Free Resources Friday

I’m very under the weather this week so I need to be brief. Hopefully this might give you some things to keep you occupied a bit until I get better 🙂

QuiltingTutorials.com is a website run by the folks at Missouri Star Quilt Co. There are many, many videos showing everything from quilting basics to intermediate level patterns.

Popular quilt fabric company Riley Blake Designs has 57 free quilting projects available on their site. I did find that in some cases the fabric requirements could be reduced if you can get a fat quarter instead of needing 1/3 yard to get a 10 inch square, also you may save fabric if you use pre-cuts. It all depends on the pattern. Just read closely before shopping. I plan to try several of the patterns in the future 🙂

If you want to try Craftsy.com for free but you are not a quilter, there is a free knitting workshop available for a limited time. (That is it is free for a limited time — and since you can always sign up now and watch the videos/interact with the instructor at any time in the future, it’s worth signing up even if you don’t have time right now.) The free workshop is the One-Skein Shrug taught by Stephanie Japel.

Finally, if you are interested in the history of fiber arts in Britain you may like to listen to a two-part series from BBC radio’s Coast and Country that is available for a few weeks on their website.  You can download the shows or listen directly from the web page. In the 29 December 2011 episode (Gansey) you can learn about the history of knitting Ganseys. In the episode from 05 January 2012 (Knockando) they explore the history of a small Scottish mill, including weaving and rearing sheep. If you wish to download an episode, click on the Download link beneath the show title on the left hand side of the page. If you wish to listen from your web browser, click on the show name in the small box on the right hand side of the page and you can use their built-in Flash player.

In other news I did get my new sewing machine but I haven’t felt up to blogging about it yet. I hope to be over this virus in a few days so hopefully I’ll have plenty of things to show you soon!