C&T Publishing is a group of quilters and crafters dedicated to publishing products tailored to our audience. This blog is where we break away from book schedules and marketing campaigns to focus on what drives us to be creative and how this creativity manifests itself in our every day lives.
Zinnia Heinzmann
My Growing Life Quilt
In celebration of my high school graduation, my mom started assembling a keepsake quilt for me. Over the years she had gathered a rich collection of my favorite clothes as a child and teen, as well as scraps of clothing from almost everyone in my family, and she decided a quilt would be the best way to bring them all together.
In honor of my name, she designed the center panel after a victorian-era seed packet of zinnias, bordered by alternating (Continue Reading...)
Get Off Junk Mail Lists
We all hate junk mail. On average, Americans receive about 41 pounds of junk mail each year! According to 41pounds.org, that’s equal to over 100 million trees, 28 billion gallons of water, and more C02 than 9 million cars! Yikes!
Here are a few free and easy ways to cut down on junk mail:
Get Your Address on the Do Not Mail List
Remove your address from national marketing lists by registering online for free with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).
Reduce Bundled Flyers (Continue Reading...)
Friendly Fronds
One of the fastest ways to go green is to get an indoor plant. Think you don’t have a green thumb? You’d be surprised at how easy many houseplants are to take care of. Here’s a list of plants that look beautiful and are practically foolproof:
- African Violet (Saintpaulia ionantha)
- Aloe (Aloe Asphodelaceae)
- Baby Rubber Plant, Peperomia (Peperomia obtusifolia)
- Cast Iron Plant (Aspidistra)
- Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema)
- Coleus (Solenostemon)
- Corn Plant (Dracaena fragrans massangeana)
- Cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium)
- Devil’s Ivy (Golden Pothos)
- (Continue Reading...)
Recycle & Upcycle at the Library!
Are your shelves sagging with the weight of your crafting library, but you can’t bear to toss those fondly-remembered titles? Consider donating them to your local library! Give them a call. Most public libraries accept lightly used books to add to their underfunded collections or to sell in bargain sales to support other programs. Either way they’ll get a second (green) life while benefitting your community!
Library sales are also a great place to find scrapbooking and paper crafts treasures for (Continue Reading...)
Furoshiki!
Want to green your gift wrapping? Try furoshiki! About 1300 years ago in Japan, folks started bundling goods and gifts in square cloths, called furoshiki. Over time, wrapping gifts with furoshiki became quite an an art, and the wrapping itself was almost more appreciated than what was inside! These simple fabric wraps are wonderfully versatile, and can be used to conceal and decorate gifts of all shapes and sizes.
Furoshiki are like a gift in themselves—colorful patterned squares that (Continue Reading...)
Drip Irrigation in the C&T Garden
According to the EPA, over half of the water used by American families to irrigate their yards is wasted. This is especially clear in sunny California, where folks water their lawns with garden hoses at noon. There’s certainly nothing green about that!
Not so at C&T! Our little front garden is maintained by our very own Green Thumbs, and is on a timed watering system. Most of our garden plants require little water now that they’re established, so a (Continue Reading...)
My Recycled FedEx Tarp
Here at C&T we recycle everything—even our old FedEx Paks! When we can’t turn them inside-out and reuse them for a new package shipment, we send them back to DuPont to be recycled into new Tyvek bags. Check out DuPont’s Tyvek recycling program here.
Tyvek is amazing stuff! The plastic fibers used to create the material are fused, not woven, so it’s not only waterproof, but airtight too! When it came time to retire my old bike tarp, I (Continue Reading...)
