And The Winner Is........!!!

Congratulations to Valerie LeBrun from Colorado.  Valerie has won the "Summertime Violets" candle mat!

It became obvious within 2 hours after posting the contest in my newsletter that I made it way too easy to win!

Those ladies who did answer all of the questions correctly had their names put into a hat. My husband, after watching Dexter tonight, picked the winning name.

Here are the answers for the picture match-ups.
  1. Let It Snow
  2. Cat Tails of Love
  3. Jacks & Cats
  4. Christmas Sparkle
  5. Apple Blossoms
  6. Floral Beauty
  7. Tulips
  8. The Melt  This one gave you ladies the most trouble.  A lot of you thought this was "Scarecrow Jack in the Pumpkin Patch"  Close but not correct.  :(
  9.  Love For Ewes
10.  Good Morning Roosters
11.  Witchy Things
12.  Oh Snowy Night

Thank you to all who participated.  I really enjoyed this and I only wish that my fingers could stitch fast enough to stitch up candle mats for everyone!

A Candle Mat Giveaway Contest!

It was a busy day yesterday here at Cath's Pennies Designs.  I sent the newsletter out yesterday morning and the response to the giveaway contest was delightfully fun and unexpectedly grand.
I really should end the contest now, but I did promise to include the blog readers in on the contest chances.
If you didn't sign up for the newsletter, or DID sign up for the newsletter, but didn't receive it yesterday, scroll down and I'll address the newsletter issues later in this post.

Here's a picture of my "Summertime Violets" Candle Mat that I will be giving away to one lucky contest winner...

This finished candle mat measures about 14" across.  It's a one-of-a-kind, which means it's the only one that I will ever make in this color.

 I will  have my "Forget-Me-Nots" pattern ready to sell tomorrow. (Thursday, June 27).

To get a chance to win the pretty "Summertime Violets" candle mat, I'm going to make you do a little work!

Below, you'll see some pictures which are cropped from assorted pattern designs of mine.  You'll need to match these cropped pictures with the picture that it was taken from.

So take a look at the 12 pictures below, then go HERE to my website pattern page to try to match the picture to the design that it was taken from. Make sure to look through all 4 pages of patterns on the website. I now have a total of 48 different patterns so it's going to take some time to find the match.
1.

 

2.

 

3.

 4.

 5.

6.

 7.

8.

 9.

 10.

 11.

 12.

Once you've gathered all of your answers, EMAIL them to me at 

cathspenniescontest@gmail.com

Don't put your answers in the comment section!  

Contest is over at 10pm Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, June 30.

At that time, all winning entry names will be put into a hat and the luck winner will be drawn by my dear husband. Winners will be announced here and also on my website.

Have fun and don't be like my sister and call me up on the phone to whine about how difficult it is!  

In other words, don't make yourself CRAZY trying to figure it out!

Newsletter Info

If you know you've signed up for the newsletter but didn't receive it in your email yesterday, please sign up again.  I've changed the sign-up system now to avoid misspelled email addresses.

Once you've signed up, the system will send you an email which you'll need to confirm that it is indeed your email.

I've had a record number of email bounces yesterday (over 40) due to bad addresses.

Happy Day Everyone!

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EDIT: LADIES!  Please remember to email your contest answers to the correct address:

cathspenniescontest@gmail.com

If it's mailed to my other email address, I have to manually forward it to the correct one.  That takes time AND I might miss your entry because I don't check that address as much.  

My Newsletter Sign-up Time!

Hey y'all, if you haven't already signed up for my emailed newsletter, please do so now.  I'm planning to send out my summer special newsletter either next Monday or Tuesday.  I will be offering some wool stash specials and a contest to win something ... the giveaway is a surprise too.

The emailed newsletter will give readers a little head-start on the contest before it's announced in the blog and on my website.

