Tag: shop update

Shop news

Just to say last orders for hand-dyed threads and fabric before Christmas is Tuesday 16th December, and that’s for UK orders only now as it’s unlikely that overseas orders will reach you before the festivities.

Silk thread sets

The shop will re-open for shippable items (hand-dyed fabric and thread) around January 5th. You can still purchase PDF downloads in the meantime. If you’re purchasing a PDF, the email containing the download link will go to the email address you used for the purchase, and that email may go to your spam/junk folder. Please save the download to your device before trying to print it as you may lose access to the link if you try to print it before saving.

I’ll be taking a break from 17th to 31st December, and may not respond to emails in my usual instant manner so please be patient if you have a question or problem with any purchases.

There isn’t much of the year left, and I can see the lower hem of my 2025 daily stitching scroll.

2025 daily stitching, nearly at the end

I’ll show the whole thing around new year, when I’ll also be starting my 2026 adventure.

2026 preparations

And finally, a reminder that you can now purchase pre-printed fabric for daily stitching via my shop on Spoonflower. Please read through the information on the blog page before purchasing.

Samples of pre-printed fabrics for daily stitching

When you buy from Spoonflower, 90% of your money goes to them. For transparency, I earn a 10% commission on each purchase, but I’m unable to help you with any questions or problems regarding your orders. For help with your printed fabric order please contact the Spoonflower help team and they should be able to assist.

Back later in the week with a little end-of-year reflection.

Shop news

After a very busy few weeks, the shop is about as full as it can be.

I’ve re-stocked a limited quantity of hand-painted chiffon scraps:

hand-painted chiffon scraps 7″ x 9″

There are still some other lovely fabric packs too.

I’ve made some new half-skein Randoms thread collections – these are (broadly) colour-coordinated half skeins from my current thread range, in sets of 8-10. Good for small projects, and good for expanding your thread collection. Because we all need more thread, right?

new half-skeins from my Randoms

I’ve curated some cotton threads collections, one of each from my current range of cotton threads:

cotton thread collection

And I’ve made some really pretty mini-collections of silk threads, one each of silk perle 8, silk perle 12, and fine silk:

three silk threads

Good for secret Santas and stocking fillers, because we probably have to start talking about Christmas.

I’ll be closing my shop around 10th December-ish, only for the holidays and only for tangible items that need posting; PDFs will continue to be available throughout the holiday period. It seems early to be closing, but I really can’t do the whole panic-last-minute rush thing, spending entire afternoons in a queue at the post office, worrying about whether post is going to arrive in time etc. Last date for overseas orders (that’s outside UK) will be around 2nd December – so if you’re not in the UK, you’ve got about three weeks to buy what you need 😱

Three weeks? Better start writing a few lists myself…

Happy shopping! Get in touch if you have any questions about any of the products, and thank you as always for your valued support. I know I couldn’t do any of this without you.

Fabric heaven

It’s been a busy week of curating and creating some lovely new fabric scrap packs.

There’s a new selection of black/white/neutral sheer and semi-sheer fabrics for you to layer and/or paint:

sheer and semi-sheer fabrics

This one contains scraps of very sheer nylon chiffon, unusual textured tulles, dress nets and plain tulle, two-tone voile, and black and white printed chiffon that takes paints and inks beautifully. These are synthetic fabrics so they won’t take fibre-reactive dye. I’ve had great success using diluted acrylic inks on these fabrics – the inks are semi-translucent so they don’t interfere with the sheerness of the fabrics, and they’re pretty much colourfast when dry.

sheer and semi-sheer fabrics

There’s a collection of hand-painted fabrics (and I’m especially pleased with this one):

hand-painted chiffon, tulle and other scraps

This one contains paint-dyed synthetic chiffon, painted textured tulle, fine nylon chiffon, hand-dyed cotton scrim and a few snippets of hand-dyed cotton organdie and other tiny scraps. Fabulous for layering, and good for my Stitched Samples for Sketchbooks course, and my Stitch a Little Landscape course too.

