Fall Giveaway!

We are pleased that we have reached 100 followers to our blog!  In appreciation, we are having a giveaway.

Rules, please read carefully!

1.  Guess how many loose Pez candies are encased in this bowl without going over!

2.  Email your guess along with your name and how you can be contacted (if you are the winner) to ArtistandPickers@aol.com

3.  Please do NOT write your guess in the comments of the blog, all entries must be emailed to the above address.

4.  In the event of a tie, the first guess emailed will be declared the winner.

Contest runs from Tuesday, Oct. 19th. to Monday, Oct. 25th at Midnight EST.

Dimensions of the bowl are 12 1/4" wide by 5 3/4" high, if that's any help!

Now for the prizes!  We have gone with a Fall theme and they are as follows.

1.  Needle felted pumpkin from VintageEmbellishment

2.  An original handpainted work of art ACEO from Peppercorns2

3.  Vintage pair of bear salt and pepper shakers from MySeriousSide

4.  Vintage pin and handmade tags from DoodleVintagePlus

5.  10 handmade Moravian stars from JustJanesThings

6.  Hand stitched primitive pumpkin picture from VintageStation

Prizes valued over $70!!!

Thank you so much to those shops that have donated prizes! 

Have fun!

RWS

Primitive Stitching

I love the simplicity of primitive stitching!  There's no rules, you do things the way you want to.

You start out with a pattern, muslin (color of your choice) and a Mark B Gone (these are the fabric pens that disappear when you are done and wet the fabric) pen.

Lay the muslin over the pattern and trace it with your Marks A Lot pen.  If you are having trouble seeing the pattern, you can use a light box behind it all.

Now you start stitching following the lines.  Your stitches don't need to be uniform, that's the fun of primitive stitching.

I used 4 strands for the Happy Fall sign and 2 strands for the rest.  I love using the loop method when stitching so there's no knots on the back.  Only drawback to this is you must use an even amount of strands.

Continue to stitch until finished.  At this point, you can tea dye the fabric or do other methods of your choice to darken the material or make it look old.

This project is on the smaller scale and can easily be done in a few hours during the evening!  Do a larger one for a weekend project.  Either way, they work up quickly.  Most primitive stitcheries use very few colors. 

After dying, press the entire piece and frame.  I use quilt batting to back it and never put glass on them.

I've done so many of these and have always enjoyed doing them.  Believe it or not, I don't have one of these of my own, they are always taken by friends or family members!  I think my favorite ones to do are Halloween primitives!

This one is going to be part of the next blog giveaway!  Hope you like it.
RWS