If you can't remember if you've signed up already, go ahead and sign up again.  Also, if you know that you signed up but have never received a newsletter, sign up again, making sure that your email address is correct.  I get quite a few bounced back to me due to the wrong email address.

To sign up, simply type in your email address in the little box over there on the left sidebar...again, double check to make sure you typed your email address correctly, then click the button that says "sign up" and you're done! 


So, on to some pictures of my almost finished and redone wool room.
It's so organized in there now that I marvel every time I walk in the room to pack up an order.

^^This is looking into the room from the hallway door.  ^^

The cupboard is perfect for storing my bolts of wool. The cupboard shelves hold my yardage wools which are felted and ready to go.  I have the bolts of felted wool on the table shelf (I will be painting that red table soon) in the corner too.

 I sorted all of my wool colors and now store the colors in plastic bins on this shelving unit.
To the left of this shelf is a nice big closet which stores all my mailing and packing supplies. It also stores all of the packaged pattern wool kits. 

 A nice big table for measuring & cutting wool orders.  My old sewing machine cabinet is right under the window. I have an old quilt on it so that the kitties can lay and look out the window in comfort without scratching the pretty wood cabinet.  The kitties love this window and I do believe that they have claimed this room as their own.  It's great that I have no wool exposed now for them to lay on or to play with.  That really reduces the time that I spend with the lint roller on wool.

The large bin under the table holds the pattern kit wools.  Each pattern has it's own ziplock bag which contains the wools that I use to pack kits.  I keep an inventory list now so that I know exactly which colors are running low.  My dye days are much more organized now that I know what colors I will be needing to dye.

 Another big table which I can use for cutting wool and for my computer station.
Best of all, I now have room to keep the ironing board up.  It's so handy having it here in the room.
I have wall book shelves that I will be hanging on this bare wall. Hubby will probably do that for me  this week.

 I've stacked two old chest of drawers.  I have all of my cotton fabrics in the black chest and I have more wool stored in the white chest.  I plan to paint both chest this summer a soft yellow with creamy white accents.  It will due for now the way it is but seeing this picture is a good motivation to get it done soon! 

 I still have some wall shelves to install and other things to hang on the wall, but I want to keep it simple so that it doesn't become too cluttered.  It's only a 11' x 12' space so I'm going to do my best to keep it cleaned and organized just as it is now.

  

That's all for now!  Some of you ladies will be happy to know that I'm working on another flower design. I get so many requests for flowers, I have trouble keeping up!

 This new one is really simple and pretty with a light yellow background,(like my wool room walls) and purple flower colors.  I might change it to blues instead though ...whichever it is, it should be done and ready by next week.

Happy Day everyone!

Trick? Or Treat? <-----New Pattern!

I designed this new Halloween candle mat just for my grandson ....

My grandson loves creepy bugs & snakes and he loves surprises.

He carries plastic bugs in his pants pocket and he loves to scare me by hiding them in different places around our house.  I've found a realistic rubber mouse in my fridge and a plastic spider under my wool project.  Last week during dinner, he tossed a handful of squiggy snakes onto the dinner table!

 This candle mat is my way to squelch his desire to scare me!

The mouths in each of these scarey faces have openings so that 

creepy tricks or sweet treats can be hidden inside.  

It's fun to watch his face as he slowly pushes his hand into a mouth, not knowing what's in there.

The price is $9.00 for the pattern which includes shipping for US & Canada customers.

The design measure 15" across and is shown made with 100% wool. To save on expense, any or all of the wool requirements can easily be substituted with woolfelt.

If you'd rather not pay with a credit card or Paypal, just email me at cathspennies@gmail.com and I'll send you my mailing address.

Wool kits are also available for this candle mat.  The kit price includes the pattern and all of the wool needed to complete the candle mat.  There's lots of hand dyed wool in this one!

Visit my website HERE for the wool kit.

I have to say that this candle mat is the first one, EVER, that my daughter has claimed for herself. She has always appreciated the different candle mats and things that I've made, but it's just not her decorating style to have any in her own home.  This one will be the first!

