Hazel Blomkamp is offering 30% off current kits in her online store for the remainder of May. Get all of the details on her website. You may recognize her name from her popular books, Crewel Twists, Crewel Intentions or Hand Stitched Crazy Patchwork.

Although the shipping from South Africa can look prohibitive, talk to your friends to put together an order to save money during this sale. It’s a great time to benefit from the reduced rates.

• Remember that the kits do not include the instructions, you will need the book that features the project in order to have the instructions. Hazel has conveniently grouped the kits by book title on her website.
• The prices on Hazel’s website are in South African rand. You can find a currency converter link on each webpage to figure out your price.

My Experience

My personal experience is that sometimes you incur a brokerage fee that is on top of the shipping fees paid to Hazel. The brokerage fee is paid to the brokerage directly by you once the item has arrived at the border and is coming into Canada. Of course, if you place an order with a friend or two, you will be splitting this cost.

I found the kit I purchased to be very good and I think that it was a good value for me. In my area, I don’t have access to all the supplies for the kits, especially in terms of the beads and specialty threads. I also appreciate being able to start stitching right away, having the design on the ground fabric is a big benefit to me.

Since books are relatively heavy, I did order my book from a Canadian online source. I saved on shipping by having the book delivered to a nearby store.

Mary Corbett’s Experience

Mary Corbett has reviewed Hazel’s kit for Late Harvest and shared her thoughts on her popular blog, Needle ‘n’ Thread. In addition, Mary stitched the kit and posted her thoughts as she progressed.

What about you, have you ordered kits from Hazel or other overseas providers? What was your experience?