Handmade Monday #14

Welcome to our weekly craft linky, Handmade Monday.

This is the place to share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas and to find some new inspiration.
We have a Handmade Monday Facebook Group where here we share tips and ideas. If you like to link up here regularly you are welcome to join us, just send a request.

I follow most of the lovely people who join Handmade Monday on various social medias, and it makes me SO happy when I see you all sharing each others projects and posts. Obviously when you share here there is no legal obligation to visit, comment and share each others stuff. I can't make you to do anything, it's requested but not enforceable!
But I see it often during the week, facebook shares, retweets, comments on the blog posts. It's so lovely and makes me really proud to be part of such a supportive crafting community. 
So to all of you who are visiting, sharing and commenting on each other stuff (and you know who you are) I have a little message:

Here are the features from last week's Handmade Monday.

Leanna from Of Faeries and Fauna sharing this simple but clever idea to use reusable shopping bags to organise a chest freezer. Divide and conquer - no more rummaging round in the very bottom looking for an elusive bag of broccoli! 

My Busy Beehives made these pretty Spring wreaths which look so simple to make. We've had storm Doris hit last week and a few fence panels come down so thoughts of Spring really cheered me up!

Congratulations, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

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And now for this weeks linky, remember every entry gets pinned onto our Handmade Monday pinterest board

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure, more information can be found here.

An InLinkz Link-up

CHSI Stitches 2017

On Monday I went along to the bloggers brunch at the CHSI stitches show at the NEC in Birmingham.

Spoiler alert - I took A LOT of photos, be ready for a very photo heavy post today! 

CHSI stitches is a trade show for the craft industry, so craft suppliers sell to the shops & online stores that we, the public, all buy our goodies from. Many of them also have their own websites to sell directly to the public too. 
The whole thing is just a feast of lovely stuff, all so tempting, and I came away with my head full of ideas for things I'd like to try.
The bloggers brunch was hosted by ICHF Events with a workshop from DMC - great food, great company and a lovely goody bag of DMC products to try and take away.

More about that another day. I'll finish what I started and share the results later.

Luckily I wore my comfy shoes, there was a lot to see! Some of the stall holders had produced some amazing eye catching displays.

I got to meet the lady from Cygnet Yarns who made this fantastic tree and a stand full of yarn based loveliness.

This great big gorgeous fella was just chilling on the Creative World of Crafts Stand.

Viridian Yarns had this cute sheep guarding their yarns and knitting accessories.

Caron Simply Soft yarn is shown off beautiful in this rainbow display, also on the Creative World of Craft stand. They even had knitted shoes!

Kaffe Fassett had been at the show given a talk on Sunday apparently so I missed that, but there was evidence of his most recent book and vibrant fabric all over the place.

These fabric are from his collections for Free Spirit Fabrics.

Arne and Carlos were there and showing off their new design line for the 'one ball = two identical patterned socks' yarn, Pairfect. I'm not a sock maker (yet) but apparently it's widely available. You just knit the socks and the pattern appears, sounds like wizardry to me!

I loved this beautiful flamingo quilt displayed on the Patchwork Promotions stand.

The biggest trend I noticed was the kits. There were so many with just the cutest thing to make and the loveliest packaging. I love kits, I think they are such a great way to try a new craft and when they are so nicely presented they make great gifts too.

Everything you need to make something in a cute box or bag - what's not to like! 

These were some of my favourites:

These felt embroidered beauties from Corinne Lapierre.

Fancy making a bow tie or trying your hand at paper piecing? The New Craft House have it covered.

Gorgeous needle felting and embroidery kits (and more) from Hawthorn Handmade. Who wouldn't want a fabulous embroidered unicorn?

Everyone must know someone who needs a felt flamingo in their life, and these kits to make mobiles come in a box that looks like a house - how cute is that? All from The Crafty Kit Company.

These cross stitch and printed embroidery hoops from The Make Arcade really bring embroidery up to date. They also have kits referencing Prosecco, gin and tea so all the bases are covered!

More pretty felt kits in the cutest carry boxes from Kitty Kay.

Rag rug making is something I've always wanted to try, so I'm thinking these kits in a bag from Ragged Life as just brilliant. Not just rugs either, they have cushions, bags and more.

Famous for their knicker making kits, Flo-Jo actually do much more besides. These apron and tote bag kits have a lovely modern vintage vibe.

Edwards Imaginarium from Toft was a hard stand to walk past without doing a double take. The giant versions of their crochet kits were amazing, and apparently have traveled all over the world.

Mindful colouring but in embroidery form - I was so inspired by this beautiful embroidery idea from Solo Crafts. They call the range Zenbroidery and you can find a list of stockists on their website. These photos don't do it justice, in real life the colours and effect with threads and beads was just exquisite.

These knit mugs from Debbie Bliss Home collection really caught my eye. A coming together of 2 of my favourite things - hot drinks and knitting.

DMC is a company most crafters are familiar with. For a company that's been around for over 250 years (and which produces 1 million skeins of embroidery thread every DAY) they are certainly moving with the times. As well as lots of traditional designs and kits they have some really modern and on trend stuff going on in all sorts of craft mediums.

