DE-STASHING CONTEST – Craft Gossip

I’ve found another batch of books from my stash that I want to GIVE AWAY. Hot Diggity! Another contest is born.

annies-pattern-club-number-43 This is Annie’s Pattern Club #43. In this batch, there are 5 other Annie’s Pattern Club books and a digest sized Red Heart ‘Super Simple Fashions to Knit and Crochet’. These are all in great condition and in need of a good home. Could that home be yours??

To win this stash batch, you gotta jump through a hoop or two. Here’s the contest:

Planning ahead to Christmas. We have to start now if we want to crochet some great Christmas gifts. What I want you to do is find a special Christmas themed doily that’s a free pattern somewhere on the internet. Post a LINK and the NAME of the doily (if it has a name) in the comment section of this blog article. In addition, send an email to me ([email protected]) containing your name, snail mail address, and the link to the doily pattern.

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON please! Any skill level, size, or shape doily is fine so long as it’s Christmas themed. That would include things like angels and snowmen in addition to Christmas trees, stars, Santa, reindeer, elves, etc. So, while the category is flexible, it needs to be clearly linked in some manner to Christmas.

Further, I’d LOVE for you to find a doily that is special to YOU and some tradition or heritage shared in your home. Please include that information – say, you’re of Swedish heritage and you find a doily that contains a traditional Swedish Christmas theme. Briefly explain the reason the design is special to you so that we’ll all understand. No need to write a book, here. Just a brief explanation should suffice.

REMEMBER THAT THE WINNING ENTRY WILL BE DETERMINED BY ME ALONE. I have my prejudices. That’s just the way it is. DO NOT SEND THE LINK OR PHOTO IN AN ATTACHMENT. BE SURE TO PUT ‘CROCHET CONTEST’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE, PLEASE!

Hope I’m not making this too complicated. It should be FUN rather than work. I’m looking forward to seeing what you send me. BTW – a link to an original design of your own is fine. Does not have to have been previously published on the web.

PLEASE BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR SNAIL MAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR EMAIL TO ME!

PLEASE honor design copyright guidelines (laws) and do not link a pattern from a page depicting a published work appearing in a book or magazine – the kind that one can find easily on Russian sites (and others too). These will be deleted, rendering your entry ineligible. Entries linked from other free pattern sites are fine as are entries from blogs, other websites, and other online sources offering free crochet patterns.

The contest will run from today through Saturday, August 15, 2009. Winner will be announced shortly thereafter.

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I love seeing different ways that cross stitch can be worked on unusual surfaces, from strainers to chain link fences and more. One slightly more common way to add cross stitch to your home without using cross stitch fabric is to stitch on a chair base.

Chairs that have woven ratan backs and/or bases are a marker of mid-century design through the 1970s and ’80s, but there are a lot of options currently for sale if you don’t want to hunt one down at a vintage store or garage sale. Because the open blocks are built into the furniture, it’s not that difficult to imagine what cross stitch will look like on the surface.

If you have a chair you want to stitch on, or you just want to be inspired by other people’s work, check out this tutorial from Bobo Stitch all about how to stitch on a chair base. The chair they used has a round base and a long oval piece on the back of the chair that had space for stitching. (They found it on eBay.)

The post walks you through all the tools you will need to be able to cover your chair with cross stitch. They actually used ribbon to do the stitching, but you could use wool yarn or even thick cotton yarn if you wanted.

It doesn’t look like a super difficult project but I can see how it might be tedious because it’s not as easy to stitch on a chair as it is to stitch on fabric. And if you are doing a set of chairs this won’t be a quick project, but it’s well worth the effort if you want to add a bit of color and funky boho style to your chairs.

Would you do this to a chair? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Bobo Stitch]

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