five needle books in the shop

Just FYI, if your needles need a cozy, colorful home, five felt needle books are now in the shop!

Zakka Style E-Book Winner

Image courtesy of Stash Books

Without further ado, I'm happy to announce that the randomly selected winner of the Stash Books giveaway of the Zakka Style E-Book is (crescendo of kazoos):
Kate!
(burst of linen confetti)
Kate has a brand spankin' new blog with her first post ever, so go over there and pelt her with comments to make the occasion more momentous. Congratulations, Kate! And thank you to everyone who participated.

Zakka Style giveaway!

Hey, Everybody! Comments for the giveaway are now closed.

I was so pleased to receive my copies of Stash Books Zakka Style the other day. It's a delightful project book compiled by talented Rashida Coleman-Hale from lots of different designers, and is chock-full of patterns to make everyday, useful (but also beautiful) items for gifts and around the home.

I am proud to have my Stem Messenger Bag project included in such a great lineup! There's my little head shot on the page above, just a smilin'. Thanks for taking that shot, Robyn.

Stash Books are kindly offering to give away a copy of the Zakka Style E-Book to one lucky reader! So if you'd like a chance to win, add your comment below. I'll randomly choose a winner on Feb. 24th.

Felty Hearts Challenge Winner

 Images courtesy of Mandy Pelton

Look at this sooo-neatly sewn felt journal cover and bookmark made by Mandy Pelton! Take a bow, Mandy! It's really pretty, and Janet and I love your clever use of the felt hearts and keys die cut set. Bravo!

As the winner of the Felty Hearts Challenge sponsored by Janet from Felt On The Fly, Mandy will receive a free five-piece set of Felt On The Fly's absolutely gorgeous 100% wool felt.

Many thanks to Janet for generously sponsoring the contest!

new batch underway, new way to shop

For those of you who have asked, I have some needle books under construction. I'll shoot for having five or six done before I list them.

Also, I now have a Craftsy pattern store! I'm pretty excited about that. It's a new feature of the Craftsy website and is a marketplace designed especially for PDF patterns - no extra fees for me and instant pattern downloads for you! Which means no more waiting on me to email you the pattern. And that is golden for last minute crafting.

I don't have all my patterns uploaded there yet, but most of them are. I hope to have all of them available there soon. It won't change anything about my good ol' etsy shop! My patterns are still available there, along with any handmade items I manage to crank out. And that brings me back to the needle books, which I hope to list there in the next couple of weeks. If life goes according to plan.

Wee Mouse Tin House pattern available!

The PDF pattern is now available in the shop. (It's also now available here for download.) This makes a great little portable friend to have in your purse or backpack. It's made with scraps you probably have laying (lying?) around. I've taken all the guesswork out of the sizing for you and also included lots of my tricks and tips to make construction very easy. So don't be afraid of tiny! You can do it. Lots of diagrams to explain each step, as usual. Y'all know how I love me some diagrams.

upcoming pattern: wee mouse tin house

(Edit: pattern is now available)
These are the Valentine wee mouses in tin houses for my two girls. They went kinda nuts over Alton so I had planned to make these for them after the Christmas craft craziness was over. The red Altoid tins lend themselves well to the Valentine theme. I thought since I was making more I might as well develop a PDF pattern for them for the shop, so hopefully it will be listed soon. They are quick to make with only scraps required. Fair warning to stockpile your Altoids tins.

Couple of other things too, while I'm writing:

1. I received an email recently about the Craftcation Indie Business & DIY Conference and it sounds like a great time. Right up our alley, eh, Leigh Ann? It's in Ventura, CA, USA and it looks like there is a group discount for reserving your space early, so check it out. From their About page: "Craftcation is a three day indie business & DIY workshop conference. It’s a retreat to inspire, network and build upon the independent craft business community. Our objective is to ignite the entrepreneurial business spirit, strengthen skills and abilities of both seasoned business owners and newcomers to indie craft business. This is an opportunity to network, communicate and share with your peers."
2. Also, if you are into wool felt (duh) and love winning free stuff (double duh), there's still plenty of time to enter the Felt On The Fly's Felty Hearts Challenge and win yourself a pile of gorgeous wool felt. See the details here and her flickr group here.