It looks as though summer is finally arriving! and what better way to celebrate than to spend a lazy morning reading about two quite different but equally inspiring women!

Firstly, a fantastic piece over on Needle’nThread by Trish Burr, split in to parts 1 and two

Trish is author of one of my very favourite embroidery books Redoute’s finest flowers in embroidery. My mum bought it for me a few Christmases ago and I had to buy her a copy of her own for mother’s day in order to get my copy back!

The article is full of …..

Sorry bit of an interruption there - a big cry from the kitchen, Duncan sliced his finger rather than the cucumber.. I did everything right - wrapped the finger tightly in a clean tea towel - got him to apply pressure and hold it above his heart and then I panicked!! I remember now I’m rubbish in an emergency! However, a couple of plasters and control of the remote for the afternoon and I think he’ll live!

Anyway, sorry for the break - check out the piece on Trish’s book - there are some amazing photos - definitely worth taking a peak! - and she talks about how she became interested in embroidery and how she came to write these amazing books.. I’ll almost certainly be ordering her new book! In fact I’ll probably have to get 2 copies!

The second piece is an interview by the lovely Lisa Lam with the inspiring Amy Butler

Amy talks about how she got started and built up the business and has some great advice for people starting out.. I’ll be rereading and taking notes!! But the essence I think was to start simple and focussed with an etsy or ebay store to feel the market out.. which I guess I know, but I’m still experimenting to find my focus and building up the courage to try! - my wedding in 6 weeks time is a good excuse to procrastinate for now!

By the way if you like the look of Amy’s new crockery line at Mikasa (I know I do!) there are some closer photos here.

Sorry folks - I was away for just a few days and had a technical glitch with the list! A few of the blogs disappeared off the list - thankfully it’s all fixed now, but if you spot any more probs - just drop me a line!

I’m often asked how my list of sewing and craft blogs is generated and what the numbers mean so I thought I would try to shed a little light on the matter. Basically it all boils down to magic! Sorry wasn’t that what you wanted to hear?

Firstly, the list has been generated two ways. I added a lot of the blogs that I read on a daily basis which got the list going. Since then people email me asking to be added to the list. I’ve tried to ensure that all the sites I’ve added are blogs that are updated regularly, relatively non commercial and talk about sewing or crafts. I hope this keeps the quality of the list high, and makes it a valuable resource for you. If you aren’t already on the list of sewing blogs, please feel free to email me with your site, and I’ll get you added.

The numbers that are assigned are taken from technorati. They rank blogs based on the number of links from other blogs. I’ll post in future about how you can increase this number. You can read more about this on the technorati blog.

So, the list is hand generated by me (aren’t I good ) but the score is based on technorati.

If you have any questions please leave a comment. If you are on the list and haven’t already added a sewing badge, I would certainly appreciate you helping me spread the word (and increase my technorati rank ). And if you aren’t already listed on the site, then please drop me a line.

Have a good weekend.