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

Getting Inspired at the CHSI Stitches Show

So this was my second year of attending the CHSI stitches show and it was just as inspiring as the first time!!! 

Basically its a trade show so the majority of people are wondering round making business deals and then there's me looking to see whats new that's coming out taking lots of pictures and making notes!!!  

A few brands were kind enough to give me samples so expect a few posts on those products coming up in the next few weeks! There is some really great stuff out there for crafting at the moment and I'm really excited about it all! 

This is a pretty picture heavy post so make a brew and enjoy!!!

As well as their regular caron cakes they are now making baby cakes!!! How perfect would these be for making little baby blankets? But without the hassle of having the weave in hundreds of ends.

The Cygnet Yarns stand was one of the coolest at the show. It was just like stepping into a fairy tale, they had the three billy goats gruff, the wolf, Rapunzel, and this awesome gingerbread house! It was a wooden wendy house covered in knitted and crocheted panels! I'm currently trying to convince Rikki that we need one at home to play in.....

The wools felt beautiful and I couldn't stop touching things!!! Its also worth a mention that a lot of their patterns are on their website and they are releasing a few books this year as well [I can't remember if they are ebooks or regular books though].

Their newest product is their metallic chunky yarns which are perfect for quick knits with loads of style! 

The dashwood studio stand had its usual beautiful array of fabrics, but best of all they had this cute little David Bowie doll! I am 100% going to copy this! I mean how cute! And a great way to use up those small scraps of our favourite fabrics! 

The amne fabrics are organic jersey cottons with prints that are created with children in mind.... But I would wear every single print! The stand was made up with lots of little adorable baby clothes and left me feeling broody!! All of the designs are very clean and would be perfect for making clothes for little ones especially with how soft they all are! [thinking about it they would also be great for people who are sensitive to the fabrics that are against their skin!] 

The Flo-Jo girls had a lovely collection of sewing patterns and kits. Including a swimming costume that I'm convinced would be flattering on every single woman out there! It has some very clever gathering details and could be the answer to some of our swimming costume woes! They also stock all of the elastics and notions you might need in your ventures into knicker making.

The guys at hoooked had me awwing over their cute crochet kits and patterns and their ethical yarn productions. All of their kits are made using waste products from the fashion industry so they are really great for the environment! Plus they were kind enough to send me away with a kit to crochet up this little unicorn! I can see these being perfect gifts for little ones, I mean can you imagine a nursery full of these little guys? Or ya know my bedroom?

As always prym astounded me with their huge array of knitting and sewing products! 

This year they have their leather soles coming out so you can make up your own pair of snuggly winter slippers! 

And I went crazy over their new needle keepers!! They twist up like a lipstick and a small magnet at the bottom keeps your needles safe even if you hold it upside down!!! My jaw literally hit the floor when I saw it in action!

I also got to meet up with two sewing greats, Claire Louise Hardie and Stuart Hillard! Claire Lousie, is still doing her excellent sewing workshops down in London and Stuart Hillard has a fabric line [I got a preview and spoiler alert but its a gooden!] and another book coming out this year! 

Funnily enough the dress I'm wearing is made from one of the prints from his first fabric line for the craft cotton company! 

More of the line can be seen in this photograph, its all sewing based and those jelly rolls just make me want to make a sewing themed quilt to snuggle up in at night. 

These Embroidery hoops combine beautiful illustrations with the chance to practise lots of stitches. They are by Hawthorn Handmade.

The unicorn was my absolute favourite because well Frankie loves a unicorn!

I had the opportunity to take a good look at all the products Korbond has to offer which was nice because our local tesco only has a small selection! 

New for this year Korbond has their House of textures collection and OMGOSH it is lush to look at! Its all made up in tweeds and suiting fabrics and wouldn't look out of place in a sewing room on saville row! I think I fell in love with everything in the collection and its so nice to see sewing storage that wouldn't look out of place in my house. So hopefully these will be coming to your local tesco and Sainsbury's very soon!

The make arcade stocks various felt and embroidery kits. My personal favourite was this cute little cactus. Finally a plant I can't kill! Everything is included in the kit so it would make a lovely present for the sewer in your life! 

Bags by Mrs H is a bag pattern company and believe me when I say they have a bag pattern for every walk of life! From small cross body to large nappy bags! Plus the patterns are only printed on one side so theirs no need to trace! Woop! Oddly enough my favourite is the Nappy bag but I wouldn't fill it with nappies, I'd just fill it with snacks.........

I got to meet with the lovely Lisa Comfort from sew over it.  Number 1. yes she is just as beautiful in real life as she is in her pictures, 2. she has three new patterns coming out this year, 3. she might be expanding into kids patterns at some point [pdf] and 4! Yes 4! she has a collection of six fabrics coming out this year! You can see some of the prints in the photo above but keep an eye on their instagram for close up images! 

I also spotted these fun ribbings by the brand cuff me for albestoffe! Its so unusual to find ribbing for sweat shirts that's fun and these are definitely fun! 

I loved these embroidery kits from Dizzy and creative, they embraced the old style of embroidery but in a really contemporary way. The backing fabric and threads are included and the backing fabric is a really high quality as are the threads! The instructions for the stitches are also written for both left and right handers which is a nice touch. 

These are the Ashmead Paperless EPP templates! Paperless English paper piecing I hear you say? PAPERLESS? Well folks I have a cheeky sample t make up so all shall be revealed! But needless to say these are going to completely change the way you go about hand piecing patchwork!

Its always lovely to see Elspeth and her mum at the show. Its like talking to old friends! The rag kits are vibrant and beautiful! To the point where I apologised for standing on one! This year they have released a new spring action ragging tool which saves a heap of time and they are going to start doing ragged flower kits! Elspeth originally just did them for valentines day but with a make that cute how can you not make up a kit! Plus flowers that don't die? Always a bonus in my book!

Another person I love to catch up with at the show is the gorgeous Jenni Taylor, Typically we end p chatting towards to end of the day when shes not busy and I sit at the Korbond "Bar" and ask her countless questions! This year shes going to be carrying on with teaching and she also has a new book on the horizon! 

Lastly I had to show you these adorable buttons from a little shop. Its run by the loveliest french couple and everything they stock has a very french vibe to it! A lot of the buttons are sewing themed and are just too cute plus they are machine washable! I have a few samples so expect to see them on the blog very soon!  

So I hope you enjoyed that and that you are feeling as inspired as I am! 

My next post will be about the dress I wore to the show and why I chose that style! Spoiler alert its to do with my knickers!!! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xx