Monday 25 February 2019

CHSI Stitches 2019

 Hey! Look who's back again... What can I say, I thought I was back into the swing of things and then there was a big hiccup with trying to sort out the Internet and boom! Suddenly no TV and no broadband! And due to the Ariel cable to the telly being a bit ropey me and Lil Man ended up spending a month living like 1970's hippies! Thank god for the record player that's all I can say!

Anyway last week I was fortunate enough to get to the CHSI Stitches show in Birmingham. I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it what with Lil man and work and the million other things I have to do. BUT my lucky stars seemed to align and I managed to make it! 

First of all I stopped off at the Craft Cotton Company stand and was greeted with this RIOT of colour!!!!  


This is Stuart Hillards new fabric range called Rainbow etchings. I can't tell you how much I fell in love with these prints! I mean how perfect would they be for a new baby nursery! 


They've also got a range of Dumbo fabrics coming in which are ADORABLE! And with the new Dumbo movie coming out I can see these being a huge hit!


They also have these adoarble animal prints which I think would be perfect for baby quilts! Fun fact did you know that babies can actually see black and white better than colours when there tiny? Plus with them being black and white you could add one bold colour or even use the rainbow etchings range to create something really bold!



And as always they had their usual collection of licensed prints for star wars and marvel! I'm craving fun summer dresses in both of these prints! 


Next I stopped off at the prym stand and took a look at their new knitting and sewing products! Yet again I fell in love with their love "love" range and I can personally vouch for the quality of the items. 


This quilting kit in particular looks brilliant for first time quilters as it contains everything you need to get started. 


As always the Sew Over It stand was one of the chicest there! The new fabrics designed by Lisa Comfort come in a range of prints which are perfect for both autumn and winter and feel beautiful. 

I also had a chance to flick through a few copies of Lisa Comforts magazine and they look absolutely brilliant. Each magazine comes with a printed pattern and the magazine. So really its a sewing pattern with a bonus magazine!


This year sew over it are releasing at least 5 new pdf patterns and 4 new paper releases! I was actually quite shocked to hear that they had 17 printed patterns and 50ish pdf patterns in their whole range! Which I'm sure means you could have a complete sew over it wardrobe if you wanted. 


I loved these cuffs by Albstoffe. They are perfect for finishing sweatshirts and joggers and come in a range of prints and styles! 


They've also got a range of stripe me products which are great for adding a stripe down the sleeves or legs of garments.

I spent a long time at the Sidar stand looking at their ranges, Sidar, DMC and wool and the gang are all part of the same group so their was plenty to look at. 


On the DMC side of things they have a huge range of cross stitch and embroidery kits! And I love what they wrote underneath their interpretation of "the Kiss" 

"From threads with added sparkle, and hundreds of tiny kisses, a work of art is born"


They've also released a range of tiny balls of wool called Happy cotton! These come in a huge range of colours and are perfect from making little tiny crochet critters!!!! I'm totally in love with that bunny so hopefully this will be the year I finally learn how to crochet properly. 


Its also worth mentioning that their are 1000s of free patterns on the Sidar and DMC websites! 


It was lovely to see Mrs H again and admire her beautiful bag patterns! And shes been kind enough to send me a bag pattern to make and review so hopefully soon I'll have the backpack/shoulder bag of my dreams. 


I had a blast on the Kennett and Lindsell stand admiring their beautiful dress forms. Did you know they they provide all of the dress forms for the GBSB? And that they come in a huge range of shapes and styles! The ladies mannequin on the right is actually a 3/4 size dress form and It was so cute and adorable! I can definitely see me putting one of these in my sewing room at some point.  


They were also kind enough to let me spend some time playing with their scissors! Apparently they have around 50+ scissors in their range! I tried some huge ones which I couldn't physically open with my tiny hands but I found the gold ones in the middle to be a good weight and size for me!


Speaking of scissors! These are by Premax and they are scissors with measurements on! they come in both metric and imperial and I'm happy to say that I sniped some fabric and the measurements are accurate. Perfect from when you have to cut a certain length according to a pattern. 


Korbond officially won the award for the coolest stand. It had a sort of coffee bar vibe and was packed with items from their house of textures range. Which consists of all the storage you may need for your sewing or knitting or well anything! I personally have a crafters tote by the side of my sofa and fill it with my current projects , pencil case, notebooks and whatever I'm reading!


They also had their range of sewing tools, most of which can be found in your local tescos and were kind enough to give me two pairs of their scissors to review! So keep your eyes peeled for the post!

I found lots of other cool things as well but I'll save them for another blog post! 

In other news! 

I should be back to regular blogging now! 

I have 13 projects to photograph which I'm going to try and do today and then I can start writing about them. 

I've been watching the GBSB and its really kick started my sew jo! I'm buzzing with ideas of things to make! 

I've started two new knitting projects. They are pretty mindless garter stitch scarves but its nice to have something to do with my hands in the evening! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

















1 comment:

  1. Glad you saw some inspirational stuff Frankie. I could n't get there this year as we are building a house and there were deliveries being made but I did really miss it as part of my crafting year. Jo x

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