More highlights of the CHSI stitches 2016 show earlier this week.

Here are some of my highlights from this years CHSI stitches show. Mostly sewing, wowza there was A LOT of great fabric and sewing ideas, but also the other bits and pieces I saw and loved.

Dashwood Studio is a lovely UK based textile design company and their stand had quite possibly my favourite thing in the whole show.

I shared this on instagram whilst I was still at the show. I just think this is not only fun, cute and pretty but it is just a great bit of advice too. It was made by the super talented The Primrose Parasol (the company no longer exists) The Dashwood studio stand also had some really beautiful modern quilts. They are made by Joanne Jones, find her on instagram here.

This Tessepatch idea from Craft Yourself Silly really caught my eye too, a really clever twist on the traditional paper piecing patchwork.

The cats are my favourite but I think the little Scottie dogs would look amazing in black, white, red and tartan.

They come in 2 sizes as precut paper templates or studier 2 part templates for clever pattern placement if that's your thing.

Making your own knickers (underpants) is a real trend apparently, I saw a couple of companies doing really pretty kits.

This one from Flo-Jo:

And this one from The New Craft House:

What a lovely present idea for a friend who sews - you can never have too many pairs after all!

I really like this denim cushion, it is from The Denim Studio by AGF. I love the simple stitching with the patchwork, such a lovely idea.

With so many people enjoying the colouring in trend this "Colour me in" range from Pink Pineapple really caught my eye. They've got loads of ready printed fabric products for you to colour with fabric pens.

Such cute and modern designs. From their website it looks like this is UK only shipping at the moment.

Now just stop for a moment and admire this gorgeous heart canvas. 

This is by the lovely and talented Jo aka Shabby Dandelion.

Now I must apologise for this awful photo but I was very excited to see Stuart Hillard, from The Great British Sewing Bee's first series (I seem to recall a rather fab skirt with tulip pockets) He had just finished a demonstration to make a lovely bag, just out of shot, and this was the "Ta-Dah!" moment.

My day at the CHSI Stitches 2016 show started with a bloggers breakfast, where I got to meet some lovely people and was given a goodie bag from DMC. As well as the cotton yarn and crochet hook I showed on Tuesday the bag contained a new DMC product Custom by me. It's a self adhesive cross stitch design sheet which allows you to cross stitch onto anything easily. The sheet then just washes away leaving the stitching in place, perfect for beginners.

We also had some Coloris thread so I got to work over our tea and pastries and started a little sashiko inspired design onto my bag.

I'd like to add a little more and then give it a good press with the iron but the colours of the thread go so nicely with the navy bag with it's beige handles. I didn't feel embarrassed to walk round the show with it over my shoulder in it's unfinished state!

That's it, I won't bore you with more of the gazzillion photo I took! It looks like the craft industry is thriving and there are a lot of us who just like making things!

Julie

I'll be linking up at some of these lovely link parties.