New knitting patterns

Good news! We now have about a million new knitting patterns!

In addition to the wonderful pattern books we got last month from Lang and Bergere de France, we now also have booklets and individual knitting and crochet patterns from Thomas Ramsden. There are some fab projects for babies, children, women, and men, as well as some fun patterns for handbags and other accessories.

The holiday season's a great time to start a new project -- why not stop in and check out the new patterns and yarns? Knit a scarf for a ski trip, or a little cardi for the chilly Dubai shopping malls. We can help you find the right pattern, and the yarn and needles to knit with.

see the folders for individual patterns

fun novelty yarns

Remember, we have classes and clinics here! Take a class to learn a new skill, or join us at clinic for a little help or a little company. See our website for details.

gorgeous yarns from Lang, Bergere de France & Thomas Ramsden

Block of the Month update

Wow! Our Block of the Month project with the Dubai Quilters Guild is officially at the halfway mark!

Today we released the 4th pattern, the first photo transfer pattern. It's a cute Camel Crossing photo with a simple pieced background. Now only two blocks remain, plus the corner blocks and the borders; look for these monthly after the New Year.

block 4 - Camel Crossing

It's not too late to start making your own Arabia-themed quilt! All the patterns are available in the shop, or by emailing danielle@mycraftland.com. All the fabrics are also available in the shop, and you are welcome to use our photos for the transfers or to use some of your own.

Simple 3-Patch Picnic Quilt

Every month, we also do another quilt for a block raffle with the Dubai Quilters Guild. This month, it's a super-fast Stack'n'Whack quilt using cheery red and blue floral prints. Stop in for your free pattern anytime, and check out all the fabric options. Our quilt is a lap size, but the pattern will also make a crib, twin or queen size quilt. Tackle it on your own or come in to one of our weekly clinics for help, or just for company. Schedule at: www.mycraftland.com

Don't forget, we stock everything a quilter needs! We have cotton fabrics, threads from Madeira and Gutermann, and lots of choices of quilt batting.

Speed Knitting Championship

What a day!

We had a fantastic time at our first ever (first annual?) Dubai Speed Knitting Championship yesterday, November 27th. There were three heats of knitters, and they came in all ages, nationalities, and levels of experience. One learned to knit only this month!

Judges Riana and Edel counting stitches

Each heat winner received a prize of Malabrigo lace yarn, and moved on to the finals with the other heat winners and the next two fastest knitters from the heats. And were there some fast knitters! No one came close to the world record of 118 stitches per minute (see You Tube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFi0nhA1uHU), but the speedsters who entered our competition did very well, reaching respectable speeds of 76 stitches in our two-minute trials.

Grand Prize winner Melissa with her Addi Click set

Finally, a winner was announced...Melissa won the fabulous Addi Click set, a full set of interchangeable circular needles (available soon in our shop to the rest of us mortals).

Relay teams facing off

We wrapped up the day with a fun Relay round, pitting two teams of four knitters against each other for shop certificates. Our token male entrant came back from Heat 3 to join the Relay event with his sister and mum. Sadly, they were on different teams, and only big sister won the gift certificate!

Chatting and warming up knitting fingers in the tea room

A note to all our participants: thank you so much for joining us, we hope you had as great a time as we all did! If you would like photos of the event, bring a USB stick to the shop to copy any of our photos you'd like.

Eid Mubarak!

 Celebrate Eid with our yarn and fabric sale!

Stock up for your next project, get inspired, add to your stash....Lots of beautiful yarns are 30%-50% off. Choose from 100% wool machine washable Karisma, feltable Eskimo wool, nubbly cotton from Mission Falls, Louet's Linen, and many others. Knit a baby blanket, some cozy slippers, or a Christmas stocking...the ideas are endless and we can help you find a project or six to get you going!

 

See also our wall of fabrics on sale...with discounts of 30%-50% you can fill up your fabric stash and stock up for your next quilt or sewing project. There are lovely coordinating prints to make darling dresses for dear daughters and sweet shorts for sons.

Get Happy!

Now in the shop! Bright & fun prints from Riley Blake that coordinate beautifully with our Bamboo Happy yarn from Wendy. We have lots of patterns for cute dresses, tops, & skirts, and for knit sweaters too.

