have you heard the news?

It's been busy lately, to a point where I almost forgot about my own blog!  In a nutshell, I am the new Web Editor for a UK published sewing magazine called 'Homemade with Love'.  I'm excited by the role for a number of reasons,

A lot has been happening over the last few years within the area of craft and sewing magazines in this country after a bit of a drought.  When I first arrived on the design scene, it was (oh, how I dislike admitting to this date), 1994!  I had finished my degree in 1992 and spent a bit of time plugging the gaps in my knowledge and experience by attending a computing course.  By 1994, I had an interview for a design job with Coats Crafts UK, so wanted to do a bit of research to prepare, and I bought this...

 'Inspirations' magazine, circa February 1994. 

Back then there weren't that many sewing mags around to choose from, but I do remember that Inspirations became a particular favorite of mine, due to a number of house moves and the growth of the internet since '94, this is the only issue I kept.  It even came with a cover kit, embroidered buttons.

The reason I kept hold of this one, is it featured an interview with a lady called Jacqueline Farrell.  A machine embroiderer who has since then written a few books and coincidentally worked in the Glasgow branch of Coats, the company I was just about to have an interview with, before they relocated to Darlington.

I cannot remember how I got hold of her number, but if memory serves, I actually rang Jacqueline and had a chat about the craft kit world and any tips she could offer to someone just starting out.  Coats were very impressed during my interview with the research I had done, and yes, I did get the job!

While I worked at Coats, the design studio regularly bought in sewing magazines, the internet was still very much in its infancy so any design ideas came from more traditional channels, the main two I remember being Crafts Beautiful and Marie Clare Idees.  Then, suddenly everything went very paper crafts orientated, and sewing projects in the crafts magazines were few and far between.  I'm very glad that sewing is once again hugely featured, with so many high quality publications available, including, of course, Homemade with Love.

And to prove how old my copy of Inspiration magazine is, look at the feature they did on the Spitting Image puppet making workshop!

    

Pin it Forward UK

My post today is all about Pinterest.  If you haven't already discovered Pinterest, why not?!!  Pinterest has been around since about 2010, and although it is accessible worldwide, the reason behind this push for the UK is there are some developments (new language and location settings) which will just make it more user friendly for the UK audience.  There are 300 bloggers taking part, and a big thank you to Antonia of Tidy Away Today for introducing my Pinterest post today.

Before Pinterest began, for a long while I had been after a kind of online pinboard for images.  I'd tried using Flick 'favorites', but that wasn't quite right, tried using Tumblr, but that wasn't quite right either.  I've always been in the habit of collecting images for inspiration.  When I worked as a designer for Coats Crafts UK, they had literally only just got the first computers in the design studio.  This was also before Google was created, so all our research was done the old fashioned way via magazines, books, wrapping papers, greetings cards etc.  I had folders full of ideas I collected and referred to constantly.  Pinterest was exactly what I had been looking for all these years.  And now, the first thing I do after taking the kids to school is check my Pinterest feed.

I have lots of boards, some I refer to daily, like style (so I at least look slightly human on the school run) and garden ideas (given we've been revamping our back garden at home).  But my all time favorite, is soft sculpture,

this one is my go-to place when I'm sewing, this is where all my favorite things live!

If you'd like to follow me, I am here, or if you're not already pinning, follow the registration link.

To continue on the Pin it Forward UK journey, please visit Rosie at DIYcouture who is showcasing this intriguing board 'we shall not cease from exploration', you can read up on the background behind this board here.

Happy Pinning!

tricks of the trade #2...

Following on from my previous post around this subject, this time I'm going to show you what I do with my ends of embroidery thread while I'm sewing a Softie. 

When I'm sewing, I often have a few different colours on the go, which rather then tying off, I'll thread through to the back in case I need that colour again.

But obviously, these thread are not going to be where I want them to be, when I come to use them again.  So how do I get from one place to another?  I simply use the needle to literally, snake the thread around the inside of the Softie.

Begin by waggling the thread to make the hole in the fabric slightly larger, then pull the thread hard in one direction to create a gap right next to it, feed the needle carefully though this same hole.  

Take the needle back out where you want it next to go, and gently pull on the thread.

Once the thread is pulled through completely the hole kind of magically disappears, it has now moved to the new position ready to continue the applique or repeat this process to move it further.

A simple process, but this is something I get asked a lot, so I hope that explains how I go about it when I'm sewing.

Something else I must mention is, hop on over to Cut Out & Keep which is a FAB resource for project tutorials, I am a Crafty Superstar this week, yay!  There is an interview and a project a day too.

from Pinterest to the garden...

I am taking part in a scheme called 'Pin-it-Forward' later this month to celebrate the official UK launch of Pinterest, (yes, I know here in the UK we can already use Pinterest, all will be explained in my official post on the 23rd), and as I was deciding which of my boards I was going to post about, realised I have over 1,600 images pinned.  It would be an interesting exercise to see how many of those images I actually refer to and made use of.

Only a few weeks ago, I came across this on Pinterest, someone I follow had pinned it so it featured in my feed, I followed the link to it's original source (which is where you can read up on how they were made), and decided to have a go myself.  

Mine are a bit smaller than the originals (although I love the idea of making a really big one with a wok!), I used enamel camping bowls at £1.50 each, red spray paint was £3.50, white enamel paint was £1.50 and the tree branches came from the garden.  I sprayed the bowls red (they were blue), and the kids did the white spots for me.

 

(the bunting and the bamboo wind chime both came from Ebay)

Al thinks they look a bit daft, but he's out voted as both me and the kids think they're rather cute!

Stitch Zakka,

I am in a new book which is coming out soon,

trying not to give too much away, the projects involve a bit of this,

and a little bit if that. 

The book is out in June.