Winners and a Scarlet Letter Year

First of all, the announcement of the winners of my 300 Followers Giveaway.  I offered a choice of charts and kits all from the UK magazines I subscribe from.  I asked each person to choose their 3 favourites and leave a comment with the numbers 3 or 300 in it.

First out of the pack was:

Tadamama aka Katy who chose prizes 1, 2 and 9

Next out was:

Bengal Cat Lover aka Linda who chose prizes 3, 4 and 5

Then it was:

Kerry P who liked 8, 10 and 12

So that left prizes 6, 7 and  11.

Rosey175 will be getting number 6 and Linda SUch is Life will get number 11.  Sadly no-one asked for poor little Boofle so he goes back in the box for another time.

I've got the addresses of everyone now so prizes will be sent out once I get some A5 envelopes.  I have discovered my Post Office treats padded envelopes as "Small Packages" and charges a minimum fee of £3.30 international instead of calling them "Letters" and charging much less.  So I need to make sure these are letters instead if possible!

Stitching news now, not much been going on, my daytime project is a cat and pumpkin from Silver Cute Dwarf's blog and here's the progress:

I took it to Preschool with me but ended up writing the labels for their Santa presents, making a King and his camel from coloured paper and reading the Nativity Play for the rehearsal instead of stitching!!

My evening project is very boring.  It's the borders for the Large Mira RR starting January.  I'll post when I've done.  Imagine long rows of 3042 and you've got the idea.

On Tuesday I got a very intriguing email from Nicola of Stitching by the Cornish Coastline.  Could I help her with a new project please?  We chatted and I agreed to help out with the admin of a new blog for her Challenge.  In a nutshell, Nicola is celebrating a special Birthday next year and plans to make it a real Red Letter Day, or rather a Scarlet Letter Year.

Scarlet Letter design reproduction samplers available either as charts or fully kitted in DMC or silks.  There are over 300 to choose from in varying degrees of difficulty.  There is a nice range of small designs too, ideal as starters for people short of time or experience!  Nicola has highlighted a few of her favourites on her blog.  I set up the bare bones of the blog on Thursday and Nicola announced it the same day.  To our utter amazement over 40 people have signed already!  To join in the Challenge you must complete a Scarlet Letter Sampler by 1st February 2014, so you have over 14 months to get stitching.  Each month Nicola will do a draw of everyone who posted that month so there's the chance to win prizes throughout the year too.

The samplers are available direct from Scarlet Letter in the USA, various LNS and some websites listed on this Scarlet Letter page.  Luckily for us UK stitchers the Wye Needlecraft store is one of the places.  Their website shows prices for kits but if you email or phone they will supply the charts only if you prefer.

So if you want to join in with the challenge, just click on the following Scarlet Letter Logo, read the challenge rules and email me for an invitation.

Finally, my own Advent Calendar will be starting soon.  I have just one place left if you're interested drop me an email.  Hubby gave me the devastating news that the computer will be unavailable for 24 hours from midday 3rd December but that's ok I'll cope as long as I can get to it on the 4th!!

  

As One Draw Closes Another One Opens

Did you see what I did there with the title?  Clever huh?  LOL at myself.

The draw closing is the Hallowe'en Blog Hop Mystery Phrase.  The answer was, of course, Witch's Cauldron.  A Big Thank You to everyone who posted pictures and their letter, you get one entry in the prize draw for that.  Another Big Thank You to everyone who played the game, you get one entry in the prize draw for that.  The Random Number Generator Boy was pressed into service to choose the Winner -

DJH

DJH is a new blogger only starting her blog in September this year so pop over there and say Hello!  She helpfully has a first post entitled abcs of me which gives me plenty of information to decide what she has won.  I don't have an email address for you, DJH, so hopefully you'll read this and get in touch with your address so I can send a little something to you.

The next draw opening is my 300 Followers Giveaway - ta-dah!!  I have plundered my box of cover gifts to offer 300 prizes.  oops strike that!  I  will be offering 3 bundles of 3 prizes.  That's better.  All you have to do is choose your three favourites items from the following pictures and leave a comment containing something about you using the number 3 or 300.  So you might say "Congrats on 300 followers" or "I currently have 3 BAPs on the go" or "I will never stitch all my stash if I live to be 300".  Anything you like as long as it has 3 or 300 in the sentence.
Oh yes and you must be a follower!

So here are the choices:

Number 1 - Fizzy Moon Stocking kit, includes materials and chart

Number 2 - Fizzy Moon Flowers kit, includes materials and chart

Number 3 - Koala kit, includes materials and chart 

Number 4 - All Our Yesterdays, four Christmas themed charts

Number 5 - Margaret Sherry chart, includes all 26 letters not just R B and G!

Number 6 - Lickle Ted kit, includes materials and chart

Number 7 - Boofle chart only

Number 8 - Robin, includes materials and chart

Number 9 - Reindeer cards kit, includes materials and chart

Number 10 - Festive Doves kit, includes materials and chart

Number 11 - Gingham Hearts kit, includes materials and chart

Number 12 - Star Garland kit, includes materials and chart

Once I have all the names and choices I will randomly pick one person to receive their choice of three gifts, then I'll remove all the names who also choose those gifts and select a second person from the names left, then I'll remove all the names who also choose those gifts and select a third person from the names left.  That way everyone received their top three gifts.

The mathematically-minded will have spotted there will be three gifts left over.  If by some random serendipitous chance anyone has chosen those three then they will get them, if not then I'll draw names and three people will get one each.

Complicated?  Not much, just be grateful all you need to do is make a choice and leave a comment containing either 3 or 300!!  I'll concentrate on my lovely spreadsheet of names.

Finally, the Advent Calendar Blog Hop will be starting on the 1st of December, same format as last year - sign up and be allocated a date.  Post a stitched Christmas picture on your date plus a comment about the festive season.  You can email me now if you like stating if you have a preference for an early date or later in the month or any dates you can't do.  I'll be posting about it regularly and adding a logo soon!