50 Followers Giveaway!

Did you love these?

Do you want a set of these for your bathroom?

To celebrate reaching 

50 followers 

I'm giving a set of these hand embroidered towels away!

The winner will receive:

one set 

of 

custom monogrammed 

chocolate brown

hand towels

They will look something like this...

only brown(duh!) 

and 

with your choice 

of initials!

Mandatory entry: 

Be a follower of NekoKnits

(1 entry)

Extra Entries:

"Like" NekoKnits on Facebook - 1 entry

Follow Ginger Snap Crafts - 1 entry

Blog, Tweet, of Share this giveaway on Facebook 

and you get 1 entry each!

Giveaway closes June 17th

This giveaway is now closed.

Made by Hand, Given From the Heart

I'm sure you have all been up all night wondering why on earth I would need monogram patterns.

Ha! I only wish, I only like to pretend I am that important. 

But, here as promised is my explanation.

A gal I work with s getting married and the office is throwing her a wedding shower. The problem is I am kind of broke having just paid off my last semester of tuition, and as much as I want to give a stunningly amazing gift, I simply cannot afford it.

So this is where I get crafty, literaly. 
I take these very blah and not so amazing white hand towels,

Hand Towels Set of 2 $2.99 at Target

Add some DMC Satin embroidery floss in Mother of Pearl, some waste fabric and a few hours of staring at my computer screen 

and 

Voila!

You now have a 

stunning set of hand monogrammed hand towels for the lovely new couple to be.

Here's a closer look at the custom monograms 

I did on these towels.

The letters came from a vintage chart on Handmade Adelaide Baby which were so pretty on their own I decided to make the monogram very simple. The leaf design was borrowed from a piece of traditional Swiss embroidery I saw in a book and then charted out on a pattern maker that I downloaded onto my computer.

The DMC Satin floss has an amazing sheen to it that gives the monograms some richness and really pops on the white towels. It was very easy stuff to work with and looks like a million bucks. 

For this project I used 14 count waste fabric and 3 strands of floss (meaning I split the floss in half) so that I had a nice heavy embroidery that stands out nicely.

Here's the best part 

this is what I spent:

Hand Towels Set of 2 - $2.99

DMC Satin Embroidery Floss - 99 cents

Waste Fabric - $ 1.99

-----------------------------------------

Grand Total = $5.97

Even better I still have a ton of the floss and most of the package of the waste fabric, which means I can make more of these!

This is a great project for wedding gifts, baby gifts and even graduation gifts. Who doesn't love getting something made especially for them.
And if you shop carefully, they can be very thrifty.

I really hope the happy couple likes their gift!

Surfin' Saturday

Firstly, 

welcome to the Surfin' Saturday Blog Hop. 

This is hosted by Chubby Cheeks Thinks, Two Monkeys & a Washtub,  and  The Coupon Challenge and Dandy Giveaway! 

This is a great way to find new blogs.

So hop on over and take a look at those who have linked up and link yourself up.

Now,

on to my issue this morning.

First,there is no coffee and the car is being borrowed, thats just wrong!

Second, I am looking for cross stitch monogram patterns. 

For anyone who is wondering what the heck I am talking about, monograms used to be more than just a set of initials that got stitched onto towels or your shirt pocket.

Monograms were artistic, half the beauty of them was the intricate bordering and detailing involved. 

Like these beautiful vintage reprints,

image property of Handmade-Adelaide-Baby.com

image property of Handmade-Adelaide-Baby.com

I found these on Handmade Adelaide Baby where lovely Miss Adelaide, a mom herself, keeps a plethora of great ideas for home made baby gifts and other frugal tips.  

Just my kind of lady! 

There are several more charts containing alphabets and borders. Each set of charts are available to download from her site as PDF's, which makes them able to be enlarged when viewed. Believe me it makes it way easier to read the stitches.

If you have never cross stitched before and want to try a simple initialed item is a good starting point because of how small the project is and it doesn't usually require any switching of colors. It will give you good practice on counting and stitching that will be useful for larger more intricate projects.

Believe me it's not that hard, I taught myself how to cross stitch with a booklet and a little help from my friend Tina. If you stay tuned I'll post a few tips and pointers over the next week.

Oh yes, I bet you want to know what I needed those patterns for,

I'll show you tomorrow!

Another blog hop
I joined! 
Take a peek 
make new friends.