a week of launches...

HELLO and happy Sunday! This week has been a week of launches - from our new natural linen tea towels (lovely and rustic, we're so pleased with them) to our Christmas Shop! And I'm excited to say that the Christmas orders have been coming in already... yesterday was our busiest day of the year so far!

Our 2012 Christmas Shop features everything from jolly figgy pudding napkins, to tea towels, cosies and Christmas gift tags - that I started last night. Each one is hand-drawn and painted and this year I am doing three designs: robins, puddings and penguins. It was great to pack my first festive tags of the season!

This year we are also producing a range of 3 Christmas cards: Merry Christmas (below), Let it Snow and of course, Figgy Pudding. They are available individually and also in a Pack of 6, which includes 2 of each design and lovely recycled brown envelopes too. On that festive note, I am off to pack a few more cards... have a wonderful week and catch you all next Sunday! x

A trip down to sunny Devon...

I spent the last week in South Devon with my family, our annual pilgrimage, and every year see the trip as a wonderful time to take photos of the beautiful scenery, the sea, quirky boats and lobster pots, as well as a chance to get the watercolours out, and I spent a lovely few hours drawing boats, painting their sails and doing smaller, quicker sketches of boats and yachts using pen. 

It made a lovely change to use pencils, paint and paper, as I spend the majority of my time 'drawing' with my sewing machine, so it was great to be creative using a completely different medium to my usual fabric and thread.

Our holiday breakfast's were made complete with one of our coffee cosies, and we spent time wandering around the pretty coastal towns, walking around the beautiful Devon coastline, and stopping for well-deserved coffee and cake, or treating ourselves to delicious cream teas!

Home & Gift 2012

For the majority of last week we were exhibiting at the Home & Gift trade show in Harrogate. We headed north last Saturday to set up, and it doesn't matter how many trade fairs I do, being faced with the bare stand always seems a little daunting at first... but we got there!

We had a great few days, meeting new and potential stockists, as well as lovely fellow exhibitors and new friends. We even squeezed in a couple of trips to Betty's for some 'tea room blend' before the show opened in the mornings!

We are now home safe and sound and have been invoicing and sorting through post-fair admin...

...and celebrating my birthday! I was even treated to a surprise birthday chocolate cake on the last day of Home & Gift (clearly the girls I met already know me too well!), which was delicious... but back to work tomorrow, we have orders to get cracking on!

Midsummer Sale!

It's Midsummer Sale time here at CMT HQ, and we have added some one-off (or last remaining) items to our SALE page. Our spotty bunting (above) - available in either spotty teal, charcoal or blue is now only £14, and our last 2 sets of croissant napkins (below) are also £14!

We've been Jubilee and Union Jack crazy for a while now, but we've decided to add our Union Jack tea cosies to the SALE too... 

WAS £38, NOW £25!

 Our white cotton beach hut aprons are also, yep you guessed it, £14 

(bit of a price theme going on here!)

And last but by no means least... we have a couple of navy daisy tea cosies left in stock, now only £18 (£20 off!) So pop on over to our SALE page and have a browse, now is the time to stock up on birthday presents, or even to get in early for Christmas (sorry, Christmas is on the brain!)

a little catch-up...

Hello there folks! Since the Jubilee weekend it's been go-go-go, so much so that my blog post writing has slipped a little, but I'm back! 

After (and throughout) the Jubilee celebrations we were busy preparing our stock and stand layout for Pulse, a new trade fair for us in London. 

The fair was a resounding success and we came away tired but happy and with great new stockists and re-orders from existing ones too. 

We are now busying away getting lots of lovely new stock ready to send off to all corners of Britain, from Norfolk to Cornwall and a few inbetween!

We were also extremely pleased with the reaction to our new products - notebooks, totes and mugs - hopefully you will find these in a shop near you soon!

Country Living Spring Fair 2012

We are back from the Country Living Spring Fair, exhausted (hence why it has taken 3 days to get around to writing this post!) but very happy. I was so pleased with how the stand looked and felt very proud as I arrived each morning. It was like having my very own shop, albeit a mini one!

The reactions to my work from visitors to the fair was also wonderful, and I met so many lovely people over the five days, from people visiting the fair, to followers on twitter and lots of already familiar faces too.

After a fantastic 5 days we are now back on home turf, and although London was great, it is good to be home! We are now cracking on with trade orders and re-stocking for our next Spring fair... this Saturday! (31st March) 

We'll be scooting back to the big smoke for the Selvedge Spring Fair, a one day extravaganza, and we're very excited! http://www.selvedge.org/pages/fair.aspx

This week...

This week I have been working on orders from Home & Gift. Particularly popular items have been chickens tea and egg cosies and anything with wine glasses on, as well as frilly tea cups, ten green bottles tea towels and lots of napkins!

