The Big Giveaway.....official prizes and rules...

PRIZE # 1.... One of my "Rise Above it All" pincushions.... This one is blue velvet and lavishly embellished with a vintage brooch and beads, jewels and trims....... plus a tiny locket... It is 8" tall with a weighted silver base. It will never get lost in your stash.

PRIZE #2..... Keeping with the blue theme, a trio of bluebirds hand-painted my me... Since these are antique mother-of-pearl buttons they are especially luminous and reflect every light source in the room..... thus are very difficult to photograph.. They are only 1" in diameter and have a metal shank in back... Although difficult to tell in the photo they are edged with gold...

Leave a comment on this post and you will be entered in the give-away. You can make a request for either one of the prizes or be willing to accept either... It goes without saying I would love it if you became a follower and visited often. Also make sure I have an email address to contact you - some of you don't have blogs or a published email, and I can't award a prize if I can't contact you!! If you don't specify which prize, I'll just randomly assign you to one of the prizes.

If you mention my blog and the give-away - and post a picture on your blog, you get another entry. Just let me know on this post that you've linked (I will check it out and add you to my blog list) and which prize drawing you'd like to be entered in for your second entry. That's it - maximum two entries per person.

DEADLINE - Tuesday, August 31 at midnight, Pacific Standard Time. I'll go through everything and announced the winners the next day... I figure that is about the time for my 700th post..... I really hope this all works and I'm especially thankful for advice from Pat Winter, Cathy Kizerian, and Kerry Leslie who always have great giveaways.... Help me out here and tell your friends....

Update: The headache and vision problems (blurred and double) seem to be abating and my ribs only hurt when I breathe....

My pincushion hangups... post # 694

Well I read through all the comments and decided on doing two prizes for my 700th post.. I'll post the sign-up day as soon as I photograph the prizes... One will be a pincushion and the second will be a selection of bird buttons.... I will do the rose giveaway in the spring for those interested... These are pincushions that were sold so I will have to see what I have...I'm trying to put some on Etsy also...

I did sell them on a website for a while but I hated the packing and shipping... Once I took them to an art fair and arranged them all on lace tableclothes... They were gorgeous... Even though the table was littered with signs saying "DO NOT TOUCH!!!!" ...guess what...? After all that work I wanted to check everyone's hands to see if they were clean... Then there are cushions I get attached to because it's a special jewel or fabric... Then if some bitchy person wanted to buy it I would snatch it back and say it was spoken for... I wanted only nice people to have my pincushions...

Occasionally I get to do one for a bride with her dress fabric and that is extra special fun. I've used veil fabric, dress fabric and even did one that had the bride's garter as trim..... All have a vintage locket attached as well as layers and layers of trims..

The inspiration for my pincushions that "rise above it all" came from this ad years and years ago in the old Victoria magazine before it went defunct and came back to life... My pincushions were constantly lost amid sewing clutter and I thought this was a great idea and set to work making just like I wanted it. I ended up having the wooden inner core especially cut and all the fabric is lined... I did intend to sell them but more and more I just wanted a whole wall of them.... I will try the Esty venture but people will have to promise to wash their hands before handling their cushion and also to be a very kind person indeed......