I particularly love the cushions on the right, two very different styles but equally beautiful.

Phew, that's it, my CHSI stitches show highlights. 

Of course the biggest highlight of all was getting to meet a load of lovely like minded people, all interested in creative crafts and encouraging others to enjoy crafts too. It would seem the craft industry is vibrant, thriving and full of so many different things -  there really must be something for everyone.

Handmade Monday #13

Welcome to our weekly craft linky, Handmade Monday.

This is the place to share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas and to find some new inspiration.
We have a Handmade Monday Facebook Group where here we share tips and ideas. If you like to link up here regularly you are welcome to join us, just send a request.

What have you been up to this week? Did you do anything nice for Valentine's or is that not your cup of tea? 
After featuring the geometric card by the Craft Lumberjacks at last week's Handmade Monday I used their idea as the basis for the card I made my hubbie.

I also did a little doodling/letter art too which I shared on Instagram, a little extract of one of my favourite love poems called Atlas by U A Fanthorpe.

Enough about me! Here are the features from last week's Handmade Monday.

These paper rose made from old maps are so lovely. There is a great tutorial so you can make your own, for yourself or to give away, from Claire at Pillar Box Blue. 

I am SO in love with these amazing trousers from Agy at Green Issues by Agy. She's been making them for months and I've been watching along on Instagram. It was so lovely to see her wearing the finished product.

They were inspired by the Japansese practice of Kintsugi which I confess I'd never heard of. It's mending things, usually with gold, with the idea that cracks or repairs make them more beautiful and valuable not less. 

Congratulations, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

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Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML

And now for this weeks linky, remember every entry gets pinned onto our Handmade Monday pinterest board
We also have a Facebook group where we share tips and are trying to get a share thread off the ground. If you like to link up here regularly you are welcome to join us, just send a request.

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure, more information can be found here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Fabric Stash Buster Bunting

Make a dent in your fabric stash by making a garland of pretty bunting.

I confess - I am a fabric hoarder.
I don't buy lots of fabric (though I DO find it hard to resist a pretty stack of fat quarters) instead I tend to buy large sized items in Charity shops and chop them up. I also inherited a couple of bin bags full of fabric from my mum & nan: old clothes, half made items, left over bits from things they had made and all too good to waste.

My biggest issue however is my unwavering inability to throw away those small scraps that you inevitably get left with when sewing something. Odd shapes, long strips  - you know the bits I mean! They just seem way too useful to throw out, surely I will use them for some fabulous patchwork project one day.
Last year I set about making a conscious effort to actually use those bits. I made a load of Pocket Pack Tissue Holders but that made only a small dent in the stash. New Year : New me. Let's try again.

For a birthday gift I made this scrap fabric bunting. It's quick and easy, I cut out and made this in an evening.

To make your own scrap fabric bunting you will need:
Scraps of fabric
scrap card to make a template
scissors (for paper and fabric, don't be using your good fabric scissors for card now will you!)
Bias Binding
Thread
Sewing Machine

I made 25 bunting flags and my bunting measures about 4.5m/5 yards when finished. You can make as many as you like and your bunting can be as long or short as you wish.

First cut out a triangle template from card. Mine is 10.5cm/6" x 19cm/7.5"

Iron your fabric scraps if they have been all scrunched up in a box or bag somewhere, maybe even wash them first if they smell a bit musty!

Using your template cut out triangles from your fabric scraps. It is worth checking the grain and cutting them all the same way. I may have snuck just one or two triangles in there that were cut at an angle, just because that was the only way they'd fit but mostly I was good and the grain line followed straight down the centre of the triangle.
I cut 50 triangles in all, to make 25 flags.

Place any 2 triangles right sides together and stitch along the 2 long sides.

Continue for all the triangles.

Trim the narrow point as shown below, close but not too close:

Then turn the flag right side out and press.

Trim the little sticky out bits.

Now lay the flags out on the floor in a pleasing arrangement. I didn't worry too much but just didn't want two flags the same next to each other. Flip the over just to make sure the arrangement works on both sides then stack them up in order.

I used odd lengths of bias binding that I had left over from other projects. You could use one long length, use ribbon or more long thin fabric scraps.

Fold the bias binding in half and begin stitching it together. Stitch for about 53cm/21" (for hanging the bunting up) then tuck the first flag inside and stitch across the top. 

Just before you get to the end, tuck the next flag in and then continue stitching.
Continue until all the flags are used, joining the next bit of bias binding by overlapping a little as needed.

Finish the bunting with another 53cm/21" of stitched bias binding.

Now all that's left to do is to feel a little bit pleased with yourself for making something so pretty from leftovers. It's double sided and washable. Keep it for yourself or give it away. Hang it up inside or outside. Enjoy!

You might also be interested in:

Lace Top Refashion

Infinity Loop Scarf

Felt NeedleCase

Camera Lens Cloth Pouch

I'll be linking up to these great link parties, why not go and have a look!