Tag: hearts

Posted on

June Newsletter

Show season has started, do come and visit our stand and take a look at our fantastic range of craft products. On the 1st to 4th August we will be exhibiting at The Festival of Quilts Birmingham, and are delighted to offer you the ability to buy discounted tickets to this event using the following unique code FESTIVAL173. Check out the pinned post at the top of our Facebook page to find out how to win a pair of tickets. Then on 29th to 31st August you will find us at West Country Quilt & Textile Show, Bristol.

Whats New In-Store & Online? Click Here to see New Arrivals

If you fancy learning a new craft or furthering your skills in something you currently do, we offer a wide range of regular classes and one-off workshops. New classes for July to December 2019  are being added to our website daily, these can be booked immediately. Click Here to see the latest information

Giving something back…… 
This month we are pleased to support the following events: on Wednesday 12th June Frances Bulmer was joined by some generous folks to make heart shaped cushions which help with pain relief for breast cancer patients at the Primrose unit in Bedford. CLICK HERE to find out how you can help next time.

Also on the weekend of 15th/16th June Chris & Kate will be undertaking their annual 24 hour Charity Sewathon, this year they and their band of helpers will be making as many cushion covers as possible which will be donated to a number of local care homes. They would really appreciate donations of fabric or squares to make the cushions which can be dropped off at Tudor Rose Patchwork.

Schools Out! it comes round sooner than you think……
Do you have a youngster who is interested in craft, take a look at our summer holiday workshop programme? These workshops focus on learning to sew and create simple projects. 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW/BOOK WORKSHOPS

STOP PRESS !!!
Goldwork Moonlit Hare, NEW date Thursday 21st November 2019

Book Online

Posted on

Purple Boots and the Powertex

 

I have been having lots of fun this week experimenting with our new range of Powertex products. Having worked with a visiting Powertex tutor I took myself off to Powertex UK to learn more about this exciting product.

Powertex fabric hardener and textile hardener is an environmentally friendly water-based liquid sculpting medium. It can harden absorbent materials such as textiles, paper, cardboard, fabrics, leather and fiberglass and can be easily combined with self-hardening clays, concrete, stone, ceramic, wood, sand and Stone Art.

Over the summer I have been collecting a range of materials to recycle as Powertex offers masses of opportunities for ‘green’ crafting. I have turned many old t-shirts into t-shirt yarn which we will come in really useful once I move onto bigger figures. Old jewellery is also a great resource, broken necklaces and old buttons and beads. I also discovered some lovely but stained old crocheted doilies in a charity shop and these too will be getting the treatment.

As a way of introducing Powertex I am running a course called Out of the Frame. This week I have been busy making the samples. First I covered my base materials – old frames and canvases – with some of those recycled t-shirts then I got creative. Powertex is absorbed by the fabric but takes some time to become hard so it allows for lots of opportunities to change my mind and reposition the elements of my designs. In order to get some elements to adhere you need a little patience and some jiggery pokery with scraps of lace and paper.

 

Time for a brew and step back for half an hour, and now the pieces I have been working on are well on the way to dry. At this point I need to pick a palette of colours for each piece I’m working on. Steampunk is gradually turning into shades of blue while my fantasy frame is a little more subtle with metallic shade.

Unlike other coloured media you cannot go too wrong with colour on Powertex pieces. If it’s too strong I simply take a little Powertex on my brush and blend it over to soften the effect. A little patience, a little layering, and I am done.

 

Now….fairy houses….hmmm!

Purple Boots x