Green Options

Betz White, author of Sewing Green, launched her premiere fabric line this summer: the Family Cottage collection!

Betz White and Spoonflower are teaming up, and they want to see how you Sew Green!

To celebrate the release of her book Sewing Green, Betz white designed a special Sewing Green print on organic cotton just for Spoonflower. Not only are they running a deal on the fabric itself, they’re holding a contest where you can win your choice of book from STC Craft, the company that publishes Sewing Green. Here are the deets!

Sewing Green (STC Craft | Melanie Falick Books) will be released March, 2009.

Here’s a sneak preview and a little bit more about the author.

White is not new to the craft scene.  Her first book, Warm Fuzzies — 30 Sweet Felted Projects was published in 2007.  Betz has a passion for wool felting and walks us step-by-step (patterns included in the back of book) on how to transform second-hand sweaters into some unique craft items.  Projects include a bonbon journal, messenger bag, scarves, a hand-puppet, and some delicious felted cupcake pin cushions.

White’s newest book, Sewing Green — 25 Projects Made With Repurposed & Organic Materials , is all about taking an existing item (think cashmere sweater found in a thrift-shop, or a dress shirt that’s been hanging in the back of a closet forever) and turning it into something ‘new’ and functional.  White will show us twenty-five projects that all start with re-purposed materials.  Cashmere sweaters are deconstructed, then re-constructed to become a warm and cozy blanket.  Men’s dress shirts are transformed into an apron AND a wallet.

eInsider is the “electronic newsletter for the quilting and soft crafts industry” by Quilts Inc., the company which produces the International Quilt Festivals. The article Green Quilting: Improving the Earth One Fiber at a Time appeared a while back, though I didn’t find it until now. It profiles a variety of green crafting issues in quilting and beyond.

I did have a couple of bones to pick with the article, but there were also quite a few good things that were new to me.

First, the Green Quilts Project, founded by Susan Shie, encouraged quilters to make quilts from 1989 to 2004 to send healing energy to the Earth. I had never heard of this effort before. I also didn’t know about Mountain Mist’s Eco Craft batting, fiberfill, and pillowforms, which are made from corn fiber.

The Aurora Silk website offers natural dyes and great tutorials for using them. And it was good to see a mention of Betz White’s delicious recycled wool sweater crafts and her book Warm Fuzzies, which always make me want to buy every wool sweater within a 10 mile radius and start felting them.