Pin It Forward - sharing the Pinterest love!

Pinterest is officially launching in the UK! I am so happy to be part of the 'Pin it Forward' campaign to help the launch because I am officially addicted to Pinterest and think its a great site. Thanks to Ami from Sewing London for passing the baton on to me.

 

Lots of you already know about Pinterest but for those who don't, Pinterest is essentially an online 'Pin Board' where you can collect and 'pin' all the lovely things that you find online. Its very visual and you 'pin' images you like to different boards that you set up. These virtual boards can be anything - recipe ideas, sewing tutorials, kids craft ideas, house stuff, birthday party ideas, hairstyles, clothes you love. You can literally set up as many boards as you like and organise your images as you choose.



The image will always keep the link to the original source so if you pin a fantastic birthday cake recipe (like the one above!) that you want to keep, when you go back to it a year later, you will be able to find the original blog or website you found it on. You can follow other people and they can follow you. If you follow people, you get to see their 'pins' which you can then repin onto your boards. Likewise people following you can see your pins and repin them. You can also search the whole of Pinterest making it a fantastic resource for ideas and inspiration. Rather than searching the internet and having to trawl through thousands of sites, you can see a selection of ideas or projects for whatever you are searching for. Its brilliant for things like planning a childs birthday party.




Its a wonderful resource for us crafty types in particular. I have found 100's of free sewing tutorials which I have pinned ready to  use when I have some time. Its also great for saving sewing tips and advice.




When I create a tutorial on my own blog or stock a new fabric, I can now 'pin' it and it will (hopefully) get shared by lots of other crafty people which in turn will drive traffic to my blog or website. You can even add little 'pin' buttons to your website to encourage people to pin your images.



You can set up group boards too where you can invite other people to pin to a board. You can pin together over a shared mutual interest. Its also great for gift ideas. Pin stuff you like all through the year and then send people the link to the board at Christmas!!
 
I love Pinterest so much that I'm part of a group of bloggers called the Pin Addicts. We have set up a monthly Pinterest Challenge. This is to encourage people to actually make some of the things they pin! We were all a bit guilty of sitting at the computer pinning but not actually doing anything else! We decided to encourage people to make the things they pin each month. You just pin, make, blog and link up to the Pin Addicts website. There is a prize each month and the winner is chosen at random. Its about making for fun not being the best! You can make anything you like - as long as you found it on Pinterest!

Word of warning though. Pinterest is very addictive! You may find you spend hours pinning things!! Its so much fun though. Why not join up and start pinning? You can do this easily by simply clicking on this link. 

Tomorrow Sabrina  from 'Wolves In London' will be blogging about why she loves Pinterest. You can find her lovely blog here and her Pinterest Boards here.

Let me know if you join up or if you already use Pinterest with a link and I'll come and follow your boards. You can follow me here!

Fabulous Craft Book Giveaway

I have been sent a copy of 'Mastering the Art of Embroidery' by Sophie Long to review and give away on the blog today! 

Sophie Long worked on the wedding dress of Kate Middleton, for her marriage to Prince William. She graduated with distinction from the Royal School of Needlework and now works as a freelance embroiderer, carrying out commissions and teaching classes across the world. 

This book is a proper heavy hardback craft book. Just the type I love!  It covers every aspect of embroidery covering both hand embroidery and machine embroidery. The book includes chapters on surface embroidery, counted surface embroidery, embellishment, stumpwork, whitework, and three dimensional embroidery and all the different techniques within each area are explored in detail. It also has chapters on free machine embroidery and digital embroidery.

This book is a lovely mix of inspiring photos, simple tutorials on each method and profiles of textile artists in different fields of embroidery. I was pleased to see that this book contains many contemporary photos of embroidery as my only concern was that it might be a bit old fashioned. Its not at all and actually showcases the traditional embroidery techniques in a really contemporary way making them relevant to new generations of sewing enthusiasts. It would make a great gift for all generations of sewers and embroiderers I think.

 

 

I particularly liked the section on embellishment and have been thinking about how I might incorporate some of the ideas into some of the things that I make. I also loved the section on ribbon work and whitework which are just so delicate and pretty. I'm not sure I would ever have the patience to do this kind of intricate sewing. Its so beautiful.

