Fat Quarter Toys is the latest addition to
a fabulous and popular series of stash – busting sewing books. There are 25
cute and colourful toys and games to make for young children, all from fat
quarters or fabric scraps to make use of your stash.
Each
project is accompanied by step-by-step instructions and beautiful accompanying
photography, and there is the usual useful tools and techniques section for
those who are new to sewing. The toys are quick and straightforward to make and
none of them require any specialist skills or expensive materials.
This
book is perfect for using left over scraps of fabric or even repurposing old
clothes that might otherwise go into land fill.
The projects make great gifts or can be
made quickly and easily to sell at charity events. Included in the projects are
a tiger rattle, rabbit cuddle blanket, teddy bear, fox in a sleeping bag,
fishing set, bean bags, stacking rings, memory game, alphabet letters, number
cubes, rag doll, picnic blankets and more.
Susie Johns is a designer, teacher and craft workshop leader. She has written dozens of craft books and works regularly for consumer craft magazines in the UK.
Rockett St George was founded in 2007 by long time friends Lucy St George and Jane Rockett. it was their shared passion for black clothes, flea markets, Manchego cheese, travel, Tom Hardy and (of course) interiors that cemented their friendship.
Ten years down the line, they are
still best friends and still love a good car boot sale but have also learnt a
huge amount about how to create show-stopping interiors. In this book, they share
their decorating mistakes along with their triumphs, they guide you through
tricky decision making, and offer top tips on how to achieve magical,
surprising and inviting homes.
The book is for your own personal use, with the goal of motivating you to be adventurous and plan properly so you can achieve an interior that dreams are made of. In between each chapter, there is interior inspiration from beautifully photographed houses and apartments owned by their friends and colleagues, as well as their own homes.
Decisions and how and why you make them.
‘With so many fabulous options available to
us nowadays, choice can be a bit of a challenge. And when it comes to making
choices about how to decorate our home, we all want to get it right first time
round.
Some people spend hours deliberating over
colours, styles and textures while others find it easy to reach a resolution.
Regardless of which category you fall into, we believe that making decorative
choices should be fun; a pleasurable process that fulfills your creative needs
and leads to a satisfying conclusion. The result should be a home that creates
a sense of wellbeing and rooms that makes you smile every time you walk through
the door. This, my friends, is why ‘Make it Personal’ is the first chapter in
this book. Get things wrong and you could spend a long time regretting your
decorating decisions.
Indeed, Jane once had her entire bedroom
wallpapered at great expense only to arrive home and absolutely hate the
result. The wallpaper was patterned, colourful and gorgeous, but Jane didn’t
feel comfortable in the room. In fact, she felt irritated and edgy; exactly how
you don’t want to feel in your place of rest. If only Jane had asked herself a
few simple questions, she could have avoided making an expensive mistake. In
fact, she ended up having to pay to have the whole room done again.
We now know exactly where she went wrong.
Jane rushed her decision, listened to other people’s opinions and was
influenced by a trend that was splashed all over magazines and blogs at the
time. Although she loved the design she had picked, she didn’t take into
account her personal style, the way she used her bedroom, or the atmosphere
that she was hoping to create.
If Jane had analyzed her personal style and
the ways in which she spends time in her room before making her choice, it
would have been obvious where the whole thing was heading. Here’s what she
should have focused on:
• _She loves a calm, gentle
environment
• _She doesn’t wear colour or bold
pattern
• _She likes a rock ’n’ roll twist, whether it be zips on her clothes, stars on her jacket or snakeskin on her boots.’
In summary, you could say that Jane is drawn
to a clean, tailored look with a dash of punk thrown in. Her bedroom is a place
she likes to indulge herself – somewhere to escape during the weekend for an
hour or two in order to read, relax or grab a sneaky snooze. It was never going
to be the right place for high-energy patterns and colours.
The good news is that there was a happy
ending. Jane’s second choice of a subtle snakeskin wallpaper in natural hues
created the tranquil atmosphere that she craved but it has a cool twist that
makes her smile. The Moroccan cushions and wedding blanket draped over the bed
head provide a gently exotic and modern ethnic feel that’s luxurious and
calming. So she got there in the end!
