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Winner of the November/December In Stitches sew-along: Flossieteacakes with that couture apron. Isn’t that shot fantastic? Nice work on the sewing and photography. {Note to self: take more time to set up shots. Look how nice your projects can be displayed if you don’t get impatient!}

New book for 2008: Simple Gifts to Stitch. We took a poll. You may have voted, you may not. Either way — we’re pretty sure you are going to love this book.

New project: The Button Scarf, with a photo due in the new photo pool by February 28. I need to sew a couple birthday gifts for cold weather friends, so this frankly, works out perfectly.

New name for this fabulous sew-along: Finn and Donk’s Sewing Adventure. Grab your backpacks and don’t forget your thimbles, this is going to be another fabulous ride through the wild land of Domesticity. We’ll be sewing projects with random winners selected from the pool — so make your photos stand out and feel free to email us with any questions. Thanks so much for playing along!

~Kelli, aka Donk
and my northern California bff: Jessica, aka Finny

P.S. Did you hear about that fabulous Amy Butler contest that you may already have a project completed you could enter? Check out Finny’s blog for details.

– Nico isn’t mine. He is adorable though, isn’t he? I love taking photos of dogs and dream of the day when I have one of my own. My current home (tiny) and schedule (stupidly busy, minus all that sleeping) isn’t keen to good dog ownership at the moment. Fingers crossed these will change in 2008. When I make the great leap into doggielandia, it is more likely to be this variety from this lovely locale. If you want to see a super sweet pooch, I’m in love with Ted from afar.

– In Stitches winners, a new project and more fabulous domestic surprises to be posted Monday! Sorry for the delay. Holidays, travel, etc. Someone was out gallivanting in Italy and needless to say, it wasn’t me. Like how I passed the buck on that one? Hee hee.

Stay tuned. Same batty time. Same batty channel.

~k

I wish for another great sew-along. Finny and I have been amigas since our Lumberjack days. But I think our friendship has gotten even stronger this year through the In Stitches project. It has been so fun to see what others create, to watch photos added the the flickr pool from creative folk living all over the world and to have Amy Butler’s nod of approval. Rock on!

{Fully accepting my domestic dorkiness and loving it.}

This is my November/December project. I used the basics of the patchwork handbag to make a dopp kit for my friend John. With some manly Ikea fabric, grosgrain ribbon for the zipper tabs and some heavy plastic webbing for the handle, I whipped this baby up.

Next time? I will cut the length in half. It is ginormous.

If you haven’t voted for the 2008 sew-along, get on over to Finny’s and let us know what you want to do. I’m dreaming of tunics, skirts and new techniques!

~K

Finny and I have split up the booty (hee hee!) and are each announcing one of the winners of our In Stitches 2007 sew-along. Ms. Amy Butler, the sewing maven herself, perused our Flickr pool to select two grand prize winners. She emailed us how difficult it was! There were so many great submissions.

Jan’s patchwork bag blew us away. The sewing is great, the fabric selection is stellar and she just has such a friendly nature. Apparently she wowed Amy too because she is one of our grand prize winners.She is a sweetheart and her son is in the Peace Corps in Moldova — so their entire family has a special place in my heart. Congrats Jan! Amy is sending you loot! You’ll have to let us all know what you received, you lucky dog. (We’ve already sent them your mailing address. I hope you receive some of these awesome clothing patterns. I would truly love to make this. And this. And, yep, this too.)

The other great winner is being announced here — at Casa de Finny — along with the poll for next year’s project. If you want to play along, and we certainly hope you’ll fire up the Singers and join in the Kumbaya chorus around this crafty campfire, the time to vote is now!

As a reminder, we’re still working on our November/December project. Safe to say I’m ripping off this awesome idea. Meg is so darn crafty and the men in my life don’t read this blog. I’m pretty sure my dad still calls this my blob, actually. So, patchwork bags transformed into dopp kits it is. When we announce the winner(s) for this month’s entry, we’ll post our 2008 project too. Thanks again for playing along and man, I can’t wait to see what Amy sends our winners! Thanks to Amy and her awesome staff too for their generosity.

Cheers,
Kelli

P.S. If you didn’t win, and you are crying yourself to sleep on your big pillah, (name that movie!) check out Funky Finds this week for an awesome giveaway! Jess has some great stuff out there too.

Dear Finny,
Long time, no chat about our happily successful sew-along. Can you believe we’ve received more than 300 submissions in the last 11 months? Even more incredible, can you believe Ms. Butler herself is reviewing these and picking two grand prize winners?
Holy moly. I just cannot get over this. And yes, I am fully aware what a dork it makes me when at happy hour someone asks me what the highlight of my week was and I head straight into, “Well, I’m in this sewing group and this super talented fabric and pattern designer actually emailed me! Can you believe it? Oh my gosh. And she is going to judge our little pool of photos…”
Such conversation, which ultimately always results in the person walking away, rolling his eyes or simply zoning out is man repellent, as my brother so aptly puts it. On the other hand, we have WWF, the latest Mac Leopard/Tiger/Liger details, or football stats. If I can listen to you explain yet again the difference between a linebacker and a tight-end, then you can at least pretend to be alive when I rarely ramble about all things domestic. At least my conversations come with baked goods.
Anyway, for all you In Stitches sew-alongers, I hope your November/December challenge is going well. I am busily sewing a dozen different Christmas gifts and while I’ve thought about what I am doing for this project, it has yet to move past my thoughts into a sketch.
Fin, how fun would it be to receive mail from Amy? I’m sure it would come with a pretty note on her new stationery. And the prize… one can only imagine. It is going to be so fun to announce the finalists and winners with you later this week!

Love,
Donk

P.S. For those interested in our 2008 sew-along project, now is the time to voice your vote. We are taking suggestions for the next book to conquer.