Cross-Stitch Brooches in Homespun Magazine

I got a lovely bit of post this week - all the way from Australia!

The September issue of Australian Homespun magazine features one of my crafty tutorials: stitching cute little cross-stitch sampler brooches.

Click here to find the free cross-stitch patterns and step by step tutorial.

It's always so nice to see my work in print, and especially exciting seeing it in a magazine being sold so very many miles away from here! Many thanks to the team at Homespun for featuring my project, and for sending me a copy of the magazine.

Felt Fruit! Felt Ice Lollies! Felt Houses!

The current issue of docrafts Creativity magazine (#61) includes two felt-y projects designed by me...

There's a whole assortment of felt fruit...

 

 ... and phone cases decorated with felt ice lollies / ice creams!

 

I was chuffed to see they both made the magazine's contents page...

 

... and I was delighted to see the fruit popping up in promos for this month's issue on the docrafts Facebook page and the docrafts homepage.

These two projects were both fun to work on but the felt fruit was an especially enjoyable challenge. Making 3D shapes from flat pieces of felt can be tricky! And when you're making felt versions of real things that actually exist in the real world, the shapes have to be just right.

 

Unexpectedly, the kiwi fruit turned out to be trickiest to get right (I was totally expecting it to be the pear). One prototype was too round. One was too long. Then the third was just right. Phew! I did a highly embarrasing victory dance round the house when I'd finished that pattern.

After all that, I think the kiwi ended up being my favourite :)

Luckily for you, you don't need to faff about making prototypes and muttering curses under your breath when the shapes turn out all wonky... as all the pattern pieces are included in the back of the magazine.

Can't find docrafts Creativity Magazine in your local newsagent? You can subscribe here or buy individual issues here.


While we're chatting about magazines, the fun felt houses tutorial I designed for Creativity #58 is now available online here.  There are step by step instructions for making the houses, plus some helpful stitching guides provided by the nice folks at docrafts. You'll need to sign up to the site to download the templates, but it's free to join.

Also, is it too early to whisper the word "Christmas"? If you think it is, look away now!

The felt Christmas stocking tutorial I designed for Tuts+ got a lovely mention in the Bustle & Sew 2015 Christmas collection - a digital magazine jam-packed with festive goodness. "More than just a collection of patterns, there’s lots more to discover between the covers of this year’s Christmas special which runs to an enormouse 85 pages in total!  There are nine lovely Bustle & Sew patterns (all those featured on the cover), recipes and articles too – so there’s plenty to enjoy in between planning your Christmas stitching."

You can read more info about the Christmas collection, and flick through a preview of it here. You can find my free Christmas stocking tutorial here. 

Made in Felt is back! Hurrah!

Remember Made in Felt?

It's one of those "special issue" bookazines that pop up in the newsagent from time to time, themed (as you might guess from the title) around felt crafting,... and a new issue has just been published!

I'm always happy to see this magazine as it's always gorgeous and filled with lots of fun and colourful felt projects - and you know I'm a big fan of all things felt-y. I've also been very lucky to have something of mine featured in each issue. This issue my owl ornaments make an appearance:

 

(If you fancy making your own owls you'll find the how to HERE.)

It's wonderful to have my work featured anywhere (big or small) but it's especially nice to see my felt-y creations in amongst felt-y awesomeness from so many great makers.

I particularly love these needle felted baking bears...

 

... these completely adorable slippers...

 

... this interview with Lucy Sparrow (creator of the amazing felt cornershop I visited last year)...

 

... and the cute as a button cover project designed by Manuela of i ManuFatti.

Manuela sells PDF patterns on Etsy and shares lots of free tutorials on her blog. She was also a guest blogger here on my blog last year, sharing a tutorial for a wonderful toadstool pincushion. I'm always delighted when I see people I "know" from the world of crafty blogging pop up in magazines, getting nice press features, etc. It is such a nice, happy feeling seeing people whose work you admire doing awesome things and getting recognised for their awesomeness.

So, I was already smiling to see Manuela's project on the cover and to read her interview...

