Second Saturday Giveaway: Win Fiskars Tools from Lish of Handmade Detroit!

Posted by Crystal Pepperdine, Founder and Executive Director of Flint Handmade

For our September Second Saturday Giveaway, we are featuring Lish Dorset, who is one of the 5 founding members of Handmade Detroit!

This is Lish in the sewing corner of her gorgeous dedicated craftroom! 

I asked Lish to tell me about her space:

"I think I've finally got the workspace I've always wanted!

In apartments, it's really difficult to have a functional craft space if you're not lucky enough to have spare bedroom to use. My last apartment finally had a second, smaller room, so I was happy to use it. It was cute, but not quite as cute as my new space.

My boyfriend, Nick, just built me a fantastic multi-purpose table that he's been brainstorming for months. It's the focus of the room now. I love how much light my space gets being in the front of the house.  

I focused on making nooks - my desk has odds-and-ends in it...

...my dad's childhood desk serves as my sewing station...

...an old craft fair rack now holds scrap fabric...

...and we've got three full bookcases with everything from computing programming manuals to my Martha Stewart reference collection."

Lish definitely has an enviable collection of crafty books...I want them all!

 

Lish also has the most adorable cat named Ronnie.  Ronnie likes to "help" by lying around on unfinished craft projects. ;)

Lately, Lish has been making quilts like the one pictured above, but she dabbles in all kinds of crafts.  I asked her how she got into crafting:

"Ever since I was little, I loved art, whether it was art class or spending hours with a coloring book. My parents are very creative, so it's always been a part of my life.

When I was in high school, I started making own jewelry because I didn't like anything I saw at the stores. I went to Beads SRO in Royal Oak and asked the owner if she would teach me how to use the tools if I bought all my beads there. She agreed - that's what really made me feel 'crafty' for the first time."

Lish also blogs a lot about all things crafty for Craft and her own blog:

"My blog is called My Vintage Kitschen. I adore collecting vintage home items, ESPECIALLY kitchen goods.

Friends always comment on how much fun it is to just look at all the knick-knacks I have in our house, so "kitsch" seemed like the right way to spell kitchen!

Lish really does have MANY vintage knick-knacks related to cooking...check out her massive Pyrex collection above!

 

Lish may draw inspiration from her colorful knick-knacks, but rotary tools and cutters are her favorite craft tool.  She says:

"My sewing projects have really improved because of these!" 

  

Of course, there will always be a place in Lish's heart for her Janome Hello Kitty sewing machine!

Finally, I asked Lish what projects she would like to work on in the future:

"Bigger quilts. I have one kit I finished from Guildcrafters in Berkley that's huge [pictured above], and I was proud to see it done.

I need to have it quilted, as it's too big for me to do with my small machine, so I'm hoping I can learn to stop letting that intimidate me from bigger projects."

I snapped one last photo of Lish in her craftroom...with Ronnie still lounging on the project table!

Lish usually gives away her crafts as gifts nowadays, so she decided to donate something different for the giveaway:

"I've included two Fiskars 45mm Rotary Cutters - these are great go-to tools to have in your workspace. I've also included a Fiskars Thread Snip. I keep this next to my sewing machine as it's great from trimming loose ends as you work on a project."

For YOUR chance to win the Fiskars Tools (valued at $45), just complete steps A and B:

A) Follow Flint Handmade via the blog, Twitter, Google Reader or whatever newfangled "following application" tickles your fancy. Or, if you don't do the whole following thing, email us at flinthandmade@hotmail.com and we will add you to our email list.

B) Leave us a comment in response to this blog post by 5pm on Saturday, September 17, 2011 answering the following 2 questions:

1) How do you follow Flint Handmade?

2) What is your favorite crafty blog?  Remember to include the URL!  (And, to be fair, you can't pick My Vintage Kitschen, Craft, Handmade Detroit or Flint Handmade.  We already know you love these blogs!)

Please be sure to answer BOTH questions to qualify for the drawing.

The winner will be selected at random and posted on the blog within one week after the deadline. The winner will have 30 days to claim the prize.

We hope to hear from YOU and we hope you enjoyed our September Second Saturday Giveaway!