wimschouten23dingen

Hello!  I hope all of you are enjoying some beautiful fall weather.  It is just gorgeous here in NC.  (Except for all the leaves in my yard.) I recently won a giveaway from Shelly (An Arizona Stitcher) and boy was she generous! My package had a patriotic theme and you all know I love me some patriotic stuff.  :o) I was thrilled when the first thing I saw was this:   I have never seen these.  Isn't the packaging cute? But that wasn't all....there were multiple packages wrapped individually.   There are lots of trims and ribbon.  Red buttons.  And I just squealed when I saw the needle minder with my initial and the little red scissors.  She also included the floss to stitch the LK design (I didn't have any of those) and the Book of Days.  Thank you so much again Shelly for offering such a wonderful giveaway!   I also received a Halloween package from my dear friend Norma.  A fabulous Halloween Mug Rug!...

I'll start this post by saying I am not a linen or floss snob.  More often than not I'll stitch with DMC and use whatever linen I have that is large enough no matter the count or the manufacturer.   I tend to prefer stiffer linen and if it is a bit rough I don't care. When I was selecting the ornaments I wanted to stitch from this year's JCS ornament issue Plum Street Samplers Stocking really caught my eye.  I decided to order the Lakeside 36 count vintage cedar plank linen so mine would look just like the model.  Well, I had a tough time finding the 36 count but was able to get the 40 count in the same color.  In the past, the Lakeside linen has been floppy and soft to me so I starched it before I started stitching. I am in love with this linen.  It is the perfect vintagy, blue-grey with tan undertones.  I only bought a 9 x 13 cut and am wishing I had more.   Isn't it swell?!  The picture just doesn't do it justice.   And here is m...