I am truly sorry to be the bearer of disappointing news today, but I have decided to suspend overseas shipping (that’s anywhere outside the UK) until further notice.
If you’re anywhere other than the UK, please accept my sincere apologies. I hope that I can resume overseas shipping before too much longer; stay tuned and I’ll let you know.
If you have family or friends in the UK who can order on your behalf, then that would present a workable alternative.
If you are in the UK (and I still can’t ship to Northern Ireland, I’m afraid) then – lucky you – it’s all yours.
Some good news: there will be new threads in the shop later this week. 1,451 skeins of it, to be precise – yes, I counted – all wound and labelled by (my) hand.
Random thread collections
At present when you visit the shop you will see all the thread listings are labelled ‘coming soon’ but that will change once the threads go live, probably midweek or so depending on how I get on. And I’ve just realised that midweek is tomorrow. The week has almost gone before it’s started.
Coming Soon
Along with the good news, I’m afraid there’s some bad news. Royal Mail has increased their prices from today, and overseas shipping costs have increased by quite a lot. When I reviewed my shipping costs, I realised that I hadn’t been including the cost of packaging or the currency conversion fee, so in fact I’ve been undercharging for a few years on international postage. I’ve now rectified that, so you will notice the increase. As always, if the automated checkout overestimates your shipping cost, I will refund any overpayment. US customers, unfortunately your shipping is always going to be slightly higher than everyone else’s because it includes the 10% tariff.
beautiful silk sets
It’s much more cost-effective to buy as much as you can at once, as you only pay the shipping cost once per order. Because postage costs are calculated by weight, up to 100g of thread costs the same to post as a single skein.
While we’re on the bad news I’m afraid there’s a bit more of it, for some. A few thread types are now discontinued so when the current batch is gone, they’re gone forever. The discontinued threads are fine cotton boucle, DMC stranded floss, and cotton perle 5.
the last of the DMC thread skeins
Fabric packs are also discontinued and most are on sale, but there are still a few of those left so we’ll see how long they last.
fabric scrap packs
Thank you, as always, for your kind support.
The sun is shining this morning, the buds are unfurling into new leaves, the birds are singing, and all is well.
It wasn’t much of a week off in the end, because – surprise – this happened:
hand dyed threads drying in the sunshine
I just got lucky with the weather – decent light followed by a good drying day – so thought I would seize the day and all that. I’ll have a couple of easy days this week to make up for it.
I did manage to catch up with myself a bit on the other days. I got to the end of Tabula Rasa, and I’m not sure that’s its name any more but I’ve yet to think of a better one.
Tabula Rasa, the far end
I also enjoyed a little mixed media sketchbook exploration with some motifs based on the stitching.
circlesmore circles
The thread will take a while to wind but in the meantime there is probably enough left in the shop to cover thread-based emergencies.
For various reasons, I’ve decided to streamline and simplify my shop contents. For the time being I won’t be making more fabric packs, so most remaining fabrics are currently in the shop on sale to clear. Prices have already been adjusted so you don’t need discount codes, and when they’re gone they’re gone so be quick if you’re interested. I hope you can find something lovely to add to your collection.
Back to work after a holiday used to mean my apathetic return to the office where a thousand emails were waiting for me. These days back to work means winding beautiful thread by an open window listening to a robin singing in the garden. What luck. Hope your week is going well too.
A (very) small update this week with a few extra threads for the shop.
Limited quantity of Random threads collections
What’s currently in the shop is all I have until later in the spring, so when it’s gone it’s gone.
silk threads, limited quantities remaining
I hope to have a dyeing day next month – or even later this month, if we get lucky with the weather. I need good light and a couple of decent drying days, so let’s see what the weather gods bring us. After dyeing it’ll be a few weeks of winding and labelling skeins, so I’m aiming for new thread in the shop by late March/early April.
In the meantime I’m finding time for a few quilting/couching/stitching lines on the quilt.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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 chiffonpatterned 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.
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.
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 shopthis 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.
