Sketchbook Club is off and running

We launched the first Jennie Maizels' Sketchbook Club Franchise back in January and as the weeks have gone by the participants have grown in confidence and tried as well as improved on several skills. The course is designed for anyone who thinks they can't draw and we have converted the non believers.

We started with a basic colour wheel lesson learning the art of mixing primary colours to achieve different and new colours,

then we had some fun with letter printing to try more colour combinations.

Week 2 was the doodle lesson - a great sense of calm washed over the group as they immersed themselves in doodling!

Week 3 we moved on to painting bird using watercolours and pencils

Week 4 was fashion week and the ladies used a special transfer technique to get the images of some tremendously well dressed beauties onto our sketchbooks, we then dressed them to the nines using paint, collage and pencil crayon

In Week 5 we went intergalactic with our spacey rocket scenes using a mixture of freehand drawing, transferring from reference and then paint and crayons to finish off.

Tricks and techniques have come directly from Jennie herself and we look forward to the new inspirational topics and reference materials she provides us with each week.

You can join us for the Summer Term Sketchbook Club which will contain ten new topics!

We have an evening class starting on 21st April 2016 which will run for 10 weeks and include a break for half term week. Please check the course details for exact dates.

All materials you require are provided during the weekly class but you may wish to purchase an art material starter pack and a set of beautiful colour pencils to carry on your work between classes.

Come and join the fun!

Fabric for my Valentine

What greater gift for a Valentines present than fabric?!

We have put together some beautiful coordinating gift bundles which we can send gift wrapped to your loved ones for Valentines Day.

Moda's Canyon collection has some amazing rich plum, pink and orange prints which together with the greys make a fabulous combination.

Then we have some pretty and bright pinks from the Sketchbook collection for Free Spirit Fabrics

If the Valentine in your life is a little person who loves to sew - why not pick this Little Princess - Valentines bundle including pink unicorns and glittery princesses - it is guaranteed to impress!

Of course any traditionalist would say roses are a must for Valentines Day - and we won't disappoint you with these amazing blooms in the Roses Bundle- which will last a lot longer than any boring old fresh flowers (but we would accept those too!)

This was a fun post to shoot and also to write although working with edible props is always too tempting! nomnom....

Happy Valentines everyone...

Ali

x

Crochet Hot Water Bottle Covers

I had been meaning to try a crochet hot water bottle cover for ages and before Christmas I decided they would make excellent Christmas presents for my two daughters - mostly because they use mini hot water bottles and they would be fairly quick to make up!

I found some guidance online from various other blogs with how to shape the pattern and I started with a simple half treble stitch for the first one. I used the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran wool in a pretty pale powder blue.

It took a few attempts to get the shaping right but I was pleased with the finished result

I added a pretty scalloped trim in a white wool at the top and crocheted a heart motif which I sewed onto the front as a little added detail as the cover was fairly plain in itself.

I was working with a new Brittany birch crochet hook that I have started stocking in the shop recently and I have to say they are the loveliest hooks I have ever worked with - mostly because they area bit longer and don't rub the palm of your hand as you work.

Then it was onto the next cover and I decided to try a new stitch that I hadn't worked up before but have wanted to try for ages. It is called Linen stitch and is a simple dc followed by a ch all the was along the row, on the alternate rows you work a dc in each ch space.

Because I was working quickly on these two covers, I gave up writing a pattern as I went as Christmas was fast approaching so I have since made a third cover working more slowly in order to write it up as I went.

I used a rich red still in the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran as I knew this would then work for the February article for the Sherborne Times magazine - The Valentines issue!

The colour really pops against this pretty fabric, find the free pattern here!

I hope you enjoyed this post - please let me know if you attempt the pattern and email me a picture..

If you would like any help with the pattern do pop along to the free weekly Yarn Bee every Friday from 10am-12pm

Fabric Subscriptions

What do you do with all the those craft magazines that arrive every month?

Do you treasure them forever or keep them for a while and then just recycle them? I know I do!

Just imagine receiving the gift of fabric every month instead, whether you use it straight away or add it to your stash for that perfect project you will use it one day!

With our monthly fabric subscriptions we will send you fabric each month in the post - you don't even have to leave the house!

Choose from Gold, Silver or Bronze and receive either 6, 7 or 8 fat quarters a month. The fabrics will always co-ordinate and of course if you love a particular selection you can always top up your order from our webshop.

I think we all have a long "making" wish list and adding ideas to it wont get the projects done, my Pinterest board has over 1000 pins and those are just the ones you can see - not the ones hidden away on secret boards. If I just dedicated the time to making rather than browsing for more ideas I would be so much happier...

Is someone you know approaching a special birthday or perhaps their retirement?

One of our fabric subscriptions would make an awesome present for someone who loves to sew or do patchwork, why not club together with your friends or workmates to give them an amazing gift that lasts and lasts..

