we had today, not to mention the sun!

American Girl

Rainbow Sherbet

Sweet Pea

Candy Corn

Blogoversary Giveaway

In honor of my first Blogoversary, I wanted to do a little giveaway. And I thought, what better to give away than something I made myself? I've been itching to try dying my own floss, picking up supplies along with way as they've been on sale. I finally amassed a bag full of floss and the necessary dyes, and went to town. (Yes, there will be a post on this.) To my surprise and delight, it came out VERY well.

I have four flosses up for grabs, each an entire skein of DMC cotton floss, dyed by me.

From L-R: American Girl (red, white and blue), Sweet Pea (pink and purple), Rainbow Sherbet (pink, yellow, orange and green), Candy Corn (yellow, orange and white)

To win one of these flosses, leave a comment on THIS post and let me know which one you'd like. I'll choose one winner by random drawing for each color. And if you like more than one, let me know, and I'll enter your name in all the drawings, but you'll still only win one floss. Deadline for entering is Tuesday, November 4th. I'll pick a winner on Wednesday morning.

As you can see, I was also messing around with creating floss cards / tags for each floss, trying out different fonts and such. (I collect fonts. I love to play with them) DH thought perhaps I could make a small business out of this, and maybe I will at some point, but for now, it's just for fun.

Also, you should note that NONE of these flosses should be considered colorfast. I rinsed them very well until the water ran absolutely clear, then rinsed them again. However, I can't guarantee they won't bleed - no overdyed floss is guaranteed, and I wouldn't suggest stitching anything with them that needs to be washed.

I'd like to send a special thanks to Rachel for posting her methods, as I (mostly) followed them. Thanks, Rachel!