... and then I spotted that she'd sweetly mentioned me and my blog! Such a nice surprise :)

Made in Felt is out now (I found a copy in my local branch of WHSmith). It's available to buy online here, with worldwide delivery. 

Two Nice Things

You know, I'm always reading blogging advice that says "Titles are important! Make sure they're SEO friendly! Include lots of keywords!" ... and then I keep titling posts things like "Two Nice Things" because, well, that's what it feels right to call this post!

I am clearly a bad, bad blogger :)

So, what are these two nice things, you ask?

Well, first up I have been positively squeeeeee-ing at seeing this month's issue of Mollie Makes out "in the wild" - on the shelf in newsagents, popping up on Facebook &Twitter and over on Instagram (#molliemakes).

 

 

It is always so surreal and awesome seeing something I designed out in the world, being seen and (I hope!) sewn by lots of people.

(Psst - do check out Leanne's blog, Knit Me A Cake and her posts about knitting a sky blanket).

 

And the second nice thing? Flicking through a copy of Reloved magazine a couple of weeks ago...

 

 

 

... I was delighted to spot one of my tutorials - they'd been in touch about featuring it but I didn't think it'd made the final cut for the issue, so it was a very nice surprise to see it in print. 

 

 

You can find the tutorial for making your own Button Ring Pillow here.

Making Magazine & Love Crafting

After a trip to the bank on Tuesday (yawn) I popped into WHSmith on my way home for a quick browse of the craft magazine section and was delighted to find my work featured in a couple of titles!

 

My blog got a mention in Making magazine's "Web Reviews" page (thanks Jennifer!)...

 ... and two of the projects from my recent book, Super-Cute Felt Animals, are included in the Love Crafting Summer Special.

You can learn how to make Lucy the laughing snail and Boris the butterfly, and there's also a reader offer to buy a copy of Super-Cute Felt Animals at a reduced price :)

A Mention I forgot to Mention

Last year I was really pleased to have some of my products included in DaWanda's Winter "Lovebook" - a mini catalogue they send out to the press as a sampler of some of the handmade goodness available on the site.

Then this year I was delighted that they chose to feature me & my shop in one of the mini interviews that are dotted throughout Summer Lovebook's pages. Especially as they said such nice things about my work :)

It's been a busy year though, and I completely forgot to blog about it! Oops.

 

If you fancy a look through the whole of the summer Lookbook, you can download it as a PDF here.

I Heart Tea (Crafting 365 day 343)

I drink a lot of tea. Many many mugs of the lovely stuff. I am totally addicted and totally obsessed with all the paraphernalia that goes along with it: teacups, teapots, teacosies, even nice teaspoons! So it seemed only right and proper that I got back into sewing after my recent break with a batch of "I love tea" badges:
Sooo many tiny letters to cut out and sew on! Very satisfying finishing that lot, but there are even more to come as I'm finally going to be restocking the other four colours over the next few weeks as well...

Thinking of tea (and you know I often am), did you know that everyday when Eastenders finishes so many British people put the kettle on for a cuppa that it almost overwhelms the National Grid? I learnt this fun little fact from the shopping blog Wee Birdy, which kindly featured some of my tea-themed brooches this month. Hurrah!

Other recent features of my work include a sweet post on I Love Hokey, my "tea taste" pin in a lovely tea-themed Etsy montage on Mon Petit Lapin (I drink plain old builders tea - Fairtrade, of course - black no sugar in case you're wondering) and in a tea themed "treasury" selection by SassaLynne, a mention of my badger brooch by Miss Frugality, kind words on Hazelnut Studio's blog ... and also a little feature on Crafty Crafty.

Any mention of my work always makes me smile, be it on shopping blogs or little mentions of my felty things on the blogs of fellow crafters (apologies to anyone I forget to mention - I love you all, I'm just forgetful!) but I have to admit to having a little giggle at CraftyCrafty's description that "These fantastic felted goodies are part of the felt 365 project, a spinoff from crafting 365." Felt 365! Heehee! I love how my Crafting 365 group is starting to get mentioned places and take on a life of its own away from me but it did make me laugh all the same :)