Hey Everyone!

We are now officially done with our Welcome Mats! Wahoo!

This was such a fun project to do, they all look so different, it's very exciting!

Cotey created a fun pillow out of her project, whip stitching it together. She said it was kind of a pain, but the end result was worth it. The shading in her lettering looks really awesome, but I have to say that I really like the side with the background that changes in shade. I love the extra accent of the circles and dots that she added to that side as well.I love the functionality of her project, the subtle color scheme and honestly, Cotey never fails to make something awesome!

Cotey, any final thoughts? I usually work with a lot of colors, so using a limited color pallet like I did on this project was a great challenge for me. 

Heidi's both look so completely different. Her color palette was so similar I was really expecting them to have more of a similar look, but the lighter white/blue that she ended up using really made them feel distinct. Her bead stitch in her second one really stands out and pops against the background more so than in her first. Both have a fantastic Americana vibe to them. love how Heidi expertly makes every project, they always look so professionally done, and she makes it look so incredibly easy, I am in awe of her!

Heidi, anything you would do differently or change? The stuff I didn't care for in my first one, I was able to change in my second one. You didn't see as much of the bead stitch, so I changed the color so you could see it more. With the first one, I tried to do the bead stitch for the outside border, I ended up doing it with another border. I didn't think the border with the fine yarn in bead stitch was as successful. 

Sid's. Wow! I love, Love, LOVE Sid's. I love how the Tortola really looks like a richer and deeper blue than it does in mine. The use of it with Fiesta Day and his tweed like color is so unexpected but brilliant. I know he was hesitant at first to try it, but it was such a successful color combination. I also am absolutely obsessed with the use of Tortola for his whipping. His may be my favorite.

Sid, any final thoughts? The Tortola for me was the really big WOW factor. I think this is an interesting project to be the first for whip stitching, but I wouldn't change it, I think having the blue on the edge really finishes it off nicely and gives it something extra. Also, I would do a pillow next time. I love how Cotey's came out!

I really had a lot of fun with mine. To see how the colors morphed and changed depending on backgrounds and the placement of the other colors was so much fun to see. From starting off with "ridiculous" colors to then see that the Smokey Extra Light toned them down and made them less bright. It was also really fun to see how Black Hollow really turned the colors up a notch making them much more neon and eye catching. I found the whip stitching that I did to be fun, a bit tough and dare I say annoying at times, but totally worth it in the end. Not to mention learning the bead stitch, which I had wanted to do for a long time. 

What I would change for next time: I would make it look a bit cleaner on the edges. While I like the bead stitch and how I whipped it, I feel like the border looks messy. 

All in all, this project was a blast for all of us here at The Oxford Company. We had so much fun punching the Welcome Mat and sharing our experience with you all! It was fun to see that we weren't the only ones changing up colors a bunch, it was great to see everyone's progress through out the project, and just hearing from each of you how the process went. We loved all of the feed back!

Now it's your turn! Show us you're finished projects! I would love to make a collage of everyone's Welcome Mats and send that out so that everyone can see how different, fun, and interesting they each came out. So make sure you get yours up on social media, or email pictures (make sure you have the subject line reads Welcome Mats) to us by May 25th and I will get the last blog post up on May 27th! 

I can't wait to see everyone's finished Welcome Mats!

~Hannah

PS Stay tuned for our next #OxCoPALs project coming in June, it's awesome!!