ArtyFartyAnnie

 WooHOOOO!! After many months working on the Bonkers Quilt itself, and many weeks working on the Bonkers Website with my amazing son Tom (Web Wizard), it's now ready to share with the world and I'm SO excited to show you what we've made! :D Here's a picture of the finished quilt - Tom stitched this picture together from over 100 close-up photos. Altogether, 400 - 500 separate pieces were stitched together to make one gloriously chaotic and colourful community quilt. Over 100 makers from 10 different countries joined in with this heartwarming community project and I just couldn't be more proud of us! Follow  this link to go straight to the Bonkers Website, where you can get a close-up look at all the fabulous details. Click or tap on "Explore" to go to a full-size image, zoom in, and click on individual pieces to see who made them and other details.  Go to the Contributors tab to see a list of all the makers and click on them to go to see the pieces they ...

 Hello and welcome to my craftroom blog! This week I've mostly been focused on the Bonkers Quilt and Bonkers Bunting one way or another, getting ready to take them both with me to the Bazaar August Show next week :) One big task for myself and Tom was to get the Bonkers Website ready to go public, hopefully on Monday. Tom's a Web Dev (ie wizard with mystical powers to me), so he's doing all the clever stuff. My job has been to tell the story of the quilt in a blog format, and work on the interactive part, where you'll be able to zoom in on a huge picture of the quilt, see all the details and click on individual pieces to see who made them.  Here's a screen shot where I've outlined all the pieces - There were 407, but I grouped some of the filler pieces together, so it's more like 500 in all. When the website goes live, this will all be in glorious technicolour. You'll be able to click on each piece, see who made it, which country they live in and there w...

 One of our lovely community members, Lynne B, recently rediscovered one of my videos from a few years back - how to make a keepsake mini book with patterned papers.  Lynne had enjoyed the video and was inspired to make a mini book herself, but the link for the instructions was no longer working (it went to an old FB page which I discontinued). I love making these little books, they make a great gift or fundraiser, and you can make one easily in an afternoon.  Front cover So, to cut a long story short, I re-wrote the instructions and re-edited the video and it's going out as a live premiere this morning 5th August at 11am UK time. During the premiere, we can watch the video together and enjoy YouTube's Live Chat feature, but the video will still be available to watch afterwards. I'll put a link below which will take you straight over there.  I sent Lynne the new instructions to try out, and she'd also downloaded the instructions for another one of my golden oldies - ...

 Our first Sunday Brunch Live over on YouTube this weekend was a great success, despite the fact that we lost track of time and almost missed it ourselves!  We had a lot of fun, and the new times lot seemed to work well for many people. Huge congratulations to Kate and Melissa, who were both winners in the draw. The beautiful Tilly Rose book is on the way to Kate here in the UK, and I'm still waiting to hear from Melissa, who won the Amazing World of Collage book - if she doesn't contact me within 21 days, it will go back into the draw.  I also made some colorful watercolour splatty pages, which I plan to doodle into later  - and of course there was a generous portion of waffle on the side with a sprinkle of cheek from Tom :) We'll be serving Sunday Brunch Live every Sunday from 2pm UK time (BST) - see you there!  Annie xo

Hello, and welcome to my craftroom blog on this first day of a brand new month! To celebrate the first ever Sunday Brunch Live , we'll be doing two giveaways - stitchy, one artsy - and they'll both be open internationally.  This beautiful book by Tilly Rose is a joy to look through and so inspiring, any slow-stitcher will love it, I know I do! This one is full of wonderful imagery to cut out and collage - my mate Zoe Hartist  sent me a copy and I loved it so much that I bought two more, one especially for this giveaway :) Join us if you can this Sunday from 2pm - 3.30pm UK time (BST). I'm going to be doodling onto watercolour splashes - bring along whatever you'd like to work on, or just grab some refreshments, relax with us, and enjoy the live chat. Just click here to go straight over to YouTube, make sure you have the Live Chat window open and type your messages in there if you'd like to join in. Cheerio for now,  Annie xo  

 Hello and welcome to my craftroom blog! As far as I know there is just one more piece to come in for our Bonkers Bunting, this year's Arty Farty Community project. I thought this would be a good time to lay it out and get a rough idea of how long it's going to be ... Starting at my front door     Stretching all the way to the back door! I paced it out and it's over the 10m I had estimated! Now my plan is to make a wrap to store it in - when it's all folded up, the stack measures about 20cm deep.         Inside the wrap I want to include the names and countries of everyone who contributed, probably hand-stitched onto linen or something.  If you'd like to come and see the Bonkers Bunting AND the Bonkers Quilt in person, I'll be taking it to the Bazaar August Show on the 15th and 16th August. You'll find me and my friends Marian and Lucy at Stitchy Corner, where you can sit and stitch with us for a while if you'd like to, using the gorgeous Indian...

 Hello, and welcome to my craftroom blog! I'm shaking things up over on my YouTube channel   - a whole new chapter starts this Sunday, with the first ever  Sunday Brunch Live  from 2pm - 3.30pm UK time (BST). This weekly livestream will replace the WIP & Waffle Wednesdays AND the Arty Farty Parties which used to happen on the first Saturday of every month. Tom will join me in person and there will be the usual mix of arts and crafts with a generous portion of waffle! To celebrate the first Sunday Brunch, we'll be doing two giveaways - one for the stitchers and one for the mixed media arty types (although you can enter for both). More news about them later :) I decided that it's also a good time to refresh this blog and start making use of it again. I think it will be a great way to share information, extra photos, free printables, and those kinds of things, and also somewhere I can record thoughts, ideas, and news that I don't share elsewhere. It will also...