I Just Joined An Ornament Challenge!

I am excited to tell you that I just joined a group of stitchers on the web. It is called 2009 Christmas Challenge. They are limited to 100 members so I was very lucky when a space happened to become available. We make one ornament, also known as "ornies", every month.

Leigh L. from Illinois, one of my stitchers from The Americana Stars Memorial, told me about the group during one of our "midnight marathon" sessions. ( After 9pm, my cell phone is free so we can talk and explore the internet at the same time.) I was reading a post on her blog, Dragon My Needle, and which was all about Biscornus (pin cushions) and seeing them really got my creative juices flowing. And then I discovered the other little wonders I could make - pendiboulles and pin keeps.

This is a biscornu she stitched, which is a free design called Cheetah Biscornu, offered on the Cross Stitch Happy blog. It is part of a full 'sewing set'. (Image used with permission.)

Oh, to have something other than stars to stitch that take so little time is a wonderful diversion! The opportunity to broaden my designing repertoire and bring other stitchers around the world into my life is something I could not pass up!

Leigh is also the stitcher who volunteered to help me put together a website for the memorial project. Without her ability to do all of the HTML code, it would never have happened. I could not have gotten as far in the process without her. She has become my mentor, teaching me everything I need to know so I can do the code myself. And yet, she still finds the time for more lessons. I hope you all get to meet her when the project has its first display.

Colleen H. from upstate NY is another one of my stitchers. When she heard I was looking into biscornus and pendiboulles, she sent me links to these wonderful little things. You can see what they are at Linda's photo blog. According to Colleen, she is the queen of biscornus from Reykjavík, Iceland. She does truly beautiful work.

My first project will be a pendiboulle with a pink multicolored star design. There are some very good examples of 'the pendiboulle' on the blog www.mammamaga.blogspot.com, the post is dated December 22, 2008. Click here to see more. This blog is in Italian, so you will have to put the page address through a translator. Google has a good one - a very handy thing to bookmark since so many stitchers are in so many countries.

When I make my first one, I will post it to my blog immediately!

Okay, I have had a long day, so I will say goodbye for now. Next time I will tell you about a couple more stitchers.

See you later! Thanks for reading!