Announcing Subscriptions.....and a big giveaway!

When teaching workshops large and small, one question that I get asked a lot is "what's your favorite stitch?"  Although in a lot of the workshops I teach I often introduce an array of fancy stitches, I must admit that in my own artwork, my favorite stitches tend to be three simple ones- the back stitch, the french knot, and more recently, couching.  I am, like most people, susceptible to ruts.  The back stitch has always been my favorite.

Somewhere along the line of this year's workshops, I thought it would be fun to introduce a challenge- a routine-busting plan to help me and everybody else break out of their stitch ruts and try some new ones.  From that idea and from a particularly helpful phone call with my friend Jill*, the idea for an Embroidery Subscription was born.  I've spent the last month or so (including some very windy days in the midst of a Hurricane) drawing a series of samplers. Each one highlights a different family of stitches, starting with these first two- the Filling Stitches and Couching Stitches, stitched on our Thanksgiving road trip.  Special thanks to Katy for driving so that I could embroider, and special thanks to my mom for finishing the first one  when my hands couldn't stitch any longer!

Subscriptions are now available in 3, 6 or 12 month increments, and will begin mailing out on the fifteenth of each month, starting in January.   You can begin a subscription at any time. Each five inch sampler fits perfectly in a five inch hoop, and can easily be finished within a month's time, just in the nickle of time for the next one to arrive!  At the end of the year, you will have stitched the vast majority of your average embroidery how-to book.

These subscriptions are of course available as gifts, please make a note in checkout and I will send a handwritten card (with your note if you leave me one) letting the recipient know who it's from....

I've got lots of exciting ideas in store for these subscriptions, and I can't wait to see how you all complete them.  To a year of new stitches...........

Now for the fun part!  I have teamed up with Creativebug to offer one lucky reader a combination Sampler Subscription and Creativebug Subscription.  You'll win a month of instruction and three months of samplers, delivered right to your inbox and front door!    There are three ways to enter to win....

This Contest is now closed- but you can still use the discount Holiday2012 for 10% off everything, including Subscriptions, in the shop.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/dropcloth

I can't wait to see what you're working on, and I can't wait to spend a year exploring new ways of mark making with you.  If you're so inclined, please do enter all three ways!  


*If you are excited about the idea of a subscription but are more of a knitter than an embroiderer, please do check out Jill's amazing hand dyed yarn subscriptions....I'm no knitter but her colors are dreamy....