My new stockists include a new shop opening in Germany by a lovely lady called Iris who I met at the show, Dorfstrasse 9 will be opening in October. As well as Furleys in Rutland, Tilly & Rose and Empathy, in Alton where my cosies and other bits and bobs will be featured alongside vintage painted furniture - the perfect setting.

My Christmas range also went down a treat at the show, so have been making lots of Christmassy goodies too! I can't wait to launch them later on in the year! x

 

Apple Jackets

Possibly one of the sweetest things I have ever seen, and certainly something I never thought I would be writing a blog post about, but here we are... Apple Jackets! Brought to light by the ladies at Mollie Makes magazine and featured on the front cover of their premier issue, Apple Jackets are taking off! 

Technically apple cosies... these are right up my street. So prepare to drool over these cute and pretty coloured jackets... x

The Sunday Post: Spring Edition

Good morning! With the arrival of snowdrops I feel it is now just about appropriate to celebrate the arrival of Spring! So I've put together a little blog post dedicated to all things 'Spring-y'... I hope you like!

I'd also like to mention the wonderful Selvedge Spring Fair, being held on Saturday 2nd April at the lovely St Augustine's Church Hall, across the road from the Selvedge shop. I am more than excited to be one of the 30 designers and makers selected for this fantastic event and had better start making in preparation! (Click on the Spring Fair banner to go to the Selvedge website for further info!)

So without further ado, here is my Spring Selection...

Croissant napkins, perfect for Spring breakfasts, inspired by some time I spent in France a few years ago and reminiscent of eating croissants and jam out in the French sunshine...

Spotty Eggs Tea Towel and co-ordinating Spotty Eggs Card - the perfect gifts to give friends this Easter or to use in your own kitchen! New additions to my range, spotty eggs are solely inspired by my favourite meal-time of the day, breakfast!!

And last but not least, my range of lovely floral cosies ~ available as a tea cosy, coffee cosy, or even an egg cosy! They look lovely dotted around the kitchen. I hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll catch up with you next Sunday! x 

it runs in the family...

Whilst rooting around under her bed yesterday my mum found a tea cosy made by my grandmother, depicting my dad's old Beetle! I never met my granny but she was apparently a lot like me and delighted in sewing, so I thought it only apt to show you the infamous and well-loved 'Beetle tea cosy'. It is a joy for me to see, as it is part of my family's sewing history and shows that stitch and tea cosy design in particular really does run in the family :)
My granny would often buy a piece of fabric on the way home from work and whip it up into a skirt to wear out in the evening - I only wish I was that good at making clothes!

Above: my new floral tea cups tea cosy. Below: a few of my cosies hanging behind my granny's vintage Beetle tea cosy, a little threadbare in places from years of love and use... x

less than 24 hours to go!

Good morning! Exciting news from the studio... it is less than 24 hours til the launch of my 'puddings' range for Christmas 2010. Tomorrow my website will be re-launched with all manner of Christmassy items, and even an all-new 'Christmas Shop'. I will be tweeting all about it during the day, probably quite excitedly (!) so join me if you can!

Ahead of the launch here is a sneaky snippet of info for you...

New for Christmas will be an exciting range of tea and coffee cosies, cotton napkins, a delightfully festive limited edition stocking, 'pud' egg cosies, cotton aprons (for little ones and grown-ups), linen and cotton tea towels, red stripe bunting, and of course... hand-illustrated Christmas tags :)

Here are a couple of sneaky pics to tide you over til tomorrow... x

'coffee beans'

The 'coffee beans' are finally here! My new 'coffee beans' cosy is available in two sumptuous colourways, mocha and cream. I'm so pleased and excited to add them to my range, I hope you like them too. Both hand made from beautiful linen and individually stitched, to view details of the two cosies in my shop click here.

P.S. If you have friends who also like stitching, wonderful fabrics, and general textiles-type talk, plus a bit of food thrown in for good measure, do pass on the link to my blog, www.stitchtales.blogspot.com.

"The Sunday Post" - Country Living Edition!

Good morning folks!
After a good lie-in this morning I awoke fresh and full of renewed vigour, after my trip to the Country Living Spring Fair yesterday. My legs are aching from the 8 hours of walking and making our way through the swarms of shoppers, but I loved taking in the Eastery feel of all the stands, and above is a prime example, by Laura Long - a lovely but simple and effective looking stand, and of course Laura's work is gorgeous too.
This week I'm working on two new designs, one cosy and a fresh new tea towel, keep your eyes peeled. Yes the tea towel was meant to have come into fruition by now, but orders took over! Lots of Sunday sewing ahead of me today :) I hope you are having a fantastic weekend, x