Bonjour, my friends!

This morning, for the 6th installment of this year’s Stitcher’s Christmas series, we’re heading over to The French Needle!

Today’s give-away is pretty exciting, especially for those of you who might be a wee bit like me and a little bit infatuated with sparkly things! Or if you just love thread…

First, we’ll talk about today’s Christmas gifts, and then I’ll announce the winners of this past Wednesday’s give-away. So read on, s’il vous plaît!

I’m excited to see that The French Needle has recently taken on the whole line of Au Ver a Soie’s metallic threads and are making them available individually. In past years, they’ve been available in color sets, but now, you can pick up individual spools. And that’s a good thing!

I’ve written about Au Ver a Soie’s metallics off and on here on Needle ‘n Thread, and pretty much any time I use metallic threads, those are the metallics I’m using. They are far superior to similar metallics on the market. Because of their “engineering,” they hold up to surface embroidery on regular fabric better. I used these threads extensively in my Snowflakes projects and in this year’s Mini Sampler Stockings projects, so if you’ve taken an interest in those designs, you’ve probably heard of the threads!

In conjunction with the folks at Au Ver a Soie, The French Needle has offered a large set of Au Ver a Soie #8 metallic braid for today’s give-away. The set includes many beautiful colors of lovely #8 metallic braids – all for you to play with to your heart’s content!

The #8 is the heavier of the two popular sizes of their tresse metallic braids, with #4 being the finer size. I like both for surface embroidery – the #4 is for delicate touches, while the #8 makes a slightly bolder statement.

For today’s give-away, the first randomly drawn name will receive the above collection of #8 Au Ver a Soie metallics.

The second randomly drawn name will receive a a lovely spool of Maison Noel’s fine metallic gold thread – which is a polyester and polyamide thread finished with gold, that can be washed and ironed (from the back), so it can be used on even household linens. It’s a very fine thread, to be used singly in a #8 or larger crewel needle, and it is perfect for little gold accents on your favorite embroidery.

This winner will also receive a couple beautiful micro threaders from Kiriki Press. These pretty and functional tools will help you thread your embroidery needles, and they’ll also make you happy to see them in your tool box, because they’re pretty! I love the look of these threaders! I haven’t tried them yet, but I’m familiar with Kiriki, so I’m confident it’s a well made product!

Give-Away Guidelines

If you’d like to participate in today’s give-away, please follow these guidelines!

1. Please leave your comment below, on this article on Needle ‘n Thread. If you are reading this in the newsletter, you can reach the comment form directly by following this link.

Comments left on any other post on Needle ‘n Thread or sent by email are not eligible. Please do not leave your comment as a reply to someone else’s. Replies cannot be included in the count. If you are unsure how to post a comment without replying to someone else, please just click the link provided above to go to the comment form. Thanks!

2. Make sure you leave a recognizable name or nickname on the Name line on the comment form. Anonymous comments don’t count. Please do not leave personal information like email addresses, mailing addresses, or phone numbers in the Comment part of the form. When you do, I have to go in and edit that information out – unless you want spam, or strangers picking up your phone number, email address, mailing address (which you don’t, I’m sure!).

…but please do make sure that your email address is entered correctly on the Email line of the form. This is not visible to anyone but me, and it is not used for anything except the purposes of this give-away (if you win, I need to be able to contact you).

3. You may only enter once.

4. In your comment, please answer the following:

If you had to pick one (and only one) favorite embroidery stitch, what would it be, and why?

5. Leave your comment by 5:00 am Central Standard Time, Monday, December 14th. The winner will be randomly drawn and announced on Monday morning, when the next give-away in the series takes place. I will also contact the winners by email.

Please note that your comment may not appear right away on the website. I review all the comments that go on the website, to keep unseemly content off the website. If your comment does not show up immediately, please don’t fret. It will show up as soon as I have a chance to moderate comments.

Wednesday Winners!

And now, that moment you’ve been waiting for…

The randomly drawn recipients of Wednesday’s little gift bundle, which includes a book, some linen, a handmade ornament, and other delectable bits and bobs that I’ll package up and send along, are:

Bonnie Womac and Terry K!

I will contact you both by email to get the particulars!

Looking Forward

On Monday, we’ll be talking color in embroidery! If you love color, or if you have a hard time choosing colors that go well together, you’ll love Monday’s give-away!

We’ve been prepping more ready-to-stitch sets this week, so I’ll be adding those to the shop probably on Monday morning. If you’ve been waiting, keep an eye out for them!

See you next week!