Knitting and Stitching Show... giveaway!

Hi everyone - I have some very exciting news for you very lucky UK readers! We are doing a giveaway of free tickets to The Knitting and Stitching Show  Oct. 8 - 12 in London!



Just looking over the schedule - there is so much to see and do there, and literally hundreds of hands-on workshops where you can learn new crafting skills!

We were given a pass so that our very own Jo, can attend as well - maybe you'll run into her when you're there! By the way, all of these wonderful photos were provided by The Knitting and Stitching Show.



More details on the show:
The Knitting and Stitching Show takes place at Alexandra Palace.

Wednesday 8 Oct – 10am – 5.30pm
Thursday 9 Oct – 10am – 7pm
Friday 10 and Saturday 11 Oct - 10am – 5.30pm
Sunday 12 Oct – 10am – 5pm

Tickets prices – Adult: £16 on the door (£13.00 in advance); Children £7 on the door (£6 in advance)
Visit www.theknittingandstitchingshow.com/london for more details.




And now for the good stuff - the Knitting and Stitching show is giving away of 5 free pairs of tickets for all day Wednesday, Thursday 3-7pm and all day Sunday!

To enter this giveaway - email mail@twistedthread, put K&S Ticket Giveaway on Feeling Stitchy in the subject line and include your full name, email address and full postal address. The giveaway will be open through Monday, 9/29/14.

Thank you to the wonderful people at The Knitting and Stitching Show for making this giveaway possible!

Whether you are in the neighborhood of London or not, just for kicks - what do you think you'd attend at The Knitting and Stitching Show? I'd hit a basic sewing class and camp out in the tea rooms!

Fun of the Fair giveaway!

Here at Feeling Stitchy we were lucky enough to be given a copy of Fun of the Fair by Melanie McNeice to review. Fun of the Fair features five different animal soft toys; a pony, elephant, lion, seal and monkey and the instructions for each are very comprehensive with good, detailed diagrams. The patterns are ideal for bright, colourful fabrics and the design of the toys is particularly good, I think, for young children, with the alternative suggestions on what to do instead of using buttons. I also liked how the toys could be styled in multiple ways, depending on the child you're giving the toy to.

Photo from Fun of the Fair by Melanie McNeice

I would say that the book is ideal for an intermediate sewer or perhaps a beginner up for a challenge. I had a go at making the elephants (I made a daddy, mummy and baby elephant, as there are two different size patterns) and although I've made quite a few soft toys in the past, I think I may have been staying well within my comfort zone because these elephants took me out of it!

And although I'm not totally happy with the result, that was absolutely down to me and not the book. I've definitely learnt new stuff to make these, thanks to the book's tuition and I'm eager to make more!

So a big thank you to Stitch, Craft, Create for letting us have a look at this book and an extra big thank you as they would also like to give away a copy of Fun of the Fair to one of our readers. The giveaway is open internationally and to be in with a chance please leave a comment below saying which Fun of the Fair animal you'd like to make first; a pony, elephant, lion, seal or monkey. The giveaway is open until 1200 GMT 1st October 2014. Good luck!

And if you would like to follow the rest of the Fun of the Fair blog hop, you can find the rest of the dates and links here!

Colour Complements Threads Test-drive

Remember the Colour Complements giveaway we did recently?

Well, Lorraine was sweet enough to send some threads my way so I could experience their loveliness for myself! Here they are, in all their multicolored glory on my much-used ironing board. :)

I chose a favorite from the shades, #57, and sat down with the wonderful free pattern we shared a few weeks ago:

I chose Size #8 pearl cotton, which is comparable to 2 strands of embroidery floss, as you can see in this picture:

By the way, there's a trick to using threads that are wound in a hank, like pearl cotton - I made a terrible tangled mess when I just lazily pulled the thread from its hank.

Check out this helpful tip on the DMC site on cutting your pearl cotton threads before stitching, to avoid my mistake. :)

Here's a glimpse of the lovely range of color in one length of thread:

I tried out 3 different stitches on the lettering, chain stitch (top), back stitch (middle), split stitch (bottom):

My favorite stitch with this thread is back stitch - it shows the color changes very nicely.

Here's my finished stitching! Thanks again to Colour Complements for the lovely thread and Ortal for the pattern: get the free pattern here.

Nell Burns Thread Bowl

Nell Burns is amazing. This bowl is hauntingly beautiful. It is made up entirely of layers of stitches on water soluble fabric. The fabric is washed away and the threads are left. This is just one of the amazing pieces of art she has created. Is it wrong that I want to dive into one of her beautiful structures?

Personalized Pencil Case

School is back in full swing and hopefully you have the majority of your school supplies. If you are still looking for an awesome pencil case why not get inspired by the one Alex stitched up. She used an embroidery pattern from the great Alison Glass and then gave it her own little twist. It turned out beautiful. Wouldn't this be great for keeping your floss in? You can can look at Alison's patterns on her site. 

September Hoopla Along

I can't believe September is already here. It seems like yesterday we were just starting the summer and now we are heading into fall. I am excited for the new month because it means a new stitch along on  Craftster.org. This month's theme is Home Sweet Home. The details are below:

They say, "home is where the heart is," so why not prove it with this month's theme, Home Sweet Home. Stitch up anything related to your home. It can be a quote,  a piece of furniture, or maybe a sampler. It could even be your dog's house or a dream castle. It doesn't matter-just anything home related! 

You have until September 30, 2014 to be eligible for random drawing

Prizes:

This month's prize is: 20.00 JoAnn's card

You do have to be a member of Craftster to be eligible, but it is super easy to get an account set up. Come on over and enjoy the fun! Check out more Hoopla Alongs HERE.