With 35 projects that you'll love to make and a helpful techniques section, this book will teach you all about sewing machines. Start out with Clothes and Accessories, where you can make a felt collar and cosy scarf, as well as a pretty skirt. Then try one of the Bags and Cases, such as a cute bobble-trim coin purse, an MP3 player case and even a sleepover bag. Transform your room with Things for Your Room - the wall tidy looks great and gives you somewhere to store all your bits and pieces, and you can brighten up your bedding with a patchwork quilt. Finally, why not have a go at the Toys and Games? Make a rag doll, and then clothes for it, too, to get a feel for dressmaking, or create a fabric games board for playing draughts and chess. Every project has step-by-step artworks to guide you, plus a skill level so you can start with easy items and move on to more challenging things as you get better at using your machine.

Turn your garden into a bright summer paradise with a collection of 35 projects to create stylish, fragrant and abundant displays. There are gorgeous flowering plants, lush foliage, special occasion displays, and edible fruit and vegetable harvests. The projects in Small Summer Gardens include hanging baskets, window boxes, beautiful flower beds, large and small pots, and pretty recycled containers. Create a display of foxgloves and woodland plants in a rusty trunk, scented sweet peas in a tub, a mini water garden with flowering water lilies, a wreath made from alpine flowers, fruit bushes in pots and much more. With Emma Hardy’s expert advice, you will learn everything you need to know about growing annuals from seed, growing bulbs, using inexpensive bedding plants in interesting ways, combining perennials and small shrubs and growing and maintaining fruit and vegetable plants.

Sewing is fun – learn how to do it yourself with this step-by-step guide. Pick up this book and you’ll soon be a sewing whiz, using a wide variety of hand stitches and learning how to sew on a zip, attach buttons, embroider, and appliqué. In Jewellery and Accessories, you can make adorable watermelon slice brooches or a fun raccoon scarf, while Toys and Dolls features a fake fur teddy bear that would make a great gift – he’s so sweet, though, that you might want to keep him for yourself! Next is Stationery and Storage, which makes being organised fun – you’ll be the star of your class with the monster pencil case and the customised tote bag to carry your books in. Finally, in Gift Ideas, you can learn some beautiful embroidery stitches with the monogrammed pillowcase, or surprise a friend for their birthday with some personalised bunting. All of the projects have simple step-by-step artworks to guide you, plus a clearly marked skill level so that you can start with the easier projects and move on to more challenging crafts as you become a more confident stitcher.

A celebration of handmade toys, featuring fabulous stuffed animals, handmade baby gifts and more - all made using fat quarter cuts of fabric - the most popular way that sewers buy fabric. Continuing the series from 50 Fat Quarter Makes, this fun collection features beautiful styled photography, step-by-step diagrams and templates for over 50 handmade toys, with patterns provided by 10 top international talents. These include Amie Plumley co-author of the bestselling Sewing School books, Ayda Algin of Cafe Nohut, Mollie Johanson of Wild Olive, bestselling author Emma Hardy and Aurifil thread designer and founder of #GreatBritishQuilter Sarah Ashford. All the toys are made using simple sewing techniques alongside patchwork, applique and embroidery.

It has been said that both Thomas Hardy's wives were livlier letter-writers than he was himself. They were certainly less discreet, especially on the subject of their marital grievances, with the result that Hardy's intensely private life and personality are uniquely illuminated in the letters of the two women who knew him best. Their characteristic voices--and their opinions on many other subjects besides their husband--sound clearly through this generous selection of their letters: it is the first time they have spoken extensively in print. Hardy married Emma Lavinia Gilford in 1874, when he was thirty-four and she thirty-three; two years later after her death in 1912 he married Florence Emily Dugdale, thirty-nine years his junior. Relatively few of Emma's letters survive, but those included vividly register not only her distinctive personality and ideas but also, if less directly, the deteriorating later phases of her marriage. Florence Hardy's leters are far more numerous, largely because of her husband's immense fame in old age, and her own role as the doorkeeper of Max Gate.;This book is intended for general readers interested in biography as well as students of Victorian and early twentieth-century literature.

This remarkable dictionary provides information on the work of over 3,000 sculptors working in Britain between 1660 and 1851. It is a substantially expanded edition of Gunnis's "Dictionary of British Sculptors," the primary source for information on church monuments, portrait busts, carved fireplaces and more since publication in 1951. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the Henry Moore Foundation

35 creative projects for children using natural and recycled materials Making their own toys, games, gifts and ornaments encourages children to use their creative flair - and if they can use component parts that are adapted or recycled, so much the better for them and the planet. None of Emma Hardy's projects in Green Crafts for Children use any special materials. Instead, they all rely on items that are likely to be in the cupboard, can be found around the house or garden, or collected on walks in the park or at the beach. There are recipes for salt dough and methods for easy felting, plus ways to imaginatively use old gift-wrapping paper and worn-out clothes, as well as pine cones, tree bark, shells and other natural bits and bobs. Gifts for relatives and friends are here, together with games and toys that can be made and then played with again and again. From painted stones and a friendship bracelet to a simple dolls' house and a driftwood boat, children will love the projects in this engaging book. In fact, kids need never be bored again.

Hand-Crafted Cards contains 50 exciting step-by-step projects for making greetings cards for all occasions. Here are 50 fast, fun cards featuring a wide variety of techniques, including collage, stamping, embossing, painting, applying metallic leaf and embroidery, all with simple instructions and clear step-bystep photographs. Choose from scented lavender heart cards for Mother's Day, colourful felt finger puppet cards that are perfect for children's birthdays, pop-up cards in the style of a fairytale gingerbread house, and a monochrome card which doubles up as a photo frame. There are cards for every celebration, including weddings, Easter, new baby and birthdays, as well as thank-you notelets and more general, but still gorgeous cards that you can give for any occasion. There are also designs you can make in large quantities for Christmas and other festivities, and most of the ideas can be made with inexpensive materials and basic tools, so you can get started straight away.