We hope our first piece of advice will prevent you from making the same mistake that Jane did. What we are suggesting is that you have a good long think about who you are, what makes you happy and how you live your life. We will be encouraging you to ask yourself some questions about your personality and unique individual style. Don’t worry – there are no wrong answers here, this is not a test. The questions are just a tool to help you analyze your tastes and needs so you can make the right decisions when it comes to designing your home. But remember – you need to be honest with yourself in order to get the home that you really want. ‘
Now go and find a pen or pencil and a large piece of paper, pour yourself a glass of wine, relax and write down the answers to the following questions. If you share your home with a partner, you should answer the questions together.
1 Write down five words
that describe your personality, e.g. organized, eccentric, energetic, naughty,
serious, sporty, thoughtful, musical, quiet, etc.
2 Write down five words
that describe the way you dress, e.g. slick, colourful, monochrome, tailored,
boho, rock ’n’ roll, seductive, suited and booted, etc.
3 Write down five
things that make you happy. This could be anything at all, from the obvious
things such as spending time with family and friends to more subtle concepts
such as particular smells or feeling the sand between your toes.
You now have the key words that describe your personality down on paper, it is time to consider the room you wish to decorate. The way we spend time in the various rooms in our homes varies enormously. The atmosphere we want in the kitchen, for instance, will be very different to the aesthetic required in the bedroom. So there are just a couple more questions to answer.
1 Write down five
activities that you would like to do in this room (ok, this may be quite hard
for the bathroom but give it a go!).
2 Think of five words
that describe the way you want to feel in this room. For example, you might
want to feel indulgent, relaxed, peaceful and sexy in your bedroom or sociable,
organized and cheerful in the kitchen.
A whole page (or more) of words that describe you, and your taste , and the function of the room that you want to decorate. You can use these words to determine the right decorative style both for your personality and for your lifestyle. The combination of different styles might be surprising, but they will be right for you. They will provide you with a style template for your home and you can combine them with your room results to achieve exactly the right look for each space.
Having sorted out the basic priorities the pair then give you their top interior inspiration sources and then go on to talk lighting, colours and style spots. By this, they mean a focal point that grabs the eye. A style spot is a grouping of furniture, artwork and lighting that fits beautifully together and creates impact. When planning a room, we encourage people to split the space up into sections such as the fireplace, the seating area, the entrance and so on, then to consider each one as an individual style spot.
They give tips on using the space you have made look so beautiful.
1 Always maximize neutral light, take down heavy curtains and
allow the day light to flood in.
2 Don’t automatically push furniture up against the walls. Try
placing it in the middle of the room as this gives the illusion of more space
3 Never arrange your seating around the television.
5 Beds should always have a view if you don’t have
one create a style spot to look at (perhaps a dressing table or
chaise longue.
4. It’s impossible to
overestimate the importance of lighting
6 Ensure that every seat has a view too. There should be a
beautiful style spot to to please the eye wherever you sit.
7 In the kitchen take advice from the professionals with regard to layout space and storage. Then adapt the plans to suit your style.
8 Creative storage -and lots of it is essential. Think tall kitchen cabinets, beds with drawers beneath and capacious cupboards. How can you have a beautiful interior if you haven’t got somewhere to hide all the things you don’t want out on display?
9 If you don’t love it, upcycle
it, swap it or recycle it.
10 Keep mixing it up
There are many more tips too. This highly recommended book is both beautiful and practical and will probably inspire extreme home envy so sorry about that, but enjoy.
This is a fun and practical book written by the author of Crafting for Cat Ladies. So if dogs are not your thing you can go and get her other book.
She opens the book with the introduction
“ My dog inspires me daily with her
loyalty, humour and love. Sharker greets
me when I return home after work, always joyful.”
The book opens with the usual techniques tips and materials. As this is a multi craft book there are quite a few of these. There is a mixture of items for your dog and items inspired by dogs. The first chapter called Home includes silhouette portraits of dogs, paw printed stamped gift wrap, a banner and a bone shaped Welcome mat.
The next chapter has accessories including
a journal, a fido phone case, a mans best friendship braclet and a Dachshund
Shopping Tote.
There are fashion items including Dalmation
shoes, a canine clutch and paw print elbow patches. There are fun ideas for DIY
dog themed entertaining and finally a chapter on items that you can make for
your dog including a name tag, a dog coat, a dog bed, and an up-cycled dog toy.
