An Amazings Crafting Class Giveaway

                   

I love learning new techniques and new crafts, don't you?
Yes, of course you do, that's why you're reading this post!
Well today I have something very special for you - a free crafting class !!

Many of you have heard of, and doubtless used, Craftsy, a US based learning platform, but have you heard of The Amazings?
I certainly hadn't until a couple of weeks ago, and the more I learned about this enterprise, the more I felt strongly about what they are doing.
We all know that there has been a resurgence in crafting and there is a whole generation of young (and not so young) people  without crafting skills, who are very eager to learn. The Amazings works on the premise that it is the retired and retiring age range in this country who have these skills in abundance and they should be shared.
Amazings Co-Founder Adil Abrar says:

"There's nothing better than learning from someone who has a 
lifetime of experience, sharing shortcuts that you won't find in
most books or websites, and dropping in little stories that make 
the learning experience really special. We've worked hard to 
replicate that amazing-ness so people can experience it online, 
all over the world "

The Amazings are based in London and now have over 200 real life workshops run by the over 50s encompassing a wide range of crafts from Italian glass art to kiltmaking. But demand has far outstripped what they can provide, so they have now started to offer on-line classes.

I was privileged to be offered a couple of these classes and found them to be entertaining and informative. They have a relaxed approach and you feel very much as though you are just sitting in your lounge (which you probably are!!) with the teacher by your side. The style is conversational, with both the teacher and the student in the video and it is heartwarming and encouraging to hear the student asking exactly the same questions that are on the tip of your own tongue.
There are 8 online classes to date, with more coming very soon. You can choose plant pot mosaics......

 ....or silver clay jewellery making.

 Perhaps if you watched "The Great British Sewing Bee" a few weeks ago, upcycling a man's shirt into a summer dress would be more your thing.

As someone who is very conscious of what chemicals are in my food, my fabrics and also my beauty products I was totally inspired by Judith's Natural Beauty Products class and I'm now off to have a go at making my own face wash and lip balm!

Although I have done English Paper Piecing before, I still learned a few tips and tricks from Virginia's Heirloom Quilting class. She has a very down-to earth, waste-not-want-not style, using recycled fabrics. This is refreshing in a world where avid quilters can so easily get caught up in the rat race of always wanting the latest designer fabrics for their quilts. Recycling is, after all, exactly why the first quilters quilted in the first place!

The classes are economically priced, but thanks to Farzana at the Amazings,  I have a very special offer for you. 

You can get one of the 8 online classes from The Amazings for free by using this link
The only hard part is deciding which one to choose! Be sure to let me know which one you go for, as I enjoyed my freebies so much, I'm sure I shall soon be buying some more :)

Have fun!

Julie

Mariner's Compass Cushion

Sometimes, no matter how carefully you prepare, things just don't go the way you planned.

When the June theme for Le Challenge was announced, I decided upon an idea (the theme is Maritime) and ordered some fabric from the US. I had plenty of time, and was fully expecting it to be here when I returned from Toronto, but, alas, it wasn't! A few emails later and the company informed me that my parcel had, for some unknown reason, been returned to them. They promised to re-send it, but this, of course, meant I had to completely re-think my project for the challenge. (This was Tuesday, so I only had 3 days in which to make something!!) I spent a day and a half dithering, wondering what I could make in the time, and then suddenly it struck me - a Mariners Compass block! I have wanted to have a go at one of these for a long time, but I certainly couldn't make a quilt in a day and a half. I settled on a cushion, found a paper piecing template and used fabric from my stash.

Time was short. I had to stay focussed and concentrate. No time for mistakes!

So, I selected my fabrics....maybe not my first choice, but what I had on hand....

I colour coded on an extra template and kept it prominently displayed on my desk

I made a list of which colour each numbered segment was, and kept that on my desk too

By the end of Thursday night 3 segments were done, and by Friday lunchtime all 8 were complete

Yes, the seam ripper did come out a couple of times, but they were only small mistakes !

