How To Tuesday: No-Sew 'Sewing'

This post is written by Mandi Jackson especially for the Pink Auction blog. Slainté.

No sew projects are a quick, easy, and affordable way to customize and accessorize your home! Here are some simple No Sew ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Blogs..No-Sewing required:

Friendly Cottage

Forty Two Roads

Links featuring No-Sew advice and projects:

No-Sew Tie Pillow from CraftBits.com

No-Sew Tutu with eHow

No-Sew Window Treatments from Better Homes and Gardens

No-Sew crafting with kids from TLC

No-Sew Tote Bag from Martha Stewart

Visual aids:

No-Sew Lampshade

No-Sew Tie Pillow

No-Sew Tie Blanket

No-Sew T-shirt Pillow

How to Donate Your Textile Creation

As the Pink Auction approaches, we are feeling warm fuzzies in our hearts with the kindness of the creative textile community and encouragement from those who want to join us in fighting Breast Cancer. Thank you! Without you, the Pink Auction would still be just an idea.

This post is to tell you that we are in the final phase of accepting donations for the auction. As the auction event takes place on Sunday, October 11, it is important to receive donation items in early September so we may properly catalogue, photograph, and publicize their presence in the auction. Post/mail your creation along with the completed donation form to:

Pink Auction

c/o Vibes & Scribes

21 Lavitt’s Quay

Cork City

Co. Cork

Ireland

If you wish to hand deliver the item and are in the Cork City area, bring your creation and the completed donation form to the Drop-In & Drop-Off Party at Vibes & Scribes on September 11. Of course, if you are unavailable that day, email us (pinkcork at gmail.com) so we can arrange a time to meet you in Cork City Centre for a personal hand-off.

How To Tuesday: Felting

This post is written by Mandi Jackson especially for the Pink Auction blog. Slainté.

Everyone knows what felt is, typically it is that scratchy material used in children's craft projects. But felt can be beautiful, ecological, and homemade! Here are some fantastic felting ideas that inspired us.

Felting Blogs:

Felting Tutorial from Nicola Brown

Felting Ideals from CraftGossip.com

Living Felt

Felting Links:

Felted Sweater Patches with Martha Stewart

Making Felt with FeltBetter.com

Felting projects from Craftzine.com

Nuno Felting Photo Tutorial

Fabulous Felting Videos:

Two-Part "How to Needle Felt in Four Minutes": Part 1 & Part 2

Wet Felting Tutorial

Felting Soap (a very cool idea)

How To Tuesday: Embellishing

This post is written by Mandi Jackson especially for the Pink Auction blog. Slainté.

Fabric embellishment is an incredible art, it can be used to customize ANYTHING! You can use fabric embellishments to decorate everything from the tote you carry to the supermarket to the pillows that decorate your sofa or bed, you can even use fabric embellishments to jazz up your scrapbooks, cards, and gifts!!! This is one of my favorite textile arts, I think you can see why.

Embellished bloggers:

Blissfully Domestic

Wise Craft

The DIY Dish

Incredible Embellishing sites:

Embellish with eHow

Embellish jeans or Embellish tote bags with Martha Stewart

Embellish throw pillows with Woman's Day

Make your old scarf new again with Sewing.org

Fantastic Instructional Videos:

Fabric Embellishment Tutorial

Fabric Flower Embellishments

Photo by Monette Enriquez

How To Tuesday: Batik

This week's How To Tuesday link list was compiled by Evin of Spring Stitches with her favorite links for learning about and how to create batik.

Batik. Free instructions.

Learn How to Batik Cloth with LAZACODE Education and Creative Foundation.

How to Make Sadza Batik: A Tutorial from It Takes A Village, a Zimbabwe blog about African crafts.

Spring Into a Fresh Batik Technique with Pokey Bolton

The Best FREE Craft Articles: Faux Batik Fabric Tutorial by Terri Stegmiller

How to Batik: 10 steps - wikiHow

How to do Batik

How to Batik

Fabric Painting and Batik

Easy Peasy Batik Dyed Shirts from SouthernPlate.com

Photo from Aluka Digital Library

Photo by Cain Doherty

How To Tuesday: Knitting

This week, Evin O'Keeffe from Spring Stitches shares her favorite links for learning to knit.

We all wear knitted items, from jersey tees to cozy cardigans, but machine knitting has made it so accessible few know the treasures of hand-knit items. Knitting is enjoying a resurgence in popularity and it will only increase with the upcoming release of the film 'Friday Night Knitting Club' with Julia Roberts.

If you've always wanted to learn to knit, here are some basic 'how to' and tutorial links to get you started, including a few videos.

I'll start with a post I recently wrote for my own blog, Spring Stitches. Learn to Knit has helpful links to resources & tutorials, including a link to a two-page flyer of knitting basics (PDF) hosted on my website.

How to Knit from TLC

Learn How to Knit from KnittingHelp.com

Learn to Knit from Lion Brand Yarn

How To Tuesday: Quilting

This post is written by Mandi Jackson especially for the Pink Auction blog. Slainté.

