My Crafty Bookshelf Wishlist

There are some fabulous books out there at the moment, it seems like all the amazing bloggers are getting themselves published lately. Here are a few that I would like to see under the tree this Christmas.

Sew La Tea Do 
Pip Lincolne

I would love to have a copy of this book. Pip is the author of the blog Meet Me at Mikes and a Melbourne girl.

Pip has a fabulous video tutorial on her blog that must have taken hours to put together, showing how to crochet a granny square. It was so worth it, I have struggled and struggled with this, but Pip's videos got me there when nothing else did.

I also recently saw that Pip was on The Circle (I admit, I never actually watched it, but I did see the bit with Pip on it, on the internet. I like the novelty of the cushion that was re-fashioned out of a business shirt, and I am sure I will love many other projects that are bound to be in this book.

Whip Up Mini Quilts
Kathreen Ricketson

This book is put together by Kathreen Ricketson of the blog Whip Up and features miniature quilts created by various quilters with different styles.

One of the mini quilts in this book was designed by Kellie Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now, who I recently met at one of her fabulous workshops.

I like the idea of small projects. It is a great way to be able to complete projects quickly and try out new techniques.

The Practical Guide to Patchwork           
Elizabeth Hartman 

I have already benefited from Elizabeth Hartman's expertise, by way of her blog, Oh Fransson! and I am sure there is plenty of fantastic quilty advice in this book as well.

Sometimes when you wish for something hard enough, it (ahem) falls into a shopping cart at the book depository and before you know it, a copy is on it's way to you. Ooops!




Make It Perfect
Toni Coward

This book is still a bit over a week from being released, but I would love to see a copy of this one under the tree this Christmas.

I love Toni's blog, Make It Perfect, she has an impressive range of patterns already (some of which I have) and some of my friends were involved in testing her patterns for this book.
 

Some tips for buying books on-line: 

I love the Book Depository for buying books and saving $$$. Postage is free and the price is given in Australian Dollars. You can pay by Paypal, or by credit card if that is what you prefer. I mostly order from the UK site, rather than the US one, but sometimes it pays to shop around. 

If you go to booko, you can see who has your book the cheapest (it compares lots of places, including Amazon and takes into account postage as well). I paid $AU19.47 for Elizabeth Hartman's book today from the US Book Depository, and the UK site is charging $AU25.67 - that is a saving of $6.20. 

If you plan to order books for Christmas, I would suggest that you do it soon, I recently had a book take just over three weeks to get here from the UK, and Christmas is now less than six weeks away.

My Creative Space - Snip, snip, chop, chop, sew, sew, sew....

I'm working on Cogsmo quilts for my boys. The tops are done, and the binding is all prepped. The original plan has changed a little because the maths worked better for the size of the quilts. Next up I need to make the quilt sandwiches.



I'm still not sure about what sort of quilting to do...?



More Creative Spaces over here.

Linen Wrap Skirt - .Sew What! Skirts

I recently purchased Sew What! Skirts from the Book Depository, with the plan to make myself a wrap skirt or two. The book guides you through making your own patterns and then putting together sixteen different skirts. Since it only cost me $15.58, it was cheaper than many patterns, so totally worthwhile. There is enough information in the book to get you going with most basic styles of skirts, along with some simple ways to make them look a bit fancy. I would recommend this book even to beginners.

I was quite surprised with how quickly I managed to put this skirt together - maybe 2-3 hours? (In between swimming lessons and cooking roast lunches and entertaining guests and general running around after little people and clothes washing and hanging and folding and other house-worky things) but I think I might make a few adjustments to the pattern before I make another - it was a little more roomy than I anticipated. In a very basic linen, I think this skirt will go with quite a few things, along with the butterfly tie-front blouse I made recently.