The time has finally come and we are very pleased to announce the winner of our first Craft Club mission is Katie McLurg!

She raised the modest tulip to new heights alongside lilies and roses in this beautiful wheelbarrow arrangement. Choosing to do away with the traditional patterned origami paper, she’s opted for country-vintage style with brown paper and old newspapers, for a gorgeous result! 

To say thanks for her wondrous efforts, we will be giving her an annual oh comely subscription. Thank you also to everyone else who entered - we very much appreciated your contributions.

Keep an eye on Katie’s Folksy store, Potting Shed Crafts, for hand-knitted accessories, a forthcoming collection of summer dresses and, thanks to her newly discovered origami talents, maybe even a couple of charming paper bouquets for sale.

And so we march onwards to the forthcoming oh comely Issue 16, featuring a tutorial for making your own cute notebook, using Japanese stab-binding. We look forward to releasing this into the world – and remember there are free subscriptions at stake here, as well as crafty pride and respect of course. 

The sprightly upstart to London's RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the Chelsea Fringe, is happening! Celebrating all that's green and garden-bound, here are the events we're most looking forward to over the three week, alternative garden festival.

Ally Capellino are running two nights of flower arranging this week. The gatherings are free; all you're to do is bring along a jar to fill with flowers and book a space. Drinks also provided.

Squint is playing host to a pop-up shop curated by the Balcony Gardener in their west London garage space. They'll be displaying a Museum of Terrariums, in and amongst Squint's characteristic patchwork furniture. 

And, if you've ever fancied knitting a caterpillar (or even a slug) pass by the Veg Knit-Along at Battersea Flower Station. Fran will be giving free, garden-themed knitting classes every Sunday during the Fringe.

For other events, including a Gnome Invasion, visit the Chelsea Fringe website.

Calling all curious creatives, crafty dabblers and make-aholics! Join The Craft Club for the chance to win a free subscription to oh comely. 

We’ve created the Oh Comely Craft Club for a chance to showcase your talent. It’s a club for creating, sharing and downright showing off to one another. 

Here’s how it works: 

1. We feature a craft in each issue of oh comely, and the current issue's craft will be the starting point for inventing something fabulous of your own. 
2. Once you’ve had chance to get your hands on the issue, we’ll post a call-out like this one, including a brief, and extra details and competition criteria, a.k.a. the small print, on our blog. 
3. Then, it’s over to you to get crafty! Our instructions will give you the basics but as club members we implore you to throw buckets of imagination at the brief to make it your own.
4. Post your finished creations and interpretations to Twitter using #OCcraftclub or the oh comely Facebook page. Alternatively, you can e-mail us at [email protected], including your name and blog/website. We’ll gather all your posts and pop them in an album online for all and sundry to marvel at.
5. If you’re the competitve type or just plain enjoy receiving prizes, you’ll be pleased to know that the submission that impresses us most will win an oh comely year subscription.
6. We’ll also post a selection of our favourites alongside their creators on our blog.

Craft Club Brief No 1: Origami Flower Arrangement

We thought that the origami tulip featured in our latest issue, would make for a beautiful beginning. We talked to origami teacher Sam Tsang, who certainly knows a thing or two about the Japanese craft, and currently runs monthly origami workshops at the Queen of Hoxton in London.

We couldn’t agree more with his sentiment: ‘Real flowers anyone can buy, but to fold one is personal’ – which is why, having felt a huge sense of achievement creating our own mini garden of tulips (currently assembled on our desk), we’d really like to see some of yours too.

Your mission should you choose to accept: Make a paper flower bouquet that’ll last a lifetime. That is if you don’t accidentally sit on it. Email your finished entry to [email protected] by Monday 20th May or tweet it with #OCcraftclub. 

Brief: a bouquet of origami blooms
Inspiration: Sam's tulip pattern
Closing date: Monday 20th May

Find Sam’s instructional video below, and visit his site here for other flower templates.

How To: Making Paper Flowers

Emily Smith met a wonderful sailmaker when she was studying at university in Falmouth. Called Patrick Selman, he's driven by a love of the sailmaking craft but has an unusual distaste for the big blue itself. Here's his story:

Since he was a child living in Padstow, Cornwall, Patrick Selman has loved sailing boats. Back then, his parents used to trade old boats and the first boat he built was from instructions in a library book. After establishing a successful window cleaning company, he decided to return to his childhood passion. His sail company, Gaff Sails, has been running since 1992.

We met in the Falmouth garage-turned-workshop that Patrick has occupied since 2000. It's an organised chaos of tools, sails, various crates and ladders. Sails of all shapes and sizes are dotted around so I'm intrigued to discover just how long one takes to make. "An average size sail probably takes about four hours from start to finish," he explains. "When they are really big, we have to roll them up and do a bit at a time. The type of sail-making I do is different to the bigger companies; they do modern sails all the time. With mine, I sew rope along the edges so it takes longer."