If you love dogs, have a sense of fun and also love to craft these projects will definitely fit the bill!
Tabara grew up in Paris but her family originally came from Senegal a country known for its beautiful Senegalese baskets made from local grasses and coloured strings. In 2017, with her sister, she launched La Basketry, a home ware brand designed in collaboration with a group of female basket-weavers from Ngaye Mkeka.
In this, her first book ,she shines a light on the traditional craft of making baskets. However her contemporary designs fit in perfectly with the modern home.
The
book opens with examples of the history and culture of basket making around the
world. This is a craft where you need very little in the way of tools and
equipment so it is relatively inexpensive to set up. The book is divided into four
main types of basket, based on the materials used, grass, cane, rope and twine.
In each chapter the materials are explained
and as we now live in the days of the internet they are easy to come by.
As
well as basic techniques being covered the reader is given information on how
to display woven pots and how to make them lids.
I
feel the strongest sections of the book are on the grass made baskets and the
rope baskets. The techniques used for both are similar and involve turning and
sewing although in the case of rope, the baskets are made using an ordinary
domestic sewing machine.
Tabara
does basket making for pleasure in her spare time.
“ Basket making allows me to zone out.
Hours pass while all I care about is transforming some grasses into a beautiful
object, forgetting about my phone and my to do list and just focusing on the
present moment.”
Before I was sent this book to review I had never heard of the word Amigurumi . I did what you would have done and looked it up on Google. It is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures. It is a portmanteau of the Japanese words ami, meaning ‘crotched or knitted’ and nuigurumi, meaning ‘stuffed doll’.
The
last book I reviewed on crochet, was on creating cacti and succulents and I
thought that was highly eccentric. However making scented crochet food
replica’s has to beat it for pure bonkersness.
On
this crafty culinary crochet adventure American craft author Allison Hoffman
takes you through a day’s worth of super-cute meals and snacks.
So you can start your day with mini
replicas of pancakes and bacon, choose the fillings for your favourite
lunchtime sandwich, and sit down to a plate of crocheted spaghetti and
meatball, salad and a slice of pie.
There
are also patterns for interactive accessories such as a lunchbox that opens and
closes. There are saucepans, a frying pan and spatula to make as well as a tea
pot.
You are given different ways of scenting the projects using wax melts, scents, herbs and spices.
The
projects are small and simple to make even if you are a novice to crochet, this
is a really fun book.
This
book is to crafts people what a dictionary is to a writer, a very useful tool, full of vital information.
It reminds me of the 1970’s Whole earth catalogue and the 1980’s John Seymour National Trust book ‘Forgotten
Household Crafts’. This is a book for the twenty first century. It is concise
and engaging and not at all ‘worthy’.
Calligraphy
People
love to make things constantly and compulsively. It seems we just can’t help
ourselves. As the author Sally says ‘Whether it’s early humans smashing cobbles
into cutting tools or Napoleonic sailors carving miniature ships from scavenged
bones, the drive to create is one of our most defining and cherished traits. But
humans are also pragmatic. They like to create things with a purpose, a use.’ Throughout
history, people have invented, perfected and shared these different techniques
– from making paper to weaving baskets – so that today, we have a world culture
that’s rich with craft in all its different forms.
Blacksmithing
This is a book that celebrates the history, breadth and skill of crafts and the people who practice them.
One
idea about craft is that the intention is different from, say, art. With art,
the maker usually wants to say something abstract
or
meaningful with the object he or she is producing. The object’s use is
secondary. With craft, it’s usually the other way round. The maker is setting
out to craft something functional and useful, first and foremost, whether it’s
a pot, a rug or a horseshoe.
Wheelwright
Craft
skills are also predominantly manual. Crafters make things by hand. This
careful handcrafting gives objects their other essential quality – uniqueness. While
crafters can produce objects that look very similar – a potter can produce thousands
of a single plate design – each is subtly different.
