Adventures in Wales

This weekend I spent a glorious couple of days by the sea. We stayed in Mumbles, where I had visited as a child and where my auntie and her family grew up. We visited beaches (above is Rhossili Bay - a beauty!), got our toes sandy, paddled in the sea... 

...ate delicious food...

...and found wonderful cafes. The cafe pictured below is Ty Junction - the food was great, the decor quirky and rustic, and they even had lovely things to buy too, a must-visit if you are heading to Mumbles (Ty Junction: 2 Woodville Road, Mumbles, Swansea).

On one of the rainy mornings we popped into the Oyster Gallery - one of our stockists! We found them at the top of Newton Road (the main street in Mumbles), met the lovely staff and took a couple of snaps of our products in the shop. The Oyster Gallery is a beautiful shop, bigger than I had expected and a treasure-trove of seaside delights! (Oyster Gallery: 70-72 Newton Road, Mumbles, Swansea). xo

chickens, cushions & cards

HELLO & happy Sunday! It's been a busy week here with retail and trade orders, from sewing spotty chicken cushions with added bumblebees, to our new woolly sheep stitched pictures...

I spent the majority of yesterday 'stand-planning' for the Country Living Christmas Fair in London in November. Deciding on how to display our new and existing stock is a tricky business, and after several rough stand sketches, I think I'm finally getting there... all will be revealed in November!

(below: our stand at (left) Country Living Christmas 2011 & (right) Country Living Spring 2012)

In front of the Olympics this week we also set to the daunting task of organising our ever-amassing card range. We now have 13 designs (10 all-year and 3 Christmas cards to be launched in September!) and after realising just how many cards we are now stocking, the time had come to group them all into designs and seasons. I love being organised!

Hope you have all had a wonderful week and tune in again next Sunday for the weekly low-down! xo

our weekly round-up...

The intention of my blog when I started it over two years ago, was to post at least once a week, usually on a Sunday, as there would definitely be spare time on Sunday 'the day of rest' to sit down and have a think about what I wanted to write and share about the studio goings-on during the week. However in recent months my posts have become more and more sporadic, as Sunday's no longer seem to be quiet and finding a spare moment has become surprisingly tricky!

However I think it's important to share our news from the studio, so I'm going to make a concerted effort - and Stitch Tales will be coming to you every Sunday (all going to plan!)

There were two exciting bits of news from last week...

Firstly the creation of our NEW linen coasters. At the moment we are making embroidered chicken & printed yacht coasters, and they are available in sets of 4 from our website.

And secondly, our notebooks have been featured in the September issue of Country Living. They are quite tiny in the picture and we haven't been credited for their use, but they are in there nonetheless, which is great! (below: a close up from the magazine, the notebooks are sitting on top of the table)

Three Choirs Vineyard

To make the most of our last day of sunshine yesterday we ventured to the Three Choirs Vineyard in Newent to sample some wine, sit in the sun and learn about their wine and sparkling wine-making processes.

It was fantastic, I've never been wine tasting before and the experience was just splendid... 

We had a detailed tour around the winery, as well as a glimpse into their micro-brewery 'Whittingtons', also squeezed into their not-very-huge winery building. It was all very impressive. If you aren't too far from Newent I would highly recommend a trip, and the wines were delicious too... always a bonus!

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!

happy Jubilee weekend!

Well first things first, happy Jubilee weekend! Hope you are all having a lovely time street-partying, dressed in all things red, blue and white, and having a festive few days.

This week we launched our new range of linen cushions, 3 chubby square and 3 long rectangular cushions. We are frantically preparing all our stock for Pulse in London, which opens next Sunday, so it's all hands on deck at the moment and the Jubilee celebrations have had to take a little bit of a back seat whilst we sew! 

With that in mind I'd better get back to it, and will hopefully be rewarding myself with a lovely glass of Pimms later on, happy celebrating!

N O T E B O O K S

In the last week we launched a brand new product... notebooks!!

Available in 2 sizes: A5 & A6

We have 4 designs:

chubby chickens...

neighbourhood...

spotty...

 & yachts... we hope you like them!

You can find them in the all-new 'STATIONERY' section on our website.
Happy Sunday!

T O T E S

Yesterday morning, after a little photoshoot, we unveiled our new

T O T E  H A N D B A G S !

Handmade from our own (brand new!) printed fabric and in 3 designs:  

chubby chickens, yachts & neighbourhood...

We've been working on these for what feels like forever, and made

sample after sample to make sure we got the design just right. 

All the materials are from within the UK (yippee) and they 

are each entirely handmade by us here in the studio too.

Let us know which are your favourites!