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Tuesday 31 March 2015

Made in Felt magazine - Cosy Tea Set Tutorial and a Happy Spring giveaway

We are so happy that our Cosy Tea Set tutorial has been featured in the new Made in Felt magazine. We have been jumping with joy ever since the Editor, the lovely Amanda, asked us if they could feature our tutorial in the spring edition of Made in Felt. So to celebrate we have decided to organise a special giveaway... 



First a peek at the beautiful projects you can find inside this bright Spring edition of the magazine. Starting from the sweet Italian felt expert Manuela from i Manu Fatti (her bunny is the cover star of Made in Felt!). We've already written about her and you seriously do not want to miss her blog. Her latest post is a detailed tutorial for a stunning Spring Twig Wreath.


Here are a couple of her wonderful projects featured in the magazine:




There are so many incredible designs in this magazine to try out. These are our favourite ones:



We are definitely adding this project to our Tags and Labels Pinterest board!


And this Matrioska goes on our Not Just Russian Dolls board! The detail is perfect!

If you're interested in purchasing a copy of the magazine, you can buy it on line here. Check out Made in Felt on Facebook or Pinterest too if you're looking for more felt craft ideas.



And now for our special giveaway to celebrate our project in Made in Felt: we are giving away wool felt in four different bright colours, perfect for Spring projects and for making your own Tea Cosy Set. Each piece of wool felt is about 19.5" x 14" (about 49.50cm x 35,50cm) and 1/8" (3mm) thick. 




We are also giving away, together with all this lovely felt, a pretty reel of "tape" ribbon in orange. One lucky winner will win all these items. 


To have a chance of winning all you have to do is leave a comment. For followers, old and new, another chance of winning: leave a second comment telling us how you follow our blog.


The giveaway is open to everyone and we will post the prize anywhere in the world, closing on April 15th. Mr Random will then choose a winner who will be contacted by mail.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

The winner is Sonja McIane!


 Made in Felt


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Friday 20 March 2015

Meet and Greet Stitchers around the World - Cross Stitching (and a giveaway)

Many years ago I fell in love with cross stitching and even though my sewing machine often distracts me from it, every time I cross stitch again I wonder why I've waited so long. This sewing technique should be taught as a way to meditate and relax the mind...!

Madame Samm at Sew We Stitch has organised the meet and greet stitchers around the world event, where stitchers from around the world can meet and share our love for hand sewing.


My cross stitching projects are often an excuse to add a special detail to sewing projects. This is one of my favourites: the "Hang it up pincushion" made for a swap, with a fun pocket with and for a pair of scissors! 



Some cross stitch buttons made just because they looked so pretty in the patterns, have in the meantime found the right home...



This "I love tea" cross stitch button is perfect for the Zakka Teabag Pouch.


This is what the pouch looks like open:



Lately I have fallen for:
1. Embroidered writing. I always ask my daughter Ella to write out the words for me because I wasn't taught "twirly wirly" writing at school!





2. Giant cross stitching on burlap. Tried this for a giant tag decoration and it's really fun and it's also easy to count spacing on burlap. Will definitely be trying this again soon. 


Thank you for visiting and taking a peak at our blog. Please don't forget to join our giveaway here. We are giving away a beautiful Bird House Decoration by MIHO Unexpected Things:
The giveaway is open to everyone and we will post the prize anywhere in the world, closing on March 31st.

Visit Sew We Stitch for the full list of wonderful stitchers from around the world joining in on the fun:

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Tuesday 17 March 2015

Tree Bird Blog Hop with a special giveaway

Welcome to our stop of the Tree Bird Blog Hop! First of all we would like to thank three very special Ladies: Madame Samm, the wonderful author of Sew we Stitch and the Queen of Blog Hops; Lana at It Seams To Be Sew..., our super efficient Cheerleader and Pat at Life in the Scrapatch. Thanks to Pat's generosity we had the chance to sew with the lovely "Beautiful Birds" collection by Tracy Lizotte for Elizabeth Studio. Not only did Pat send us the Potrait Panels we won with her giveaway, she also included an extra Tree Panel. We are paying forward her generosity with our own special giveaway. A hint: it has to do with birds!


Birdwatching is a bit of a tradition in our family. Most of the birdwatching takes place from the house, looking out the window at the fig tree where, during the winter, food for the birds is never missing. It's a full time job to keep the birds happy in the winter and they repay us by returning every year. This jolly crowd is great company!


