needlework essentials :: needle minder

As part of Esther’s grand campaign to convince us to join her in the OUAT Sampler, she added us to the official Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery group on Facebook. Aside from all the pretty stitching, there was lots of other inspiration, in the form of cute little needle minders that kept popping up. Seriously, how did I not know about these before? With most of my stitching sessions starting with me flicking up various corners of my work trying to find where exactly I’d left my needle, the discovery of these magic little pieces of pretty was a no-brainer in the kick-the-mojo-in the-rear-end department. A packet of craft magnets to get me started from the craft store turned out to be a dud after the magnets turned out to be somewhat one-sided (which still doesn’t make sense to me, but empirical evidence suggests that sensible or otherwise, one sided they are). So I popped down to Bunnings and found me a couple of packets of magnets, and that attempt was much more successful. With the help of my Big Shot, I cut out some cardstock circles, and while Butterfly made a mess of the craft box beside me, I started adding layers of paper and paint and copics and more paint and ink and glue, and in general had a wonderful time, and loved the results.

The next issue was, I had made 8 of them, with some little RAKs in mind, except the magnets were quite strong and I had the vision of all my hard work ending up stuck to the inside of the mailbox, or the processing equipment and being lost forever. I had some spare bubble mailers to hand, so with the addition of a calligraphied backing card, a cello bag, a fitted bubble wrap cover on both sides and then inside a bubblewrap postpak, I finally had them protected enough that the magnetism didn’t come through.

Then came the nervous wait. The last parcel I received was delivered overnight. So two days after posting, and no word, I started to worry. Three days, and only one had arrived – to Melbourne of all places, which, from my experience, is often the slowest to send to. Finally, yesterday, I was flooded with messages and pictures as they all started arriving, and it seems that everyone liked them. Either that, or they were rolling with the “it’s the thought that counts” theory.

I’m loving mine, a little spot of colour in the corner of my hoop, and somewhere safe to keep my needle . Working on this small scale was tricky, but I’m happy with how they looked. And with eight made, one for me, six sent off as RAKs, I had one lonely little one left, and so I’ve popped it up in the Etsy shop if you’d like to claim one for yourself. I have a couple of other little projects I’ve been fiddling with the last week or so that have been fabulous while I’ve been stitching, so I’ll be sure to show them soon.

Today I have big plans in the lead up to the weekend, which means my crafty time will be limited. I have a little Fimo & beading project on the go. I’m hoping to sneak 5 minutes to finish another page on my Project Life album before I fall too much further behind. Everything else will have to give way to kicking back with my two small people, and doing what we have to to make our weekend with all my chickens in the nest awesome. Have a fabulous Thursday!