This Saturday I’ll have my regularly stall at Crafternoon Tea Craft Market in Kingsland. The market is supporting the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation with a Pink Ribbon Breakfast, and I am contributing a pink-themed prize for a giveaway that will be running on the day. Everyone who makes a purchase at the market on Saturday will go into the draw to win this prize. Do come along and support the cause!

The prize is this cute, pink, round cushion with a Kimono Felt flower appliqued on the front and a green gingham back. The cushion is finished off with vintage fabric-covered buttons front and back. The prize also includes three of my postcards, a Kimono Felt bird decoration and a Russian ‘matryoshka’ doll fridge magnet.

My beloved grandmother, Hildegard, died from breast cancer in 2000. She has been a huge inspiration in my life for so many reasons, and was a crafting legend.

Hildegard could knit an adult man’s jumper in a day (with perfect, tiny stitches) and always had some craft project on the go. She organised groups of women to make quilts and toys to send to children in places like Bosnia and Romania, ran an annual Fair Trade Fair to support fair trade in developing countries, and was always baking and making jams to raise money for various charities.

In our family we have tapestries she made, knotted rugs, embroidered napkins, knitted jumpers that have become family heirlooms, and of course the crafting skills that she passed down to my mother and me.

She would love that this month’s Crafternoon Tea market is raising money for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.