Join us anytime for a class or clinic to help you get started (or get finished!) on your project. See www.mycraftland.com/classes.html for times and other info.

New free quilt pattern!

We have a new free quilt pattern in the shop, drop by for your copy any time. Our sample is a lap quilt, but the pattern can also make a twin or queen quilt. This quick quilt really shows off the gorgeous floral prints we got in the shop this month... Pick your favorite floral & we'll help you choose the coordinating fabrics to make your quilt unique and fabulous!

If you need help making the quilt, don't forget we have a weekly quilting clinic, Thursday afternoons 2:00 - 4:30pm. Just bring your project along and we'll help you! See our schedule on our website for more details & more class & clinic info.

Warm Up Winter program

Join Craft Land in our winter knitting project! Take a free pattern, knit up a square or two from acrylic yarn, and donate the squares back to the shop. Use your own yarn or buy one of ours, 5dhs gets you enough yarn to knit two squares.

We will make the squares into blankets! We are currently searching for the best charity to donate the blankets to, please contact us if you have any suggestions.

pick up a ball or two & make some squares!

NEW Free Bag Pattern at Craft Land!

We have a lovely new free pattern for you at Craft Land! It uses our specialty Home Decor fabric, available in four gorgeous Amy Butler prints.

The pattern is not too hard, anyone who does a bit of sewing could tackle it on their own. We are also adding the bag to our class schedule, look out for it in the coming weeks.

Block of the Month at Dubai Quilters' Guild

Jennifer and Danielle proudly introduced the designs for Dubai Quilters' Guild Block of the Month at the DQG's first meeting of the year. It was a great meeting at the new venue at the Arabian Ranches Golf Club.



Danielle explains the project



Craft Land was honoured to organize this year's Block of the Month for the guild, and Danielle spent the whole summer working on the design. We went with an Arabian theme, with blocks done in several techniques for variety. The first block to be offered is the Appliqué Coffee Pot, the top left block. The pattern is available in the shop, with a fat quarter pack of the necessary fabrics. Each month from September to May, we will offer a new block and fabric pack, for a total of 8 kits to make the entire quilt. Lots of the guild members snapped up the patterns and fabric, and it will be exciting to see everyone's finished projects as the year goes by! Stop by the shop any time to see the whole quilt and get your copy of the pattern and the fabrics, and we welcome all quilters to join the fun & make the quilt.

Holiday table runner

The second part of the Block of the Month club for the guild is a month-by-month block raffle. The first block has a holiday-theme, and we made ours into a table runner. Guild members were able to purchase a kit at the meeting, which is made up of the block pattern, the table runner pattern, and three fat quarters. At next month's meeting (October 24th), participants will hand in their completed blocks and enter a draw to win sets of the blocks to make a larger project.

The kits are also available in our shop for anyone who would like to make the table runner or the blocks. Next month a whole new project will be introduced at the guild meeting and then shared in our shop!

Learn more about the Dubai Quilters' Guild at: http://dubaiquiltersguild.wordpress.com/

New in Ebroidery

Sweet felt needle cases

Our resident embriodery queen, Riana Auret-Dubois, has been even busier than usual! Some of the great new projects she's been working on are in the shop now; look for them to appear on our class schedule throughout the fall.

Ribbon embroidered monogram

The embroidered monograms come printed on fabric, ready for you to add ribbons and embellish with your handiwork. All of these projects use our exquisite European ribbons woven on antique ribbon looms.

Shadow embroidery sachet

Another Lovely Saturday

Jennifer sharing her quilting wisdom

Yesterday we had another lovely Summer Saturday class, with another lovely group of ladies, and we even had a fellow helping out.

The class spent the day cutting and piecing the quilt Fat Quarter Frolic by Larissa Key Designs. It's been one of our more popular quilt classes since we've opened the shop. The full-day workshop is a great format for this quilt, as  you spend the first hour or two cutting, then get to the piecing in the afternoon.

