I Won, I Won!

I won the Dinky Dyes "Yellow Knockered Fairy" thread contest! :) :) You can see and read about my entry here. The prize is my choice of 20 skeins of Dinky Dyes silk thread. I'm just bouncing off the ceiling cause I really didn't have the money to splurge for the cottons for the Chatelaine Sampler Mystery starting in Jan. let alone the silks. Now I can do it in silks. You can see all the competition entries here. There were some really nice entries, in fact, I didn't really think I had much of a chance after seeing some of the other great entries.

In other news, I finished my mom's Christmas present for this year. After the bullion knot debacle I decided to do a hardanger pillow for her. I like hardanger for quick yet impressive gifts - if you pick a simple design it will work up quickly yet still cover a large enough area to look like a large project. I finished this in just one weekend, if I wanted to do a cross stitch this size it would probably take a few whole weeks. I used all stuff from my stash too, so it was essentially free for me to do - very important these days. The pattern is from Hardanger burda special magazine issue E-579. If there is a designer and pattern name listed I couldn't find it. I still might add some cord around the edges, but I think it also looks good without. This was the first time I did an envelope back on a pillow and I'm totally converted to that way of finishing pillows now. That way you can wash the covering if you ever need to, and you don't have to fiddle with trying to close the hole you left to be able to turn the pillow right side out after sewing.