Brentwood 2012 Part 5, Needle Minders

The first year that we, the Four from Forest, went to Brentwood we were pleasantly surprised with a little gift that was stitched and created in the Brentwood colours, a Needle Card. It is one of my favourite cross stitch accessories.  As noted in the Needle Card link - the following year we decided we wanted to try our hand at a small trinket for everyone and we crocheted dishcloths for everyone. 

For this year's retreat we were so excited to get started on our little projects because we knew exactly what we wanted to do.  Our crafty gal Anita gave us the idea when she gifted all of us with what is called a Needle Minder.  When we each received our gift from Anita, she had presented it in such a sweet package that we all exclaimed "This looks like it came right from a store! The packaging is so neat."   What's a needle minder you ask. Well a needle minder looks much like a covered button and it holds a very strong magnet inside. You place it on your hooped fabric and secure it with another strong magnet on the back, then you place your needle on top so you don't lose it.

Now -- the really really funny part about this story is Anita telling us about sending Jody's needle minder in the mail. Jody was unable to attend the meeting that month and so she did not receive her needle minder at the same time that Tracey and I did, so Anita mailed it to her instead.  However, because there is a super strong magnet inside the needle minder,  this little fact did not even dawn on Anita until AFTER she put it into the mail slot.  Luckily Jody did receive her trinket, but Anita went to bed for a few nights wondering if it was stuck on the inside of the metal mailbox. 

When Anita and her husband were traveling out East, she picked up 4 souvenir tins from Ann of Green Gables.  We had all committed to making our equal share of these tiny trinkets and inside each tin, Anita placed everything we needed to create the needle minders for the Stitching Sisters. It was such a perfect little travel size kit and it went to work with me each day so I could stitch on my lunch hour and it even went to Cuba with me so I could travel light (what's that???) and stitch while on vacation.  

With the patterns in the making, it was time to come up with the design for the packaging.  While sitting at cross stitch one evening, we got to talking about it and rhyming off a few lines and I quickly went to work on a poem.  Anita then completed the design for the package and when we were all finished with our stitched projects, it was time to assemble the Needle Minders. 

One side of the button is covered in fabric,
the other with the stitched pattern.
We set everything out to begin an assembly line production,
and Anita exclaimed,
"Wait!  you have to be careful because the magnets are so strong
and if you don't place them far enough apart ....

... they will all snap together."
I can't tell you how many times this happened,
not to mention how many times it startled us in the process.

I'm not sure exactly what it was that Jody and I
were pondering at this moment.
Perhaps our solution to World Peace??

Here is a shot of the front of the card designed by Anita.

The back side of the card with the poem written for the occasion.

Assembled and finished Needle Minders

Enough for everyone!

At retreat, we decided to set out our trinkets at the table to surprise everyone when they came for dinner.

This year, Jayne made each of us the sweetest friendship flat-fold. I can hardly wait until next year to see what the others ladies come up with.  We've already got our trinket figured out for next year.... shhhhhhh, don't tell anyone.
Bonnie