A patchwork quilt in a day

I know a lot of my customers work full time and don't always want to come to evening classes so I thought I would compress one of our most popular workshops into a one day workshop to make a mini patchwork quilt.

I have had my eye on this charm pack from Moda since it arrived in the shop so I decided to make the cutting part a bit quicker by using some of the pre-cut squares in this pack. I chose the pink, yellow and turquoise squares, leaving 22 other more blue and green ones for another project later on.

I had to pick some co-ordinating fabrics for the two borders - but this was easy as I have loads of pinks and turquoises in the shop at the moment.

There is always time for a quick tea break when I am sewing!- I love that my tea and teacup match the project in hand!

I was even wearing co-ordinating clothing on that day

It took a bit of fiddling to get all the seams and corners matching up but it had to be perfect as the workshop sample.

A bright pink binding ties it all together.

It took me about 4 hours from start to finish to put this together and I will be running a workshop on 8th March 2016 to teach you how to make one for yourself - why not book a place and join us?!

You will learn how to piece together the patchwork top,layer with wadding and a backing, quilt and finally bind the mini quilt.You may need to finish the binding off at home but we will aim to get the majority of the quilt finished during the day.

You will need to be competent at using a sewing machine to attend this workshop.

See you soon!

Ali

x

#Yoghurtgate!

I have to say this has been one of the most surreal weeks of my life!

It all started with a frightening incident with a yoghurt pot and a simple tweet -

The Western Gazette then duly printed a story about my ordeal after asking me for a quote

The Central Somerset Gazette also printed the story on their website

before I knew it the story was being picked up by more and more journalists, bloggers and celebrities who re-tweeted and shared the increasingly bizarre headlines.

The Telegraph talked about the "drive-by-yoghurt chucker" and named me as the "West Country haberdasher"

Friends in London started texting me pictures of the article printed in the London Metro - a paper I used to read every day on the way to work in the City.

The "Drive-by yoghurt attack" headline also started a host of Bugsy Malone style attack tweets, almost as many as the tweets correcting their geography as of course Sherborne is in Dorset not Somerset as they stated.

A lovely student from the Bournemouth Buzz called me for a further interview and published another story promptly afterwards

Yahoo news picked up on the story adding their spin on the events calling it "drive-biotic"

First thing Monday morning I was interviewed live on the BBC Devon breakfast show by the charming Simon Bates who was very sympathetic about my experience. I was also interviewed by a journalist for Radio Somerset who was most insistent I should have called the police by now.

It was rather extraordinary that Andy Comfort's (@andycomfort) Radio Humberside drive time show was dedicated to the event on Monday, asking listeners to send in their suggestions for songs relating to the incident.

Celebrity bloggers added fuel to the fire with @panoparker getting over 2.5k retweets for calling it "The most British headline ever"

@ReporterBoy's vote for "headline of the week" brought much amusement to many

 - even the boys at BuzzFeed where

Alan White upped the anti and went straight for "Headline of the Year"

Simon Singh (author of The SImpsons) @SLSingh voiced his concern about an upcoming trip to Sherborne!

and so it went on....

Although all of this media attention has been quite amusing it doesn't take away from the original act of nonsense that started all of this.

Being targeted by anyone with anything when you are alone in the dark at night is really frightening and I would urge anyone who knows anything about this incident to come forward to ensure the idiots at large are brought to heel asap.

I would like to thank the two boys from Sherborne School who stopped to ask if I was OK at the time and all of my lovely customers, contacts and friends for their messages of support this last week

I am still waiting for my advertising deal with Petits Filous but until then it's time to get back to my crochet!

Many thanks

Ali

The West Country Haberdasher!

It seems I now have a few more updates to make to this article!

on 3rd Feb 2016 actually included this darstedly crime in an article entitled "21 WTF Crimes that could only ever happen in Britain" - I made it to no 12!

finally on 22 February 2016 it was mentioned on "The Poke" Facebook page - it attracted one or two comments and several likes too!

Will this story ever end?!

Workshops in 2016

I think we all have a long "making" wish list and adding ideas to it wont get the projects done, my Pinterest board has over 1000 pins and those are just the ones you can see - not the ones hidden away on secret boards. If I just dedicated the time to making rather than browsing for more ideas I would feel so much more rewarded.

So many customers of mine say they don't have time to start let alone finish a project - but if you come to a workshop you will get results faster than staying home and constantly putting your crafting time to the bottom of the pile of things to do.

We have taught hundreds of people over the years and nearly every one admits they would never have done the project in their own time and they are always so thrilled with what they have produced.

Whether it is sewing, crochet, patchwork, embroidery, knitting, drawing, dressmaking or needle felting we are sure to have something to interest you more than netflix.

So, stop what you are doing, book a day off, arrange a babysitter, do whatever it takes just book a workshop and find some "me time" to do what you have always said you would do!

Today is the tomorrow you talked about yesterday - just do it!