We're often checking reference books to see the exact name of our "fine feathered friends" and studying details. So a nice book cover comes in very handy!


To celebrate our little friends we also made a cushion cover using two of the portraits and some wood grain fabric. We liked using the simple linen fabric to set off the detailed drawings of the birds. 



The quilting is also very simple, a couple of "matchsticks" to make the wood grain fabric stand out like a tree. We're definitely thinking of making a set of these cushion covers to give as a present to our bird feeders!


While writing this, we're singing "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins... We can't help ourselves... We even have a board on Pinterest where we collect pics of Birdhouses and little houses.



And now for the giveaway! For all you bird lovers, we are giving away a beautiful Bird House Decoration by MIHO Unexpected Things:
To have a chance of winning this pretty Bird House (in mdf, 16x18x14 cm, in a flat pack very easy to put together) all you have to do is leave a comment. For followers, old and new, another chance of winning: leave a second comment telling us how you follow our blog.
The giveaway is open to everyone and we will post the prize anywhere in the world (if the post office lets us!), closing on March 31st. Mr Random will then choose a winner who will be contacted by mail.
Fly on over to visit today's blogs: with so many creative projects, you'll be surprised by how many lovely ways have been found to use this fabric collection:


Tuesday, March 17




Joining in the March edition of A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts and Sew Bittersweet Designs with our Beautiful Birds book cover (Goal Setting Party entry number 130, via Flickr):


A Lovely Year of Finishes

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Sunday 15 March 2015

Le Challenge #20 - Passion... for Pincushions!

I have an ever growing Passion for Pincushions. There must be a limit between passion and mania and I think I could be about to pass that limit! I made this little Mountain Pin Cushion as a joke for myself. I absolutely love Pin Cushions and little things in general. My parents know something about this... I have collected all sorts of small things in childhood and I must admit I haven't improved much now! My passion for small things includes match boxes used... not for matches:


This match box inspired the mountain pin cushion: 


It's a German firm that makes pretty match boxes with photos or patterns on the front.


It was snowing when I got this match box so I thought the little white balls on the  pins would look like snowflakes... well, sort of!


I made it just to tease myself but it's not such a bad idea for taking pins around with you and not hurting yourself, is it? 


OK, but what do I do with all the matches now?!


I'm collecting fun Match Box and Pin Cushion ideas on our Pinterest boards. So many great projects to admire!


Linking up with Le Challenge. The next challenge is Tradition. That's a brilliant theme.

Le Challenge

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Friday 13 March 2015

Zakka Style - FWFS Spring Mug Rug Swap

The big question is: will my partner like this Spring Mug Rug? Fingers crossed because it is travelling her way in a parcel with quite a few goodies and I have absolutely no idea what her favourite style/s are. Hopefully she will like this combination of spring colours and embroidery:

The fabric is Miss Kate by Bonnie and Camille for Moda, a mini charm I was so lucky to win, thanks to my friend Mara at Secretly Stitching.


The pattern for the appliqué is by the Italian Queen of country style appliqué Veronica Ferrari. She blogs at Veronica Country Life and this year is hosting a very successful national Mistery QAL. Veronica is always so generous with her ideas and she kindly agreed to me showing and writing about her appliqué. This is her free pattern: originally for making a "membership badge" to recognise friends of the Mystery QAL during what is probably the most important craft trade fair in Italy, Abilmente Vicenza.


The appliqué is so fun I decided to use it for my secret partner's mug rug and Ella drew out the writing for me to embroider. The sewing machine thread is supposed to look as though it's quilting the patchwork side of the mug rug. What do you think? I had forgotten how relaxing it is to embroider. 



Hope you enjoy the Zakka style Spring Mug Rug and the goodies coming your way, partner!



I really like making mug rugs, that's one reason why I decided to join Fort Worth Fabric Studio's swap. I made some a while ago using laminates and posted about them here and here.




And you can find the tutorial for this Folding Heart Mug Rug here, if you're curious.



Don't miss the FWFS Mug Rug Show and Tell. So many wonderful Mug Rugs to have a look at and inspire new makes! I'm so looking forward to finding out which one is for me!




Thank you Lindsey and Fort Worth Fabric Studio for organising this lovely swap!

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