Joining the segments together was a little tricky. Just how was I to cope with all those seams coming together at the centre?

They don't sit as perfectly as I would have liked, but under the circumstances, it could have been a lot worse.

I decided I didn't have enough time to make a cushion front and quilt it, as I had originally planned, so I decided to appliqué the compass onto an existing cushion cover.

Hmmm, Was this going to work? I only had a 1/4" seam allowance on the compass, and a lot of seams to turn smoothly under. No time for errors.

I decided to follow a technique used by Sarah Fielke in her latest book "Hand Quilted with Love"

                                       
You cut a cardboard template the size of the finished piece and place it on the wrong side of the applique. You then wrap tin foil around them and iron, pressing the seam allowance smoothly under.

I do recommend using good quality tin foil. Mine was from the "value range" and had a tendency to tear as I was pressing the edges as hard as I could with the iron. But nonetheless, considering all those seams, I think I got a pretty smooth curve to my circle.

Sarah suggests using applique glue to secure your piece to the background whilst you hand sew in place, but I prefer not to use chemicals where possible, so it was good old fashioned pins for me.

The cushion was finished by 7 pm - just in time to sit in the evening sun and enjoy a little celebratory drink (In the middle of all this fast sewing my son and his girlfriend had phoned me from their holiday in Cornwall to tell me they had got engaged !!!)

Cheers !!

Getting Serious About Organic Cotton

As many of you know I'm very keen to use organic cotton whenever possible. Back in October last year I posted about the benefits of using organic cotton and the effects that the toxic chemicals used in the production of standard cotton have on our own health, the health of the people involved in the growing of the cotton and the environment in general.
I'm a firm believer in the saying "Every little helps" and for a long time I was happy that my "little" use of organic cotton was helping, just as my efforts to eat organic, or even better still, homegrown, help in some small way to keep me and my family healthy.
Each and every choice we make as purchasers goes as long way to stimulate the amount of organic food and clothing that suppliers make available to us. Most people counter argue that organic is always more expensive. But this is not always the case. Organic fruit and veg are often as cheap as the regular stuff when they are in season. In this fast moving, technological age we have forgotten about buying seasonal produce.
With fabrics it is more a case that organic cotton is comparable in price with the regular designer cottons, but there are no "budget" ranges to choose from. There is no way you can buy organic cotton fabric or yarns as cheaply as you can poly cotton fabric or acrylic yarn.
The same is true of the organic clothing that is available in stores. It might compete with designer ranges on price, but not yet with everyday items.... but, I believe this is gradually changing. 
H&M have a sustainability policy in which they aim for all their cotton to come from more sustainable sources by 2020 and are currently the biggest user of organic cotton in the world. The price of their Conscious Clothing range is comparable to all the other ranges. Hopefully other clothing manufacturers will follow suit.
More and more companies are producing clothing and bedding for babies and children are using organic cotton.

A baby quilt I made last year using organic cotton

So why do I feel the need to write this post?
Because I feel it's time to step up, to do more than be just a casual user of organic fibres. There is so much more organic cotton available to the home sewer or quilter now than there was even 6 months ago and I no longer have the excuse that the design "wasn't quite what I was looking for" or "It's too hard to find". 

Organic cotton nursery fabric

I may not have my perfect choice, and I may not be able to make all the clothing I want from organic fabric, but I am going to try to only buy organic for quilting and baby projects and to only buy standard fabrics for my own clothing when I absolutely have no choice.

This decision is huge.... yes, HUGE!
I have been dithering for quite a while. Won't I want to buy those lovely new designs that fellow bloggers showcase? .......Of course I will! but I have to try and manage without.
What shall I do about my charity knitting? I can't have one rule for myself and my family, but another for babies in Africa or street children in London. ..... This is a really difficult one - I shall try to use the oddments for charity knitting and I don't think this problem will arise for a while as I have quite a large stash of standard yarns to use up first.

