Holiday bazaars, an annual tradition for many churches, are popping up everywhere in The Berkshires as people get into the holiday spirit and look to buy craft items, homemade gifts and baked goods.A …
Looking for some great Christmas crafts to sell at bazaars & craft fairs this season? Here are some great picks to help you turn a profit.
South African Curry and Rice, the perfect comfort food that consists of slow cooked beef mince in a sweet and spicy curry sauce, with perfectly cooked carrots and potatoes, served on rice.
50 church fundraising ideas and tips to help raise money for mission trips, youth group or a charitable cause.
Looking for the best fundraising ideas for your church this fall? We've got you covered. Keep reading for the top 5 products for your next church fundraiser.
Is your youth group looking for ways to make money for your next mission trip or big event? Here are some of the best low or no-cost fundraising ideas.
Chi fa buns Once in a while, you come upon a perfect recipe, so good that nothing out there can compare. This is one of those rare recipe...
United Methodist artist says anyone can find focus and improve their prayer life with beads.
Nelly, the wonderful Greek woman who shared this spanakopita recipe with me, makes it every year for her Church's festival. I think it's quite filling.
An easy and foolproof South African Pannekoek (Pancake) recipe, a real South African treat served with cinnamon sugar and fresh lemon.
With school days just around the corner (my son starts kindergarten one week from today - sniffs!), I am sure many of us can relate to the fact that sometimes meal planning can become a real burden during the everyday hustle and bustle. This flip recipe organizer is designed to keep recipes organized so that meal
FMC Prayer Stations
Are you looking for a way to make money for the holidays? You'll love these ideas for the best things to make and sell at Christmas
Tutorials for 3 simple DIY Yard Games: Yahtzee, Dominoes, and Jenga. From measurements to tips and quick reference guides, I've got you covered.
Seven tips for hosting an amazing craft night for you and your friends. Learn the pitfalls and keys to success to have a blast for ladies night out!
This Clay Recipe is so simple to make and it is perfect for making just about anything!
Take a look at the spectacular set Dior created for its Couture spring 2017 show in Paris.
More than 10 free patterns for projects to sew for charity
They're called pew babies, church dolls, angel babies, prayer dolls, handkerchief dolls, and hanky dolls. Here's a simple handkerchief doll tutorial for you
This simple quilt was designed in EQ for our church bazaar auction. After I sewed the quilt top, a group of ladies in the community and I hand-quilted it. I changed the solid and white blocks in EQ in
Looking for things for kids to make and sell at school (maybe for market day?). Here’s 19 unique things to sell at school.
Someone once said that “travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” I couldn’t agree more. I feel so fortunate and humbled to have been able to see and experience so many…
19 DIY gifts and crafts you can make for yourself, your friends or even sell! And the best part is knowing that some of these things are in your garage or in your craft drawer, already!
There have been lots of lovely comments about my snippet rolls - the ones I made for Linda, Margaret, Nathalie and Patty, so I thought I'd share with you how to make your very own. Do you remember these? well you'll need some cotton reels. I soaked these ones in some walnut ink, but you can use coffee or tea to dye them. And you will need some scraps of fabric. Do you remember when I dyed this and rubbed it around the concrete to age it? Measure out how long you want your snippet rolls to be and tear fabric into lengths. I had to cut the lace, but I rubbed the ends to fray them slightly. Start layering the fabrics. When you have 2 or 3 layers, start layering snippets of anything you may have. I used postage stamps, bits of paper, photos, text from books, anything! Then when you have all your snippets in place lay a piece of organza ribbon over top, making sure it hangs just a little longer than your fabric pieces. Then pin all the layers together and take it to the sewing machine and stitch down the length of it. I sewed a vine with leaves. However you choose to sew it, make sure you catch all the snippets under the ribbon. Then I attached the top end of the ribbon to the cotton reel with a furniture tack which is small tack with a pretty head. Almost finished... Just roll it up and thread a ribbon through the cotton reel and tie it up. These would be great to make with a theme, a birthday, Mother's Day, Valentines Day with lots of little love snippets. What different ideas can you think of for snippet rolls? Have fun! Carole :)