Sailmaking provides his livelihood and boat building his hobby. So I'm shocked to learn that Patrick doesn’t actually like sailing. "I’ve never really enjoyed being at sea and I think sailing is a waste of time. You’re rocked around, knocked from pillar to post, cold and wet," he chuckles. "It's racing I love. I have to do something involving thought and bashing other people, metaphorically speaking of course."

Patrick is currently the 'world champion' boat racer. "It’s a local thing mind you. It's not really the world championships but we just jokingly call it that. The race is about four miles and it's very competitive, you nearly run into each other every time. It's great to knock the younger people around; they think people my age are up the creek."

It's just as well that Patrick considers himself "as fit as a fiddle", although he confesses that this year might be his last for sailmaking. "I'm 67 now and although I'm still enjoying it, I don't get any time out. I have worked for three months now and only had two days off."

Thankfully, Patrick's son has set up his own sailmaking business at the end of his father's workshop, meaning that the craft will continue to live on through the family. As for Patrick, "I may go to America," he tells me. "My girlfriend is from there. But if I can’t race a sail, I’m going to be bored."

British design duo Thornback and Peel always have a beautiful idea up their sleeve. They are purveyors of screen-printed goodies—think handkerchiefs, lampshades, notebooks and t-shirts—populated by tortoises, dandelions and leaping rabbits.

This Easter, they've launched an online egg hunt. The prize is £100 worth of Thornback and Peel goodies. Three eggs in a cup are hidden next to some of their best-selling products at thornbackandpeel.co.uk. All you're to do is rootle around, find the eggs, then fill in your answers on this form. The competition runs until 7th April. Good luck!

American-born quilter and textile artist Kaffe Fassett is to exhibit his work at the Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter, south west Wales. The exhibition, which opens on March 8th and runs to November 2nd, will feature the dynamic, iridescent patchworks that Fassett and his studio partner, Brandon Mably, are known for designing, two of which you can see below.

In a twist on their usual gallery presentation, Fassett's quilts will be hung from the ceiling and surronded by a rainbow of wholecloth Wesh quilts selected from the Jen Jones collection. It's set to be a unique meeting of quilt styles and a visual treat. Here are details of Jen's Welsh quilts that'll be on show: 

More on the exhibition can be found at welshquilts.com

From tattoos in tapestry to cross-stitched rodeo philosophies Emily Peacock makes needlework for the 21st century. A self-taught textile designer her creations are always bright, ebullient and modern: far removed from the twee images too often associated with the needle arts.

Emily aims to make people think differently about cross-stitch and needlepoint: to ponder its possibilities as art and appreciate it technically and creatively. Her designs are available in needlepoint kits that allow you to simultaneously recreate her style for your home and experience the haven of escape and creativity that needlework can be.

We spoke to Emily about cross-stitch’s bad reputation, her inspirations and recommendations for needlework newbies. Find more of Emily Peacock's work on her website.Photo: Rob Ryan and Emily Peacocks' collaborative tapestry design.

To people who don’t think needlework and cross-stitch are useful in our modern times, what do you say?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. And my opinion is that we live in a culture that puts too much emphasis on productivity, end result and making money. I think it's good to have an alternative to this, whether that is taking a walk, growing vegetables or enjoying a hobby such as cross-stitch.

Cross-stitch has possibly the worst reputation of all crafts due to the designs that have been available. I see this as a good thing because it means there is room for experimentation and improvement. Often the point at which a thing becomes cool is just after the time when they have become seemingly outmoded or pointless!

How do you go about creating a design?

Ideas just pop into my head. They can be something I hear someone say, or inspired by my passion for typefaces and a particular style. There's no pattern to my decision on what to bring out next.

Colour is the biggest challenge for me. What looks good as skeins of wool in your hand can look totally different stitched up. It can take me months of stitching and unpicking before I am happy with a design. For this reason I am not hugely prolific.

Do you have a favourite among all your designs? 

I don't have a favourite design. I look at each and remember where I was and what I was doing at the time. 'Hug and Kiss' have been my most popular, followed by 'Think Happy Thoughts'. I think it is the immediacy of these designs that holds the appeal.

What are you working on now?

What is really getting me excited at the moment is exploring some more personal and contentious issues using traditional needlework techniques. I am hoping to take on these subjects with a couple of great needlework mates.

What would you recommend to newbies to needlework? What’s the best way to get started?

I think newbies should find a design or project that appeals to them and just get stuck in. Classes are great but there is nothing wrong with playing, making mistakes, learning as you go and finding out what you love.

Selvedge relishes in an unequivocal love of textiles, interiors and haberdashery. The pages of this London-based magazine are rich with information and photographs that capture the texture of material and skill of each creative project. It's a beautiful read.

And, this Saturday 10th November, Selvedge are hosting their third Winter Fair at Chelsea’s Old Town Hall. 100 craft, textile and haberdashery stands will be out, selling goods that speak to the textile-driven subjects of the magazine.

If you're not in the London area, have a look at Selvedge online where there's a wealth of resources on their featured designers, as well as a instructional PDFs on fun crafts such as how to knit an Afgan hound.