I made this charity knit using organic cotton oddments

You will still see posts of things I have made using regular cotton for a long time to come, because I have a lot of it already tucked away!! I'm just not going to buy any more if I can possible help it. I will probably have to buy some more Liberty prints to complete my Farmers Wife quilt, but the solids in it can be organic.
The knitting will be a lot harder to achieve than the sewing and quilting because there seems to be less organic yarn available than there was a year ago, not more! Why this is I just don't know. Maybe there just wasn't the demand for it? I just have to hope this trend is reversed as soon as possible.

I have updated the post I wrote in October about the toxins in standard cotton and have saved it as a downloadable PDF here. It is also permanently available on my sidebar. Please take the time to read it if you are at all interested in this subject.

Organic cotton is beautifully soft, and gets softer with every wash and it's stronger and more hard wearing than standard cotton. I'm sure if more people realised just how many toxins were in standard cotton I could convert them in instant.

So will my blog change in any way?
No, not really. I shall still post about the things I'm making, and as I have a lot of standard cotton to use up, I'll still be showing you it for a long time to come, but I'll certainly blog about the new fabrics, and hopefully yarns, that I'm buying, and show you what I've made with them. And maybe, little by little, sewers and quilters will see that organic isn't just for the "eco warriors" (Is that what I am?!) but that everyone can embrace organic and still make beautiful things for home and family.

Saying Hi From Toronto!

Wow! Clear blue skies, sunny days and exciting explorations - I am in Toronto visiting my eldest son and daughter-in-law and having a great time. Toronto is such a fun city to explore. It's easy to get around (even for someone with absolutely no sense of direction, like me!), not too big and has plenty of green and wild spaces.
I have spent lots of time walking, seen amazing wildlife and eaten copious amounts wonderful food.
I have brought plenty of craft projects with me, but I have a feeling most of them will be taken home again unfulfilled.
I do have some photos to show you of the blankets that I finished before I set off.
These are part of my 2013 Stashbuster Challenge are are to go to Greenfields.

This first one I am quite pleased with. The colours of aran weight yarn that I needed to use up, just happened to go very well together and they have made a bright and colourful baby blanket.

I had to buy an extra ball to be able to finish the border. (Greenfields like their blankets to be 39" square) which defeats the object slightly as I now have a new oddment, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it!

The second one I wasn't so sure about.

I had a lot of oddments of organic cotton yarn that were pretty dull and drab colours - discontinued colours and discontinued lines by several manufacturers. I had tried several times to add them to a small project, but they always seemed to spoil the proposed item and I didn't have enough white or cream to just do something with stripes. What do you do with bottle green or burgundy if you haven't got a nice white or ream to give them some contrast?

So, I decided to just crochet all the yukky colours together into one yukky but useful blanket!

Ta Dah!

Somehow, I have no idea how, I all seemed to go together OK.

It is very fortunate that I had enough of the light tan colour to give it a decent border.

If that border had been a mixture of more drab colours I don't think I would have been happy with it at all, but as it is I'm OK with it. Not over the moon, but OK.

And at least I've used up all those oddments of burgundy, bottle green and mauve that just didn't sit well with anything else in my stash.

I do hope all my readers in the UK are going to have some fine weather over the Bank Holiday weekend. It isn't a holiday over here, but I know we have some good trips planned for Saturday and Sunday, which I hope to share with you later next week.

Needles and Pins on Little Bird Wings

I have made a little bird pincushion! She is for  Le Challenge, a monthly crafty challenge which is organised by Lucy and Nat, and this month's theme is "Wings".

I knew as soon as I read the challenge theme that I wanted to make a bird pincushion, partly I suppose, because I have a bit of a thing for little stuffed fabric birds, and also because I needed a new pincushion that would sit comfortably on the arm of the sofa

My little bird is so proud of her wings that she lets me store my needles there.