Happy quilters having a carrot cake break

There are still three more Saturdays in our series, see our website for details: http://www.mycraftland.com/
The remaining classes are Random & Lovely, a very simple quilt that is great for showing off pretty printed fabric; Petit Fours, a pattern that's wonderful for stacking and slicing; and Summer Evening, a more traditional quilt with four different pieced blocks that is made with Jelly Roll strips and looks fabulous in whites and blues. The Saturday classes are a fun way to spend the day sewing and meet some new friends!

Quilting Class

Craftland continues to hold regular classes through the summer, and through Ramadan.
Today's class was day two of Layer Cake Quilt - Beginners' Quilting. Last Sunday, the first day, we looked at the Layer Cake squares & discussed options for putting it together: random? in a pattern? We had lots of fun shuffling the squares, and then sewed them together to make the main quilt top.

Today was Border Day. We spent some time choosing fabrics & talking about border widths. After playing with the bolts of fabric, we settled on three borders. Here is Diane pressing her first border strip open.

Check out the cool cutting mat and ironing surface! The Foldaway portable cutting & pressing station is made by Omnigrid & folds into a convenient case to carry to classes. Very handy for classes, or to use at home.Thanks, Diane, for modelling it for us so well!

If you're interested in this or any of our other classes, see our full schedule at http://www.mycraftland.com/

RAMADAN MUBARAK!

Ramadan Blessings to all our friends & customers!

Craftland will be open during regular hours during Ramadan: 10am-10pm daily, and 2pm-10pm on Fridays.

We hope to see you in the shop for classes, craft supplies, crafting advice or just a visit!

New Summer Sewists

first time quilting

Great success by our new summer sewists! Some of the students this week were pretty young, but they did a marvelous job on their new sewing machines, and went home today after the last class with their finished quilted pillows.

pretty pink

Next week, the quilted pillow class will be offered for ages 13-16. There are still a couple of spaces, come on in and sign up now! See http://www.mycraftland.com/ for schedule and full details.

Sew Summer Sale - Fabrics at 50% off!

lots to choose from!

Shwe Shwe from South Africa

Fairy Panels

Hand-dyed fat quarters in co-ordinating colours

Summer School

classroom is full

It's our fourth week of summer school this week, and what a week it is shaping up to be! We have a full class of students learning applique & embroidery, eight new crafters escaping the summer heat with a fun pillowcase decorating project.

We have SEVEN more weeks of classes scheduled, so if your kids (ages 8-16) are looking for something to do this summer, check out our schedule: http://www.mycraftland.com/

applique pillow

The classes are divided into 2 categories, crafting and sewing with machines. Coming up for the crafters: felt embroidery, cross stitch, applique, knitting, and crochet. Still to come in sewing: quilted pillow, soft toys, teddy bear, lunch bag and messenger bag. Don't forget that for new sewists, we are offering a terrific sewing machine package! You get an excellent quality sewing machine, a haberdashery starter kit, and two free week-long sewing classes, all for only 1995dhs.

Come on in to the shop to see the full schedule, check out the project samples, and talk to our staff about the program.

keen crafters

Sew Summer Offers - Books

BOOKS!

We have dozens of great books on special at 50% off the original price. Sewing, Quilting, Knitting...you can find your next craft project in our book sale!

Also on special, EQ6 - Electric Quilt - the quilt design software. This comprehensive tool is easy to use and helps you design and plan your quilting projects. Only 2 are left as of Thursday night, at the greate price of 512dhs.

Sew Summer Offers

We are surrounded by fantastic summer savings! The shop is filled to the brim with sale items...thousands of potential projects just waiting for your eager fingers!

Here are some of the fabulous yarn we have on special:


Drops Lin...regular price was 34dhs, now only 17dhs! This gorgeous yarn would make lovely light Dubai shawls or wraps, even cute little cardigans to keep you from getting an air conditioning chill.


Hand & Hand Cotton Silk blend, now only 9.50dhs from 19dhs. We have free patterns for the cute baby blanket in the picture, make yours in fresh orange!

Louet Gems is super-soft 100% merino, and it's machine washable. Now only 20dhs from 40dhs, this yarn would make a really sweet cuddly baby blanket or sweater. We have lots of patterns and books to give you ideas!

Lots more in the shop...drop by soon to see what's going on. Pick up some nice new yarn and sign up for a class or attend a clinic (schedule on our website: http://www.mycraftland.com/) and make something new this summer!