Sophie has a website which you find here

 

To win a copy of this lovely book all you have to do is follow my blog and leave a comment below. I must be able to contact you so please make sure your email is available on your profile. I will pick a winner in a weeks time. Closing date to enter is Tuesday 21 May at 7pm.

 

If you can't wait that long you can order a copy at a discounted rate!

To order Mastering the Art of Embroidery (9781906417956) for £24.00 including p&p* (RRP: £30.00), telephone 01903 828503 and quote offer code JS209. Or send a cheque made payable to: Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3TG. Please quote the offer code JS209 and include your name and address details. *UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

Good luck!

Catching up with myself!

Its been so busy recently that I haven't had chance to blog for a couple of weeks. So much has happened! The fabric shop is doing amazingly well with lots of new fabrics arriving all the time. Its my dream job! My current favourite being these new Michael Miller Prints which arrived today and you can find here

I have also listed lots of fabric bundles some on the website and some on facebook. Its so much fun making up the bundles.

I added a few pretty sewing kits too. I just couldn't resist!

and my customers are already making gorgeous things from my fabrics!

Natasha made a gorgeous bag from her China Doll fabric

Alison made beautiful bunting from her Tanya Whelan fabrics

Laura made a fabulous sunglasses case from the very cool Geekly Chic Glasses fabric

 

and Charlie made this fab beach tent bag from her gorgeous fabric

I managed a small amount of sewing and made a pencil roll from the Sweetest Thing 'Birds' Fabric

This week has been The North Somerset Arts Week so my friend Debi and I took our boys screen printing on Saturday. It was so much fun!

Sam was very impressed with his Superman screen print

Sawyer made a great fossil print on his T shirt

It was great to let the boys get stuck in and get their hands dirty. This is Sawyer demonstrating to the class!

Debi (who made my Love Fabric tags) also had some work exhibited and sold her fantastic Vintage Singer lino print. I'm not surprised as it was gorgeous! You can follow her on Twitter here

The dress charity is going from strength to strength with lots of dresses going off to new homes

60 dresses & 50 shorts to Uganda
200 dresses to Zimbabwe
40 dresses, 30 shorts and 43 bags to Ghana
150 dresses and 15shorts to Ethiopia

Watch this space tomorrow for a fabulous craft book giveaway!!

Dresses reach Uganda!

Some of our dresses have just reached Uganda! A huge thanks to Jennie for organising and her son Samuel who very kindly took some dresses with him on his visit to the Childs i Foundation Baby & Family Centre in Kampala. He shared some lovely photos of his visit. Childs i are an amazing charity doing fantastic work in Uganda.

The Malaika Babies Home provides temporary protective care for up to 25 children aged between 0-2 years old. Childs i Foundation is different to lots of other charities in that it tries to reunite children with their birth families (either parents or extended family) or if this is not possible, tries to find adoptive families for the children rather than leaving them in institutional care. Every child receives their own care plan and carer to give them the attention they need to recover and thrive whilst they are found permanent homes. This is usually done within six months to avoid long-term psychological damage to the children. 

They also support families who are in crisis. They have a duty social worker who can give guidance, support and advice. If a family needs time to get back on their feet, Childs i will temporarily look after a child until a family is able to resume caring for their child. When children are placed back in their families, they then monitor them for up to a year to ensure they are safe. They also regularly visit families and teach them good parenting, health and hygiene and nutrition.

It was interesting to find out that around 80% of children growing up in institutions in Uganda have living relatives and are not ‘orphans’. Childs i try and trace the families of children in their care and around 66% of children admitted to Malaika are reintegrated back into their extended family.

Where extended family cannot be found for children, they try to find potential adopters so that the children still grow up in a family environment. Adoption outside of the family is still relatively uncommon in Uganda so Childs i launched a media campaign to find new families for their children. They now have 100 Ugandan families being assessed as adoptive parents and a waiting list of families who want to adopt children. They are working in partnership with the Ugandan Government to promote adoption as an option for abandoned children.

 

 

What an amazing organisation! If you would like to find out more about the work of Childs i Foundation and how you can get involved you can find their website here. They do depend on donations, so if you feel able to, please donate to their amazing work and help other children grow up in a family environment.