She has a nice flat bottom (if only I could say the same!) so that she sits still amongst  all the crafty paraphernalia on my desk and she is firmly stuffed with Polyester filling so that pins push easily into her back.

 I have added an additional felt layer to the underside of each wing so that I can store needles there to keep them separate from the pins.

The wings are attached with spotty heart shaped buttons and the eyes are really tiny flower shape buttons - the type that you buy for scrapbooking and card making.

I embellished the tail with short lengths of ric rac, folded in half and sewn into the tail seam.

My little bird is going to get a lot of use, but when she's not needed for pins, I know she'll be very happy sitting amongst the ornamental branches in my lounge.

 I might even let her sit outside on sunny days - just as long as my cats realise she is only a stuffed bird of course!

I am hoping to get a tutorial written up so that can you have a go at making one for yourself. The technology is beating me at the moment. If anyone knows an EASY way to convert a scanned drawing into a professional looking line drawing using  Photoshop Elements or Touchdraw, please let me know. I found some tutorials but the learning curve was way too steep for me to tackle to get it done for this post. One day I'll manage it, hopefully!

And The Winners Are......

 

 Today I'm announcing the winners of the 5, yes FIVE, giveaways that I had on my blog last week as part of the Sew Mama Sew GiveAway Day

Thank you all so much for taking the time to comment and a warm hello to all my new likers on Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin and Google Friend Connect (remember GFC is disappearing soon, so you'll need to swap to something else - Bloglovin is quick and easy!!)

This little guy was by far the most popular giveaway and Mr Random pulled out SandyandCosmo to be his new owner. This lucky recipient said she would call him Bailey.

I love that name, don't you!

The two boys organic cotton bibs were won by Erin @Billy Button Designs. Well done Erin, I'm sure you'll put them to good use.

The baby girl organic cotton gift set were won by Shanny

 

and the vintage style baby hat goes to Tasha Early

The final giveaway was for any one of my patterns, either a knitting pattern or a quilt pattern and for this Mr Random chose Una who would like the Entrelac Baby Blanket pattern. (Una I've tried emailing you and it's bouncing straight back - can you contact me please - my email address is in the side bar)

I will be emailing all the winners shortly. 

Thank you all for entering, your response was fantastic and I'll let you into a little secret - another bunny has been cast on, ready for another giveaway sometime soon !

Final GiveAway Day - A Pattern of Your Choice

Today is the final day of my Give Aways as part of GiveAwayDay over at Sew Mama Sew.

It's been such a fun week and I've enjoyed reading every single comment. You have all been so complimentary!

Today you get the chance to win any pattern of your choice that I have designed - a knitting pattern or a quilt pattern - whichever you'd like.

You need to go and choose one.

You can see my knitting patterns on LoveFibres on Craftsy, LoveFibres on Etsy or on Ravelry

Or if it's a quilt pattern you're after go to either Mack and Mabel on Craftsy or Mack and Mabel on Etsy

As with every other day this week, the giveaway is open internationally to anyone who follows my blog in any way. If you don't do so already, you can follow by clicking on "Join this site" on the righthand sidebar or the Bloglovin button. You can also follow me on Facebook or Twitter - again, buttons on the sidebar.

To enter just leave a comment below saying which pattern you'd like - give me the name of the pattern e.g. Jaden, Mia or Picnic in the Park and if you're the lucky one I'll email it out to you as a PDF on Sunday.

(If you've entered the previous giveaways on this blog, you don't need to tell me again how you follow)

If you are a no-reply blogger, make sure you leave an email address so I can contact you if you win.

The winner will be randomly chosen on Sunday 12th May and announced the same day on the blog.

This giveaway is part of Sew Mama Sew GiveAway Day (which lasts all week!) so when you've entered mine, why not hop over to Sew Mama Sew and see what else you could win.

Entry to all of my GiveAways this week will close at midnight Saturday 11th May so that I can do all the random picking of winners  to announce on Sunday.It's going to be a fun day!

Good Luck