hand-painted sheer/semi-sheer scraps

And finally, if you like a little luxury in your layered stitching, there’s a collection of hand-dyed silk organza and silk chiffon:

hand-dyed silk organza and silk chiffon

The silk chiffon is ultra-soft and floaty; the organza is stiffer and semi-transparent. This one comes with a couple of yards of hand-dyed/tea-dyed silk ribbon.

hand-dyed silk organza and chiffon scraps

I even made new labels and sourced some compostable cellophane bags to package them in.

new fabric scrap packs

These collections are available now while existing stocks last; I don’t plan to restock before Christmas so when they’re gone they’re gone. Still lots of choice in threads too. Just saying.

Overseas news: I’ve now sent a couple of trial packages to the US, one of which has been delivered (it took about a week) and the other is well on its way. The system appears to be working fairly smoothly.

Unfortunately for anyone in Canada, Royal Mail is not currently delivering there due to the postal strike. You can still place an order if you want to, and I will post it when the current troubles have been resolved.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Good news

Good news if you’re in the US.

Royal Mail is now providing an international mail service that replaces the flat fee for US customers and instead charges the 10% tariff at the point of posting. What that means is that all charges and fees are paid up front before your parcel leaves the UK, leaving you nothing further to pay when your parcel is delivered. It also ensures that your parcel clears customs as smoothly as possible. Definitely no $80 fee.

Unfortunately I’ve had to increase the postage costs for US customers, to help cover the cost of the tariff as well as the administration fee that Royal Mail charges for providing the service.

There may be some delays to begin with, until the system becomes familiar and runs more smoothly, so you may want to wait a few weeks or so before placing an order – but you definitely can order again if you want to, and hurrah for that.

In other news, I’m preparing some new sheer fabric collections and have been painting some lovely chiffon and tulle fabrics.

painted chiffon
patterned tulle, painted and drying

I have some sheer silk fabrics to dye next week and then I’ll have some fun curating an inspirational collection for you.

We’re in for a wet and windy weekend here in the UK, so a comfy chair, a hot chocolate, and a good book may well be on the menu. And some quiet stitching, of course.

3rd October, daily stitching

Shop update

I think we’re nearly about there with the threads update. First I’m taking a couple of days off, so the new batch of threads will be live from Wednesday, ish.

Here’s my dyer’s perks collection, just some of my favourites from the new batch – silk boucle, fine cotton boucle, silk perle 12, silk perle 8, fine silk and cotton perle 8:

a few new threads for me

I still can’t post anything to Europe or USA, I’m afraid. If you live in one of these areas and have family or friends in the UK, they can order for you as a gift using their UK address.

I have some very pretty silk thread collections, if anyone is thinking about (whisper it) Christmas yet. Just saying.

Silk thread collection: silk boucle, silk perle 3/8/12, fine silk

I’ve also got round to making some better labels for the thread tasters:

thread tasters

I increased the number of Randoms, since these are always the first thing to sell out.

Randoms – 10 mini-skeins, roughly colour-coordinated, various types of thread

You can preview the new threads here; when they’re live they’ll be available to purchase.

Happy Monday!

Thread

A successful week’s dyeing: over 150 hanks of cotton and silk thread ready for winding into skeins.

18″ square cube full of thread hanks

But I’m not starting any of that until next week. I’ve discussed it with the boss (that’s me) and she’s reluctantly letting me have the bank holiday weekend off.

In the meantime as a special bank holiday treat, there’s about 20% off selected hand-dyed cotton thread in my shop this weekend only – offer ends around tea-time (UK time) on Monday. Pick yourself a bargain if you like hand-dyed DMC stranded floss, perle cotton (size 5 and 8) and finer cotton. I’ll aim to post weekend orders out on Tuesday next week. I’m so sorry but I can’t currently post items to Europe, Northern Ireland or USA.

threads on offer only until Monday

Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend!

