Siobhan Rogers: Crafternoon Blog Party

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Crafternoon Blog Party

Hi All

Welcome to Bea Spoke Quilts

I have a thing for books & magazines, I have neat stacks all over the house (I seriously mean everywhere)and book shelves filled to the brim.

I like the look of them the feel of them and of course the content!

I use books for inspiration, they can help when I'm in a glut and stuck. I like to mix ideas, find new material to use and techniques.

I like books that revise simple techniques, they remind me to go back to basics.

Not long ago Hardy Grant asked me to review two of the upcoming Crafternoon books that have been Edited by Kathreen Ricketson from Whip up.

Kids Crafternoon - Sewing

Kids Crafternoon - Paper

Kathreen has sourced specialist crafters from around the globe & given us 25 projects to choose from in each book.

These books are aimed at 7-12 year olds & will retail at $29.00 Australian Dollars each.

With the idea of going back to basics and looking at simple ideas, I'd argue that these books aren't just for kids!

It has me thinking about a few of the projects and what I'll make next.

For this little review I made the

Cloudy Day Pillow by Claire Dollan

This is a perfect quick project and as Claire suggests you can hand draw your own shape.

I had these rectangles cut and hanging around, so I decided to join them and use it as my pillow front

for this type of project I wasn't to fastidious about the joining process.

I wanted my pillow large so I used Baking paper as my template and free hand drew my cloud.

for the back I used a piece of material I had been using as an example for a kids workshop in tie dying.

For stuffing I used two old Ikea pillows that had gone a bit flat and for a nice little touch I added some dried Lavender from our garden - If this was smell-a-net you could smell the lovely Lavender Cloudy Day Pillow :)
Perfect for a nice snooze.

The projects in these books are great for all ages like I said above.

My 4yr old Daughter is wanting another cloud pillow and my boys aged 7 & 11 are eyeing off the ipod creature cosy by Holly Keller, If like me you have accidentally felted a good woollen jumper this is a perfect project!

If you would like to buy the books check out Booktopia who deliver internationally or ask your local little book shop (I do like supporting local shops)