Quilting is such an amazing form of expression. After receiving a gorgeous quilt as a wedding present, I have a new appreciation for quilting. A quilt can be a record of family events, tell a story, or it can just be a beautiful addition to your home. Here are some links that were inspiring to me. When you are ready for quilt patterns, check out Pink Auction's very own Free Pattern Friday: Quilts post.

Quilt-addicted Bloggers:

Irish Muses

Celtic Knots

Irish Quilting

Lazy Gal Quilting

Thread Society

Sites with a plethora of quilting information:

Quilting How To's from Quilt.com

Quilting with About.com

Quilting on eHow

Quilting Patterns from FreePatterns.com

Simple Baby Quilt from Martha Stewart

Quilting Videos, now there are a million of these on YouTube.com, but these are a few with How-To instructions:

Beginners Baby Quilt from ExpertVillage.com

Cutting your fabric

Making borders

Attaching borders

Connecting a Bias Strip

How To Tuesday: Needlepoint

This post is written by Mandi Jackson especially for the Pink Auction blog. Slainté.

Needlepoint is a neat way to express your creativity. It is an affordable art, and let's face it…it's FUN! Here are some ideas to you started.

Neat Needlepoint Bloggers:

Chilly Hollow Needlepoint

Canvas and Thread

LilyStitch

DMC-Threads

Some nifty sites to help with your needlepoint:

Teach your kids Needlepoint

Learn Needlepoint with eHow

Basic Needlepoint Stitches from Savvy Cafe

Free Needlepoint patterns from About.com

Informative Needlepoint videos:

Getting started from MonkeySee.com

The Continental Stitch from MonkeySee.com

Ending a thread from MonkeySee.com

Other Stitches from MonkeySee.com

Photo by Ellen Macdonald

How To Tuesday: Crewel Embroidery

This post is written by Mandi Jackson especially for the Pink Auction blog. Slainté.

Crewel is a fantastic and versatile style of embroidery. It has a vast library of stitches, which vary in difficulty and complexity. There isn't any counting involved in this style of embroidery, and it does not require evenweave fabric, so curves can be sharper and more realistic. Here are some amazing sites to inspire you.

Crewel Bloggers:

Basic Crewel Embroidery Stitches (with diagrams)

Crewel Embroidery Projects from Needle N Thread

Stitching a Jacobean Flower from Stitching with a Shimmy

Helpful How To links:

Learn to Crewel with eHow

Stitch Dictionary from In A Minute Ago

10 tips for Crewel Results from Stitching with a Shimmy

What is Crewel Embroidery from Stitching Cow

A few videos for those who learn by example (Like me):

Introduction to Crewel Embroidery

Getting Started with Crewel Embroidery: Part 1 & Part Two.

Photo by Nancy L. Stockdale

How To Tuesday: Embroidery

This week's 'How To Tuesday' was written by Evin of Spring Stitches.

Embroidery is one of my favorite textile arts because it can be added to just about anything for a personal touch. Some other reasons to love a little embroidery in your life and textiles is that it gives it a handmade appearance or vintage feel and the supplies don't take up much space.

Some crafty bloggers that inspire me to embroider while sharing their knowledge are:

Made Marian

Hooked On Needles

Grannymar

I would consider myself an embroidery beginner and think these are some useful links for those of us learning to embroider:

Embroidery 101! from Instructables.com

Free Embroidery Instructions from Craftown.com

Free Embroidery Lessons from Needlework Tips & Techniques

How to Embroider by Hand By Batul Nafisa Baxamusa

Knot Know-How Tutorial from The Purl Bee

How-To: Embroidery from Martha Stewart

How to Embroider a Bag from guardian.co.uk

How to Embroider On Crochet - For Dummies

Of course, as with most creations, it is often easier to understand how to do something after seeing someone else do it, so here are a couple of our favorite YouTube videos on embroidery:

How To Tuesday: Crochet a Breast Cancer Pink Ribbon Left-handed

Because 'Free Pattern Friday' is such a popular blog feature, we're starting 'How To Tuesday' which will show different creative textile arts and how you can learn to create such things yourself! For our very first 'How To Tuesday', we're learning how to crochet a Breast Cancer pink ribbon left-handed.

How to Donate

With just over four months until the first ever Pink Auction, we are gearing up to start receiving donations of creative textiles. For each auction item donated, the donor needs to submit a completed donation form so the auction organizers know just how special your creation is!

We love it when you keep in touch with us while you're working on the donation so drop us a note and if you include a photo or link to your blog post about the project, we'll feature it in an upcoming Pink Cork blog post!

For now, you can download two PDFs - One with the DONATION FORM to complete for each item you donate to the Pink Auction and the other PDF is a list of SUGGESTED DONATION ITEMS. Both are in this post as images for you to preview and linked to in both forms on our blog's MEDIA page.