Update on the new embroidery scissors from Hemline

Last week, I blogged about the editorial in New Stitches that mentions my new firescreen kits for doll’s houses, and also about the new embroidery scissors that featured on the same page in the magazine. At that time, I said I was having difficulty getting in touch with the manufacturers, Hemline, to find out where the scissors could be bought.

If only I’d known what I had started….

I have been having an email ‘conversation’ with Hemline ever since, as I tried to get out of them *where* these scissors can be bought. At first, it took ages to get any reply at all. Then I was asked to supply the product codes, so they could check which items I meant. Well, the editorial feature doesn’t give product codes, but surely, if it’s new products that they have bothered to advertise this month, it shouldn’t be that difficult to track down? Apparently it is. Anyway, then I was told that they are available on Amazon.co.uk.  But only if you type in ‘Hemline’ and the product code in the search box. Otherwise, if you put something more general like ’embroidery scissors’, the results list is so huge, you’ll never find them. But even keying in ‘Hemline’ and the product code only found two of the styles in stock (one *pair* of each available to buy), and the other style didn’t show up at all.

So, back to Hemline. They then said that Sewandso.co.uk stock them. Now we were getting somewhere – Sew and So are my favourite online needlework website, and they do have a huge range, so I thought it was good that they’d stock them – so I had a look….and they weren’t there. Back to Hemline again. ‘Yes, they definitely did buy some from us. Give them a ring’. Now, is it just me, or do you also think it’s daft to have to phone an online retailer to see if they have something in stock? I expect to see it on their site, not to have to ring them.

Anyway, I emailed SewandSo’s customer service department, and explained that all I wanted was to find a real stockist, so I could mention them on my blog, so that people could buy them….you know? A FREE ADVERT!!!!!

They checked, and emailed back to say they hadn’t placed an order yet for these new styles (so, what were Hemline doing, telling me they had?!), but that they’d placed an order with Hemline that morning, and stock would arrive in a few days.

So, if you want these lovely scissors, go to sewandso.co.uk , click on Accessories / Scissors / Other scissors. I’m not guaranteeing they will be there yet, but give them a little while, and, you never know…….

There, that was easy, wasn’t it?! I’m going for a lie down, now  🙂

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A miniature carpet in a doll’s house scale office

One of my customers who lives in Russia, called Natalia, sent me these wonderful pictures last week, of a doll’s house scale office that she has made.

The room has got so much detail in it, it’s just greatl! The carpet in the centre of the room is one from my range of needlepoint kits and charts, and is called ‘Yvonne’. It is stitched on 18 count canvas. Natalia chose to stitch the design in her own colourway, to enhance the heavy Oriental look of the room.

This is the carpet seen from above, to show the detail. She chose not to add fringing to the ends, so that when the carpet is in the room, the legs of the chairs can be clearly seen. She made the chair cushion from a cushion kit, but again, altered the colours and made the seat pad flat, to fit the chair.

The original colourway of ‘Yvonne’ that I have in my range, which is available as a kit with 18 count canvas and Appleton’s crewel wools, looks like this, below. The matching cushion and staircarpet is also shown.

I have to say I think I like Natalia’s colours better than mine,  so I am working on a new colourway to my range now  🙂

Natalia’s pictures, along with dozens from other talented customers of mine, can be seen on the Customers’ Gallery page of my website.

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New doll’s house firescreens…and new scissors

This month, I have my new doll’s house firescreen kits being featured in New Stitches magazine (Issue 243, on sale from today), on the ‘Stitcher’s Notebook’ pages. They mention all the relevant info, and a nice BIG picture of the firescreens themselves. These are stitched on 32 count silk gauze, and are 2 1/2 inches high when finished. You can buy them from my website.

New Stitches editorial staff are very good when they are going to feature my work – they always send me a copy of the page first, so that I can check that all the information is correct (I wish all the other magazines would do this!!).  So, although the magazine is only on sale from today, I saw this a couple of weeks back.

And when I did, I was also interested in the other items that are featured on the same page as my firescreens – the three pairs of embroidery scissors. Aren’t they lovely? Each pair is 4 1/2 inches long, and they cost £11.50 each. So, they’re not quite what I would call  ‘budget’ scissors, but not too pricey, either. And the designs are lovely. I really like the ones in the centre.

I love making etui sets, which usually contain a pair of scissors, so I don’t just own one pair. But I like to buy different designs each time, and these beautiful new designs will definitely go on my wish list.

I tried emailing the company, Hemline, to try to find out where I could buy these from – the email address is printed in the article. I emailed them twice, a week apart. No reply. Hmm, not very encouraging. I checked to make sure I had the email address correct, and I did. So, try emailing them yourself and see if they reply to you! The email address is  crafts@stockistenquiries.co.uk .

 

(EDIT 27 June 2013: These should be available from Sewandso in a few days, hopefully!)

 

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Starting out in my new quilting hobby

Well, as usual, once I decide I want to do something, I want to do it NOW!!

I spent hours surfing the internet for information about patchwork and quilting, and found some wonderful fabrics, but somehow I felt I needed to actually TALK to someone before getting some basic supplies in (other than my recent impulse purchases of some fat quarter packs from the USA). But I don’t know anybody who does patchwork. In the USA, patchwork and quilting is a huge hobby, with fabric shops just for patchwork fabric in every town, it seems. Not so in the UK.

However, I struck lucky. Each month, I go from Staffordshire, where I live, to Birmingham (about 50 miles), in order to do Dances of Universal Peace with a lovely group of people. I’ve been going for nearly four years, now. As I was surfing for patchwork fabric shops, I came across a really good one called The Cotton Patch, which also has a ‘bricks and mortar’ shop in Birmingham. Just out of interest, I checked on Google Maps to see if it would be possible to make a detour on the day I was in Birmingham for the dancing, to visit the shop. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I realised that the Cotton Patch shop is literally a hundred yards from the hall where I go for the dancing. I actually go past the door every month, but I’ve never noticed it before. Doh!!

So, last ‘dancing day’, I went armed with a list (I always have a list). In the lunch break, I sneaked off and had a wonderful 45 minutes in the shop, doing the equivalent of a trolley dash (except I had to pay for what I chose!). The woman on the till in the shop was really helpful, and advised me which books to get to start me off, which rulers would be good, which thread and wadding, etc. I had a great time.

This is the book she recommended:

It’s called Start Quilting with Alex Anderson, and it’s got all the information I need to get started, and eight beginners’ projects. They’re not really my style (especially the bright colourways), but I can see that they carefully teach the basics in a planned way. Rotary cutting is dealt with, and how to piece the quilt so that it lays flat. Both hand and machine quilting are covered (I want to do hand quilting). Each project builds on the skills from the one before. The final project in the book is a sampler quilt, using blocks from all of the previous seven projects. It’s a great book to start out with – 48 pages for £10.95.

There’s lots of info on rotary cutting the fabric for your quilt

All the projects are suitable for beginners

The final project is for a quilt which contains all the blocks taught earlier in the book

Now I’m back to surfing the internet for the perfect fabric…..

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