I have hundreds of ideas swimming through my mind at any given time, but the ones I'd like more time to explore and play around with are ideas for re-purposing vintage linens. We had a lovely relaxed weekend. On Saturday morning we checked out a few garage sales and found a brilliant rowing machine for minimal cost, I experimented in the kitchen and successfully came up with a lovely slice recipe which I'll share another day, Mr E pottered around with the car and wrote some school assessments, we watched a wonderful new movie (Lion), and eventually closed our weekend with fish and chips by the beach at sunset. In between these activities I indulged myself by following through with a vintage doily idea that's been simmering away in my mind for weeks, so felt totally content when it was complete. Some cutting here, some stitching there, I didn't rush anything but weaved the project throughout our two day break until all that was needed were a button and ribbon sewn in place early Monday morning. I'll share with you the steps I took, but there's no measurements or patterns sheets because it grew from one circular cross-stitched doily I've had for many years. Your doily may be a different shape or size, but the basic instructions will work none-the-less. I began by choosing two 1930's reproduction fabrics in pink and blue from my stash, with colours as close as possible to those used in the doily's cross stitch. Then I cut a circle from the blue fabric about 1 1/4" wider in diameter than the doily, a square from the pink fabric slightly larger than my circle, and a square of Parlan which I fused behind the pink square. (you could use thin fusible Pellon instead) Lay the circle right side down on the pink square and pin the two fabrics together. Sew around the circle with a 1/4" seam, leaving a 2"- 3" opening for turning out. I used blue pins as my markers for where to begin and end the sewing. Cut away the excess pink fabric... ...and clip into the curve with your scissors, being careful not to cut through the seam line. Turn the circle right side out and press. You now have two sides of the opening to hem. Tack the curved fold of the Parlan backed pink fabric in a contrast colour and iron a curved hem along the edge of the blue fabric. Ladder stitch the two sides together to close the opening and remove the contrast tacking thread. Fuse a strip of applique bonding paper along the centre back of your doily, and once cooled, peel it off. Gentle fuse the doily onto the centre of the blue side of your circle with a warm, dry iron. Now you'll need two strands of blue embroidery thread, a length of cream Ric Rac, and some cream Perle #12 thread. Sew a line of blue running stitch 1/4" inside the edge of the blue circle. It's fine for the stitches to show through on the pink side. Turn over to the pink side of the circle and use the cream Perle #12 thread to hand sew the Ric Rac over the blue running stitch. Don't stitch right through the circle, just place your needle between the blue and pink fabrics as you stitch. Use pinking shears to cut a circle of cotton or wool quilt wadding, two inches smaller than your fabric circle. Fold the circle of wadding in half and sew a line of contrast tacking stitch just under the fold as a guide for you when working on the next step. On one side of the fold, embroider some simple flowers with colonial knot centres, lazy daisy petals and cross stitch leaves. I chose variegated threads very close in colour to the threads used in my vintage doily. You can scatter the flowers around any way you like. I kept the middle of the half circle free because I wanted to add something there later. Take a length of silk ribbon, lay it in position on the pink fabric circle, and carefully embroider a flower into the middle of it, whilst sewing only through the pink fabric and not through the blue. The ribbon is to hold your scissors in place so choose where you want the scissors to be before you start the embroidery. Turn the circle back to the blue side. Blanket stitch around the edge of the doily with two strands of blue thread to secure it onto the fabric, being careful not to stitch through to the pink side. Remove the tacking stitch from the wadding and sew the wadding to the pink side of the needle-book along the centre fold line with cream thread. Hide the stitches between the pink and blue sides of the needle-book. From here you can finish the needle book as you like. I sewed a mother of pearl button onto the centre lower front of my needle-book, then folded a length of blue silk ribbon in half and stitched the fold to the opposite edge of the circle. This way when I close the needle-book I can wrap the ribbon around the button and tie a bow for closure. Inside the needle-book I added a few vintage buttons and sewed a sweet round of crochet to the front of the embroidered wadding before adding a mother of pearl button to the centre of the crochet. Lastly I secured my very old embroidery scissors in place with the ribbon. Now you might be fussy about wanting to hide the back of your wadding embroidery? If so, you could add another piece of same sized wadding behind the embroidered one and blanket stitch around the edge of the two wadding circles to secure them together before sewing this piece in place on your needle-book. But me? I actually love the raw homeliness of my threads when the pin keep is opened... Truly, this was a delight to make and I hope you have fun making something similar. Have a blessed and joy filled week! hugs
Dedicated to the wonderful fashion/makeup/people/culture of the 1940's, 50's and 60's. None of the content posted on here is mine unless otherwise stated. Enjoy!
