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

Why I've sized down my sewing kit!

Now that I've been sewing awhile I seem to have accumulated quite a sizable sewing accessory stash. Truth be told whilst I love collecting old bit of sewing equipment especially if they belongs to someone I know, trying to find exactly what I needed was a bit like trying to find a needle in well...a really big like of needles and other stuff!! 

It was really starting to drain on my creativity. I could easily spend an hour tidying everything up and trying to work out what to take when I did my demos at abakhans was becoming a nightmare. But I couldn't see myself being able to part with any of my old sewing things especially things that had once belonged to someone else.

Then I was lucky enough that prym sent me some of their new sewing range to try out. And guys less is more!!!

They basically sent me a collection of sewing essentials in a little plastic sewing box and once I'd seen all those matching items together I couldn't bare to throw them into the chaos of the sewing box!! 

So I kept them separate and tried a more minimal type of sewing! 

And I loved it!!!! Naturally I added in a few of my own items that I love but now I find things a lot easier! I wasn't spend ages searching for items or tidying UK now and the case was portable enough that it could from my sewing table to abakhans no problem! It even took a trip to my sons school when I did a sewing workshop. 

I think it works so well because everything in their is an essential and everything is good quality so I'm no longer searching for a good needle or decent scissors! 

Here's a small taste of whats inside:

Prym scissors on chain (particularly useful for cutting over locker chains) this pair actually came attached to a pin cushion but I like them better than my previous cabin scissors so I switched them.

Prym ergonomic unpicker  not that I use it because *ahem* pro sewer over here...... Its lies if I could have this on a chain too I would. 

Needle holder

. This might be my favourite item to be honest. With having a day and a small child I am always on alert that they can't get my needles. Well this case comes with a lid and swivels up like a lipstick to display your needles. AND there's a magnet in the bottom so even if you hold it upside down nothing falls out. GENIUS!!!! 

Magnetic pincushion, again safety wise this has been a godsend. I regularly throw needles at it and it catches them every single time!!!! 

Small scissors these are in between my dressmaking scissors and my embroidery ones so perfect off quick cuts for alterations . They are super sharp which really makes me want to try their larger version! Also the boys know exactly what I mean when I scream don't use the polka dot scissors!!! 

Point turner. Its official I'm the person who uses a point turner... A few years ago if you'd have asked me to use a point turner I'd have pointed to various pens and pencils that I used as point turners but now I'm all about the smooth point! And as an added bonus this doesn't leave an ink stain like pen does!!! 

Beeswax (not sure what brand this is ?) I added this to the box myself because I cannot cope with tangled threads I just don't have the patience! 

Tailors chalk (not sure of brand) I added this to the box because using it makes me feel fancy.... That's not even a joke when I use tailors chalk I feel like a sewing boss! 

Other fabric markers ( from top to bottom ) cartridge pen , aqua pen and chalk wheel.  At a push I'd say the chalk wheel is my favourite but to a be honest between the three of them I can mark pretty much every fabric ever!!! 

Other things that live in the box worth mentioning : 

- wonder clips ( especially useful for jersey fabrics)

- thread cutter necklace (literally saves my sanity any time I fly)

-janome scissors 

- my own personal sewing labels (because I'm fancy) 

Okay so I'm officially converted to a minimalist sewing box (not that it'll keep me from filling my big sewing box with other goodies I find) but where do you stand???? 

Is smaller more practical ? Or is bigger better?? 

Much love 

Frankie 

Xxx

Disclaimer : whilst prym sent me these items for free I have been using them solidly for 6 months and all thoughts and views are my own.

A Little Cable Hat - Prym Yoga Needle

I'm really getting back into my knitting. Which is bizarre because, hello summers on its way????

But no, apparently the infrequent bursts of sunshine just make me want to sit and knit! 

Last year I told you all about my love for the Prym Ergonomic needle and well they've only gone and done it again! 

Meet the Prym Yoga! 

I was lucky enough to be given a sample of these to try at the recent CHSI stitches show at the Prym stand. 

Now the idea of the Yoga needle is that it does just about everything. Which means it saves valuable space in your knitting bag that you can use for snacks and stuff. 

Its called the Yoga because well its "bendy" like people who do yoga! [Side thought: Have you seen there's such a thing as doga? its yoga but with your dog!!! anyway I digress]

Primarily I've been using it as a cable needle. Oh yeah I upped my knitting game and learnt how to do cables just so I could test this out.

But you can also use it as a stitch holder, auxiliary marker [I have no idea what that is but it says it on the box], a stitch marker or a double pointed needle [Its flexible so its very useful in small pieces of knitting where you might want to bend it out of the way.] 

The ends are the same as the regular prym ergonomic needles they have the smooth plastic and the hook at the end. I've been using the ergonomic needles religiously and now I hate using standard needles, "where is my hook tip? Why are my stitches falling off?"

But these have the added bonus with the middle being bendy. Which means you can form it into all sorts of shapes. For example your favourite type of cable needle. 

Speaking of cables, here's what I made whilst I was trying them out. As you know I'm a firm believer in giving things a good try so I made a hat.

I actually made it for me but it looks horrible on me. I'm not sure why but it does and Lil man has 

currently lost 2 hats at school so this got rammed on his head one snowy morning when he was hat-less and lo and behold it looks pretty cute on him.

It was pretty risky of me to let him take it to school though as I hadn't taken any blog pictures at that point.

You can see the cables better in these photos. There are four on the hat and I really liked how malleable the yoga needle was when I was trying to knit them. And also how light it was in compassion to metal cable needles. I  knit a few rows with my metal cable needle and I found that the weight dragged the stitches down a bit. Not a huge amount but enough so that using a metal cable needle might have messed up my tension.

All in all I really really liked them. In fact the only issue I had was that everybody else in the house seemed to want to play with them too!!! 

Every time either the big or little man walked past my knitting they couldn't resist picking it up and bending it! 

They have never show such a interest in my crafting before!!! 

And then I found myself doing it as I was reading the pattern. Without even thinking about it! So I think we can add "thinking device" to its list of uses too!!! 

If you fancy giving them a try you can find them here! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx