February Contest for "Snow Days" and Final Part 3 Tutorial!

I'm happy to say that "Snow Days" is finished! The pattern for this cute 14" candle mat is on its way to the printers, so it's time for your chance to win your FREE copy between now and February 26, 2012.  Winners will be announced on Monday, February 27, so be sure to enter to win (and tell your friends too)!  I'm sorry the picture is a bit fuzzy--me and my camera are going to come to an understanding this weekend!

"Snow Days" Pattern for 14" Candle Mat



The winner will receive a free copy of "Snow Days" by choice of snail-mail or instant download. There's lots of ways to enter, and you can do ONE or ALL of the following to get up to four chances to win:

• Leave a comment on this blog = 1 chance to win!
• Become a follower of this blog = 1 chance to win!
• Get a friend to leave a comment or become a follower of this blog (let me know who your friend is) = 1 chance to win!
• Share this blog post on your Facebook page (there's a little Facebook link in the left-hand column of this blog) (be sure to let me know) = 1 chance to win!

Good luck everyone, and I wish you ALL could be my lucky winner! In the meantime, if you would like to pre-order your own copy of "Snow Days" shipped to you as soon as it's back from the printers, just drop me an email at melanie@americanpiedesigns.com and I'll add you to my list. Regular price is $9.99, but pre-order price is only $7.99, which is good until I announce the winner of the contest on February 27.  Of course, If you preorder and happen to win, I'll refund your money!

Part 3 (Final) of "Snow Days" Tutorial

It's time to finish the tutorial for making your own "Snow Days" candle mat. In Part 1 and Part 2, we cut out the template pieces from wool or wool felt (depending on your preferences and budget), stitched the snowman heads to the scalloped background, and began embellishing their faces and hats with simple embroidery stitches.

This is where it really gets fun!  I love to embellish with embroidery stitches, but a friend of mine told me the candle mat looked hard to do.  That's when I realized this pattern might be scaring some people!  Please believe me, this project is not hard to do--in fact, the stitches are incredibly simple and are completely illustrated in the pattern. They are easy up-and-down straight stitches and some knots. Easy-peasy! And remember, there are no embroidery police watching and you don't have to do all the embellishing that's suggested in the pattern. Perhaps you like your snowmen to be a bit cleaner and less detailed? Or maybe you don't want to add the snowflakes?  It's perfectly fine to stop embellishing at any point in your design and it will still look great!

Once the snowmen are finished, your project probably looks pretty lumpy and bumpy and you might be a little worried, but a simple steaming with a nice steam-iron on the back of your candle mat will make all your stitches flat and even!

Next, the navy scalloped background piece is placed against a larger deep red scalloped piece and the two are blanket-stitched together.

Snowflakes are then added to the center of the mat with randomly-placed french knots, which are also illustrated in the pattern (yes, the knots are sewn through both the navy and red scalloped backgrounds). Last, I added a cream-colored scalloped backing made from craft felt (to cut the cost) and stitched the edges together with cream embroidery floss.

One more steaming--using a thin cotton dish towel to protect your candle mat--and voilà! you are finished!

The full tutorial for this pattern will appear on my website in a couple of days, which is also going through a major overhaul to include links to this blog and some other improvements I hope you'll enjoy. For now, I'm back to the drawin' table, as I'm dreaming up a yummy Halloween table runner that I hope you'll love!  In the meantime, Happy Stitchin'!  --xoxo, Melanie