After I finished making this candle mat, I called my grandson to ask if he would donate a few of his creepy crawly creatures to use for display.  He immediately gathered up all that he could find and brought a large bag full of them for me.  We had fun choosing which creepy creature to use.

 He is so so proud that some of his "tricks" are featured on the pattern front picture . 

My grandson is anxiously awaiting the cicada appearance this summer. I'm NOT looking forward to his cicada pranks that he will surely be playing on me!

Happy Day everyone!

I'm Back!

After watching the dismal end to the Penquins/Bruins hockey game last night ....

I realized that I really missed blogging.  I need to vent and this is the best place to do it.
The Pens lost badly and they're done for this season.  This is the season that I thought....most people thought that they would go all the way.  But for whatever reason, they played badly.  Horribly.  The Bruins are deserving of this sweep.  I'm bitter. I'm embarrassed because they played so badly but I also feel sympathy for what surely is a huge disappointment for the team.

But anyway, I'm back because I need this place to vent.  I need to get back to reading what everyone else is doing. I've missed writing.  Just as my fingers miss stitching after I haven't done it for a while, my brain misses typing out all the things that rattle around in my brain. 
So, I'm back!
I'll start by showing what I've been doing these last few months.
When I last blogged, it was right before Easter and I had to get the dining room cleaned out.  I did get hubby to put up a display board for me so that all of my finished work could be hung properly.

Here's the board that he constructed for me.  It's a square wooden frame which is covered with heavy duck cloth.  I considered burlap but I was concerned that the burlap would stretch over time with all the pinned weight of the candle mats.  Duck cloth is heavy and thick and is working really nicely.
I don't have a picture right now of the candle mats hanging ... I took most of them down to send away for a quilt show and have yet to hang them back up. Later today, I'll hang the models back up and take a picture to show how nice the finished project turned out.
It's perfect for me because now I simply pin the finished candle mat on the board for display instead of flopping anywhere it would fit. 

Once that was done and Easter was over, I was motivated to get more organization done in the house.  My "wool room" which is the room where all of my wool is stored was a disorganized disaster!
I emptied it completely out, painted, had new carpeting installed and bought some shelving.
Here are some pics of the work in progress ....

 This used to be our daughter Jen's room.  She was a really decoratively creative girl even when she was a teenager so I permitted her to redecorate her room however she wanted.  She had the walls & ceiling painted a pretty light chocolate brown.  But with only one window in the room, the color is too dark for my taste so I wanted to brighten it up.

 Jen also hated her pale blue carpeting so one day during her 17th year of life, she purchased lots of packages of Rit Tan dye and guess what she did? ... Yes indeed, she dyed her carpet.  She blames it on the TV show "Trading Spaces" now.  She got the idea from the show.  Anyway, the carpeting, to my dismay and her great satisfaction, became a mottled brown mess.  I hated it every day I walked in that room!  But she loved her finished product so I quietly seethed and have lived with it for the next 10 or so years!

 Here's the finished room.  Pretty pale yellow brightens my spirit every time I walk in now.

 I made some light cotton curtains for the window and the ugly dyed carpeting is replaced with a nice neutral shade of golden brown.

I did have pictures of the room once I added the shelving and storage spaces, but I don't know for sure what happened to them.  It's a lovely happy room now and so completely organized that I marvel at it's wonderfullness everytime I step into the room.  :)

There are more renovations to come soon.  The dining room & living room are next and I hope to have that finished by the end of summer.  The upstairs sunporch will be redone in early fall. 

 I've been so busy with catching up on things around the house, I took a small break from stitching and designing.   I do have a new Halloween design ready to go though and I hope to have it shown on my website by the end of the day and announced/described here on the blog by tomorrow.
Here's a sneak peak of what's to come!

Happy Day everyone and I'll be posting the new Halloween design tomorrow!