Make and Craft Book Club Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on the Make and Craft Book Club Blog Tour!

In conjunction with Make and Craft and Search Press I am giving away this lovely sewing book, Love to Sew: Hanging Hearts.

Love to Sew: Hanging Hearts by Rachael Rowe, published by Search Press
ISBN: 9781844487875
RRP Price: £7.99

Book Description

Make perfect hearts for your home, whether they are traditional, shabby chic, unusual or country style. Hang them from doors and dressers, in fact anywhere. They brighten up rooms and can also make perfect gifts for friends and relatives. This book shows how to make a gorgeous selection of hearts, with fun projects, clear instructions and easy to use templates. If you love to sew, you will love the designs and ideas presented here. 

This book represents the first in a new series of titles aimed at anyone who loves to sew. Making the most of the growing trend in home sewing, it offers all those who sew and stitch fresh, innovative ideas for on-trend projects and gifts. The subject of this book is 'hanging hearts' - highly popular, contemporary items that make perfect gifts for weddings, christenings and Valentine's day, as well as lovely little decorative items that can be hung from doors, dressers, wardrobes and doors around the home. Including both simple hand and machine stitching, this book offers the reader advice on the basic techniques and materials needed, plus twenty gorgeous projects in a range of styles that includes shabby chic, vintage, French country style, traditional and simply fun! There's a beautiful rustic wreath decorated in little fabric hearts, a delightful string of hearts, and numerous individual hearts made from various fabrics and felt and decorated with ric rac, ribbons, buttons and bows. All the instructions are accompanied by clear, step-by-step photographs, and full-size templates of all the hearts are provided. Ideal for beginners as well as more experienced stitchers, all the hearts are quick and easy to make and are ideal for using up scraps of fabric, odd buttons, left-over ribbon and all sorts of oddments found around the home.

• 20 beautiful projects in a range of style, colours and fabrics
• Includes basic techniques and materials, and the hearts themselves are very easy to make, making this book suitable for stitchers of all abilities
• Hanging hearts are very popular and ‘on-trend’, as well as being a traditional symbol of love

This book is really clear to use with lovely pictures and great ideas. I have made similar hearts and attached them to the top of our headboard on our bed which we spritz with Molton Brown relaxing mist. You could stuff these with dried lavender along with wadding and place these in drawers to give a lovely scent.

Search Press and Make and Craft have secured free P&P when purchasing this book, just call Search Press on 01892 510850 quoting "Make and Craft Blog Tour".

To win this book just leave a comment on this post below and/or post a link on twitter linking to this post and include me @saraleighuk in the post so I can include you in the draw.

The winner will be drawn on Wednesday 10th October 2012 and the winner will be announced on this blog and contacted within 48 hours of the draw taking place.

Make & Craft Magazine

Make and Craft Magazine is a new craft magazine which is published monthly both in print and digitally. There are some great subscription offers available including 3 digital copies for £1 or 3 printed copies for £3. There's also a fab free gift for 12 or 24 UK subscriptions.

The digital subscription means that international crafters can read the magazine for no extra cost as it doesn't need to be shipped!

For further information on subscriptions and to join the Make and Craft forum go to www.makeandcraft.com

About Me
For those of you who are new to my blog, my name is Sara and I took up crafting properly at the end of last year (2011) when I realised I could make our wedding invitations for a fraction of the cost of stationers. I brought a craft magazine in December 2011 and have been hooked on crafting ever since, although I've always like making things. I live in Essex with my husband Lee and pygmy hedgehog Spike.

My favorite crafts are paper-crafts and card making, and sewing. My favorite sewing books have to be Cath Kidston's Make and Tilda's Sew Pretty Homestyle. I've not brought any crafting books about paper-crafting myself as yet but have plenty on my Christmas list! 

Last Christmas I got a sewing machine, my very own first adult sewing machine! It's purple and really nice and light weight so I can get it out easily and just put it on the dining table. 

I've made lots of random pieces including cafetiere cosies (the original one for my parents and then my friend at work asked me to make her one out of some Bambi material she had), washing up liquid bottle apron, door stops and a cover to go round the bottom of our hedgehogs cage to disguise all of the bits we keep under there for him.

My lovely purple sewing machine

My first make on my sewing machine - a cafetiere cosy for my parents

My second make - a Cath Kidston washing up liquid bottle apron

 One craft I would really like to try is knitting. My Nan use to knit all the time but I never picked it up, she did try and show me once and I did get those childrens kits but never got the hang of it. Watching knitting shows on Create and Craft has really made me want to try it, although I'm not sure my husband would be to happy with even more things round the house.

I also love baking and cooking and some of my recent cakes are shown below.

Cookie Monster Cupcakes - made for my sisters 21st Birthday

Superhero Cakes - made for my Dads Birthday - my first attempt at decorating cupcakes with fondant icing

Our wedding cake! Made by my Mum and I. We made the cakes together (bottom fruit, middle vanilla sponge, top tier chocolate) and Mum decorated it. I have a very clever Mum!

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my blog. Why not check out the next stop on the Make and Craft Blog Tour by stopping off at Cooking Cakes and Children.

Update: The draw took place on Wednesday and the winner was Sue (Eviesgran)! Thanks all those for entering

Woohoo - I won another crafty prize

...but this time for my sister :)

DoCrafts had their weekly Facebook competition where you have to say what you would do with the crafty prize.

Last weeks was a complete card kit which I thought would be perfect for my sister. She likes helping me make cards but with this kit everything is there for her. I sent my entry into DoCrafts explaining this and while my sister was round on Wednesday I got an email to say I'd won!

The prize came this morning and is so lovely! Everything comes in a pink gingham box and includes preprinted backgrounds on each card, toppers, verses and gems. I've not opened it as I'm being good since I've won it for my sister but can't wait for the grand unveiling on Wednesday with her.

Now to cross my fingers and hope my luck wins me the lottery! (first item on my shopping list if I win is a house with space for a hydrotherapy pool, and a hydrotherapy pool. I'd also love to open a hydrotherapy pool for the public as they're so few and far between and help people with muscle weakness and other disabilities)