A pot of tea

Tea-drinking is a national sport here in the UK, but I like it best for dyeing fabric scraps and trimmings.

tea-dyed fabric scraps and threads

I thought while I was about it, I might as well dye some thread for the shop as well. I’m often asked for tea-dyed thread, and my usual answer is ‘dip some white thread in a pot of tea’ – it (almost) is that simple. But if you want the convenience of having it done for you, I now have a few tea-dyed threads in the shop. The silk threads have come out particularly nicely, a lovely golden dark cream. The cottons are much paler – in fact that’s how I like them, very subtly coloured – but if you want them darker, just let them steep in some black tea for a while until you get the colour you want.

I have some lovely space-dyed DMC threads still available, in most of the specified colourways:

delicious DMC stranded cotton

And still a fair bit of cotton perle 5 too:

cotton perle 5 threads

Some of the other lines are becoming a little depleted, so I’m in the process of preparing more thread for another dye session, probably later this month. Good job I haven’t got time to sit on this chair, it’s piled high with thread.

thread winding in progress

Very sadly, shipping to the US is suspended for now – I hope temporarily, but we will have to wait and see what options become available. Royal Mail has issued some rules about collecting the necessary tariffs, but with no clear instructions on how to do that. They also make no mention of the $80 admin/customs/processing fee, which to me is much more of a worry than the 10% tariff. If you’re in the US (or anywhere else, for that matter) and you have friends or family here in the UK, there’s nothing stopping them ordering threads for you as a gift to be sent initially to their UK address. Something to bear in mind for birthdays and Christmas, perhaps.

In the meantime, more thread-winding for me. Have a lovely weekend.

Collage papers

I found I had probably more painted collage papers than I need so I’ve made up a few mini-packs for the shop.

painted collage paper packs

Mostly small (approximately postcard-sized and smaller) pieces; there are some nice varieties, colours, and textures that will make lots of beautiful little collages.

representative sample

There’s also quite a lot of thread still available, plus some very pretty silk thread sets:

silk thread sets – delicious

I’ll be taking a break next week, so the shop will remain open until 2pm (UK time) this Friday after which it will be closed for a week or so.

Fabrics

I’ve been sorting through my fabrics and scraps, and I’ve put together a couple of options that are now available in the shop.

The first is a sheer and semi-sheer/textured fabrics scraps pack that looks a bit like this:

FSH – sheer fabrics scraps pack, example

You can see average contents here:

sheer fabrics collection

The second is a lightweight fabrics selection, mostly hand-dyed, and mostly cotton with some scraps of silk and/or linen:

lightweight fabric scraps, average contents

And one in the making:

lightweight fabrics

Both packs are good for layering, to create little landscapes or stitched samples. I used some of the scraps to create a very long cloth, which I’m starting to explore.

a long landscape

Not sure where this one is going, but it looks like a long road. It’s about 4″ wide by about eight feet.

in progress

Have a lovely weekend.

Thread

It’s been a busy couple of weeks: over 950 skeins of thread, wound and labelled and coming soon. Soon-ish. I’ve just got to list and describe a couple more batches, then I’ll take a couple of days off, and after that they’re all yours.

I picked out some of my favourites – I call it dyer’s perks. Hank ends, oddments and leftovers, and all mine. I wind any skeins that are for me onto rolls of paper to keep them reasonably neat.

threads coming soon

These are some of the thread taster sets:

delicious!

Be patient. Not much longer to wait, maybe a week or so.

In the meantime, we’re getting closer to the fabulous Making Zen stitching retreat week, which starts a week today.

join me and 31 amazing artists from 26th May

It’s not too late to get your free ticket:

get your Making Zen ticket here

The free ticket gives you access to the workshops for 24 hours on the day they’re released. Upgrading to the VIP pass gives you lifetime access to all workshops AND you also get the free extras that participating artists are generously sharing. If you bought your early bird VIP pass then I hope you’re enjoying your exclusive early access to all the amazing workshops and free gifts.

For transparency, buying your VIP pass from the links on this page will result in my earning a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps enormously to support my work as an independent artist. Thank you so much.

And a reminder that you can watch my Making Zen interview with Kate here

Watch here

Happy Monday!