~ Get Your Stitch On SALE! ~

In the spirit of Giving,

and for the kindness and support 

~ you all show me and my family throughout the year...

... we are once again holding our annual SALE in our ETSY Shop:

beginning RIGHT NOW through December 2nd ~ {ending December 3rd.}

call it a Black Friday, Small Business Saturday & Cyber Monday Sale all rolled into one!

but, it's time to stock up on patterns for your Winter stitching ~

10% off all PAPER/Mailed Patterns & NFF Books!

{this sale EXCLUDES PDF or Downloadable patterns}

use coupon code: save2019 at checkout of your purchases

and receive 10% off your total!

**this sale also EXCLUDES any finished wood item or supplies at this time ~

without you, our customers and friends ~

we would not be able to continue to bring you fresh, fun new designs

for your needleworking pleasure ~ you are who keep us creating and designing!

Peter, Hannah & I are forever grateful for your patronage and friendship ~ 

and

DON'T FORGET to USE THE CODE: save2019 

at checkout or you will not save 10% on your order!

Blessings from the Farm 

~ Lori

~ Thankful ~

 Wishing you all a blessed, 

happy & peaceful Thanksgiving

from our home to yours ~

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori

~ Chimney Soot Santa ~

He's Ready!!!

here is my little guy ~

Chimney Soot Santa

 

I love how this quick little stitch turned out!

~  SOOOOO Old looking!!!

 I added a few 'extra touches' to the finish of this little pipe-smoking Santa ~

I used my PENCIL to create the pipe-smoke {drawn directly on the linen}
then DOUBLE-STITCHED his mustache for dimension 

{meaning: I stitched it once, then stitched over it again!}
and used Wool & Metallic threads for added effect, 

plus I added size # 11 Delica seed beads for snow and berries on the twig tree ~

finally I stuffed it with our own Organic Sawdust {available in our etsy shop}

 and added the beautiful tiny rick-rack trim from Lady Dot Creates!

STITCH COUNT: 37w x 61h

DMC floss :
644 & Metallic Silver

Gentle Art Simply Shaker Sampler Threads:
7061 Caramel Corn
7034 Gingersnap
7063 Onyx

The Gentle Art Simply Wool Threads:
7025-w Shaker White
0410-w Tarnished Gold
7082-w Piney Woods

Hand dyed rick-rack {7/32”} “Bird Nest”
From Lady Dot Creates

Model stitched 2 strands of floss over 2 threads of linen

- linen used on model:
30 count Parchment from Weeks Dye Works
 

perfect small size to stitch into a small pillow or pinkeep ~

or an ornament for your tinsel tree!

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

 

click HERE for the Paper/mailed pattern

click HERE for the PDF/download pattern

OH! almost forgot ~

Working on the Yule Mule Punch Needle Pattern

and that should be ready in our Etsy shop this evening :)

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori

~ Diversions & Distractions ~

 Hello Friends & Folk!

and greetings on this fine November day to you ~

I pondered over whether to title this post as such:

 'diversions & distractions'

... because really, 

the subject matter that is of today's posting is neither a diversion nor a distraction.

 it is something that I have been wanting to do/doing in between needlework projects...

yes, I am referring to beading again! 

I went hog-wild at our local Joann stores last week ~

not looking for beads, but absolutely falling into a 60%-off sale!

woot-woot & score!

yes I bought beads.

and charms, clasps, toggles and other sundry findings too ~

I also purchased the 2 storage containers you see above and below.

oh, and a book too, on wire-wrapping for jewelry.

 

I have been slowly incorporating beads into my embroideries

and other needlework projects ~ but I really need to keep focused on the work at hand,

and that is finishing up new goods for our open house on Dec. 6th & 7th ~

You may remember that Peter made Hannah 

a bunch of wooden earrings last year for Christmas presents? 

well she loved them, and so did I ~ and so did quite a few of our followers!

so Peter & I have decided to make more ~

both for our customers who visit our Shop & Studio here at the farm,

and we will be offering them for sale ON THIS BLOG after our open house!

we're putting together a page here on the blog

that will allow you to shop directly for our 

wood/wire/embroidered finished jewelry

and ~ we are excited!!!!