Glass blowing
DOES CRAFT MATTER? As Sally says ‘On a personal level, the process of being creative and making something by hand involves using parts of my brain that other work can’t reach. When you craft something, there’s an intimate conversation that goes on between brain, eyes, body and hands, an exchange that’s often totally instinctive and unselfconscious. You can lose hours, without noticing it; it’s like meditating without trying. When you make things by hand, there’s also dialogue between you and the materials. All your senses are brought into play. The statistics are hugely encouraging. Not only is craft cool – crafters are younger than the average population – but when it comes to gender, craft is increasingly blind. Half of all painters, illustrators, wood-crafters are men. And they also make up a third of all knitters. In the same breath, women are increasingly taking up traditionally male craft occupations, becoming blacksmiths, wood workers, bookbinders and
printers.’
According
to a recent craft council report :
Craft can alleviate the symptoms of anxiety, depression, loneliness and
even dementia, according to research. Craft courses have been prescribed to patients
since the dawn of occupational therapy in the late 19thcentury, with
basketry used to relieve anxiety and physical ailments in soldiers during the
first-world war.
Basket weaving
Research published by University College London’s MARCH mental health
network – formed in 2018, with members including the Crafts Council and the
Museums Association – shows that engaging with the visual arts can reduce
reported anxiety, and that visiting museums can protect against dementia’s
development. ‘Cultural activities encourage gentle movement, reduce social
isolation, and lower inflammation and stress hormones such as cortisol,’ says
the report’s author, Dr Daisy Fancourt. ‘The arts are linked with dopamine
release, which encourages cognitive flexibility, and they reduce our risk of
dementia.’
Lace making
The book covers makers spaces, buying and displaying craft, and a chapter on endangered crafts.
Spinning
While lots of crafts are in rude health, there are a significant number of traditional skills that are in danger of disappearing altogether. Many of these crafts are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, and make up the fabric of our material culture. From dry stone walls to clog making, basket weaving to coach building, lots of these time honoured crafts are at risk of dying out due to lack of apprentices coming into the trade or the effect of cheaper, mass-produced goods.’ Crafted is so on trend, and at last the government has decided to do something about the lack of apprenticeships. The book covers the following disciplines and all the sub divisions within them. Paper, pen and print, textiles, cloth and leather, wood willow
and nature, pottery glass and stone, metal. There is a very useful section on
craft organisations and a section on poisons used in crafts.
The book is beautifully illustrated by Louise Lockhart. This is certainly a book that earns its position on my book shelf.
Techniques and projects for using Shibori dyeing in textile art.
Shibori is the Japanese term (from the word
‘to squeeze or wring”) for the dye-resist technique of binding, clamping or
gathering the cloth so that the dye cannot reach certain parts.
Stitched rings on a single layer of cotton cloth, Procion MX dye.
Shibori is one of the world’s richest textile traditions. Commonly associated with Japan, it is in fact a technique also long used in Africa, India and South America. In this practical guide textile artist Janice Gunner shows how to combine the different traditions from each of these countries alongside contemporary techniques to create fabulous textiles that are bursting with rich intricate patterns and bold colour.
Traditional kanoko shibori cloths using tied resist. The two kimono wraps (obi age) are ‘linked dot’ shibori, the brown and blue cloths are ‘square ring dots’; silk, Japan.
Janice Gunner is an award winning textile artist particularly known for her Shibori and quilt art. As she has been teaching stitched textile techniques, including Shibori, patchwork and quilting, for the last thirty years, we know we are in the hands of an expert communicator.
Stitched rings on a single layer of cotton cloth, Procion MX dye.
Various
techniques are covered from tied and stitched designs to ideas for wrapping,
folding, clamping, pleating and binding. Simple and safe instructions for a
range of dyeing techniques are also included.
Indigo
is the dye most widely used to create Shibori. It is not a predictable dye and
Janice doesn’t pretend otherwise. She encourages her readers to experiment with
colour, dipping in and out of the dye vat.
Ripples II (detail) by Sue Hickman shows the arashi shibori technique with machine and hand quilting using contrast thread.
Practical
information is given throughout accompanied by clear instructions and diagrams,
aimed at quilters, embroiderers and textile artists of all abilities.
African Odyssey III shows the pleated and bound indigo and kola nut dyed fabric; and hand machine quilted.
The book is chock full with images of
quilts and embroideries that demonstrate the full potential of the techniques
along side practical advice on turning Shibori textiles into beautiful quilts,
hangings and textile art.
This is a very good source book for textile
artists and designers. £14.99
Batsford www.pavillionbooks.com