 

Photos below show a smattering of finished earrings that I made recently

for the open house ~ there will be a variety of styles/shaped/wood/wire/beads

with no two pair ever being exactly the very same ~ 

hope you love them as much as we do!

 

 I'll post more info on

 how you can go about purchasing some after the open house ~

wishing you all a 

peaceful and creative Sunday!

Blessings from the Farm 

~ Lori

~ Shop & Studio News ~

Hello Friends and Folk!

Just a note to say that our Shop & Studio
Here at Notforgotten Farm is
Open ~ Friday and Saturday this week ~ 10:00 - 4:00

With a note to add,
That as usual this time of the year ~
Our shop will NOT be decorated for Christmas/Winter
Until our annual Holiday Open House...
Friday December 6th and Saturday December 7th

Thank you for understanding our tradition!!

Also,
Tomorrow evening and also on Saturday
Lee & Robin Harrison from Millstone Mercantile
Will be holding their beautiful annual open house ~

You won't want to miss it!

I'll be there shopping on Friday eve ~ 
it's another tradition!!!

Blessings from the Farm 

~ Lori

~ Blogger Gremlins ~

Good Morning

~ Friends & Folk ~ 

a chilly, rainy & foggy day is upon us here at the Farm...

I will take full advantage of this by keeping the woodstoves banked,

chicken and dumplings in the crock pot and a good loaf of crusty bread in the maker!

I shall of course, allow my needle and thread 

to have all the attention they deserve today as well ~

... they demand attention every day and I very willingly oblige.

 Recently, I received emails from a few friends 

letting me know that there is no-where for my readers to leave a comment below my postings ~

the link for readers to leave a comment has completely disappeared !!

I am not sure why, or what has happened ~

 but I am looking into a fix on the Blogger group's forum.

hoping to get that resolved soon, 

so I can continue to enjoy your comments!

 For now, stay cozy and happy ~ 

create something beautiful with your hands and heart ~

Blessings from the Farm 

~ Lori

~ Monday Musings ~

Good Monday Morning 

~ Friends & Folk ~ 

a lovely November day is ahead for us here on the Farm...

overcast with a bit warmer temps,

still the crispy leaves & slight snappy breeze reminds us what time of the year it is ~

Don't you just love magazines and books?

{well I do!}

I pulled out a few older issues of 

Inspirations Magazine last evening...just to revisit the beautiful photos and wording.

It truly lives up to it's reputation of being the 'World's most beautiful magazine'

here is the link if you choose to subscribe to the magazine 

and/or their most-fabulous newsletter via email:

https://www.inspirationsstudios.com/

and I just received this book:

Stitch Craft by the very talented Gayla Partridge {shown below}

it contains a beautiful array of her fabulously embroidered works with such detailed photos! 

I purchased my copy from Amazon Prime.

Speaking of embroidery...

I know you have seen this one previously ~ 

but I wanted to see how it looks in this little frame...

what do you think? frame it? or make another pillow?

I'm leaning towards to frame {hint hint} lol

the title of this work by me is

"Christmas Goose"

and yes, I am planning on releasing this as a pattern for those who have asked.

although this is a bit more detailed 

than my other split stitch embroidery patterns/designs,

~ it is very easy to do still! don't be intimidated Friends!!

I will be posting pictorials here on this blog of my step-by-step directions

 on how I stitch these kinds of works...

 

simple split stitch combined with DMC floss...

details like the face are 2 strands, and the rest is stitched with 3 strands ~

here is the other project 

that I will release a pattern for along with the aforementioned:

...remember him?

this is "Hello Holly Santa"

Adding beading to these tiny works is a fun thing to do as well...

just a sprinkling here & there really makes the finish pop!

OH! and I have a trick that I will share with you 

on how I achieve the shading in these small embroideries ~

{some of you might know, as I have shared that technique with a chosen few}

but I think those who don't know will be amazed!

Look for the patterns for these to be released sometime next week in my Etsy Shop...

I will post about that on FB & IG too :)

The other day, a friend came into the Studio wanting to learn needlepoint ~

she asked if I could show her the bare-bones basic, so I did.

I grabbed some old canvas {think it is either 7 or 10}, a black sharpie, a tapestry {blunt} needle

and for the fibers I used size #3 DMC Pearl Cotton, which I doubled...

and voila! this is what came of that:

 

now I know that my colors seem to fade and blend into one another,

and by looking at a black & white photo of this project you can clearly see there is no definition 

between my stitched motifs and the background itself....

~ it's a common technique for rug hookers to do this, 

to check the values on their rugs as we hook them.

 

but since this is the first project that I have needlepointed in forever,

and since it was just for fun, and also since I will be keeping this and making it into a cuff bracelet ~

I will ALSO add beading to it's surface...another sprinkling of beads if you will.

a little beady-bling!

can you see how shiny the threads are since I didn't use wool? 

and they got even shinier when I ironed this to block it...

a happy accident by using pearl cotton to do needlepoint with!

love when things like this happen....

 

Well Friends,

I am off to process orders, paint wooden products, 

~ and work on finished goods for our Christmas Open House which will be here before we know it!

wishing you all a beautiful day filled with Inspiration and Creativity!

Blessings from the Farm 

~ Lori

~ Shop & Studio OPEN ~

 come on in for a visit, 

warm up by the woodstove 

and bring some needlework to work on!

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori

~ Outta My Gourd and Burning with Creativity! ~

I have a new obsession.
and I need a new obsession like I need another hole in my head...
 but,
burning pictures into wood and gourds
has grabbed me by my creative horns and
this is not letting me go!

here are a few that I burned yesterday
{yes, yesterday ~ all of them because I couldn't stop}
these are burned onto our wooden paddles that Peter makes here in his woodshop
from our very own poplar trees, grown, cut & milled right here at Notforgotten Farm:

and here are a few gourds made into ornaments ~
the gourds were a gift from my sweet friend Anita,
and she also makes these beautiful Wool Feather Trees too!

 

I have had such nice emails, comments and pm's from folks wondering if these will be for sale...
my answer is YES...
but
I am working on a slew of things for our
Christmas Open House here on December 6th & 7th ~
I think I will also hold an ONLINE event here on this blog
where I will offer similar and other burned items.

I will be posting more about that soon!

in the meantime,
to see more photos of what I'm stitching or working on
~ follow me on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook

https://www.pinterest.com/loribrechlin/
https://www.instagram.com/notforgottenfarm/
https://www.facebook.com/lori.brechlin

Have a beautiful and creative day my friends!!

Blessings from the Farm 

~ Lori

~ the True Thanksgiving ~

Do you appreciate waking up in your own bed, 

to the sounds of birds chirping, clean air & freedom?
Do you enjoy eating a warm breakfast in the comfort of your own clean home 

after waking from that comfortable bed?

then choosing what clothing to wear, how to style your hair, 

... plan your day without fear of constraint or punishment?

or flipping through tv channels, 

marrying your beloved of your choice, 

EVERYDAY being able to choose a direction you'd like your own path to go? 

 

aren't these such seemingly insignificant rights that we have?

foolishly and forgetfully taking them for granted every single minute ~

Do you relish the long walks you take in the woods,
being able to work for yourself, get in your car and go where you want
...shopping for whatever you want?

Have you ever thought to yourself
what it would be like living in another country?
...not having the freedom to express yourself,
your religious beliefs, your creative spirit...

Thank a Veteran for all of this...
and more...
This Veteran's Day, I would like to Thank those
that have stood for our Country on familiar and foreign soil,
placing themselves in danger for our freedom,
... with the BRAVE thought of not knowing if they would be coming back home.

 

Thank you for  fighting to allow our daughter
to grow up in a Country
that has such Diverse & Rich history,
and an even more Promising & Bright future...

 

I would like to Thank the families of loved ones who are serving or have served ~

 sacrificing memories and sometimes lives 

 so that we may continue to enjoy our own. 

Thank You.

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori

~Come for a Visit ~

Blessings from the Farm 

~ Lori

~ New Cross Stitch Pattern ~

Hello Friends & Folk!

An evening post for a change ~

After waiting most of the day for this new pattern to appear in my Etsy shop,

~ Finally it is there!

This is a quick little stitch that I named

‘Indian Summer’

{that is when I designed and started stitching it}

I realize it is now November, but hey...

that little turkey is just too cute standing there

in his garden of corn and pumpkins ~ being visited by the crescent-man-in-the-moon !!

Available as a Paper/mailed pattern and PDF/Download

I hope you love him as much as I do!

Blessings from the Farm 

~ Lori