What Delilah Did

An Awesome Wave

Oh. Good. Lord.

On Monday I got the new alt-J album and instantly fell deeply, irrevocably in love with it. It has been on repeat ever since. You absolutely need to buy it! It will make your life infinitely better I promise.

In case you haven't heard of them, alt-J are an amazing band from Leeds here in the UK and they make music that is so beautiful it almost hurts me to listen to it. The first time I heard the whole album I thought I might burst with my love for it. Reccommendations don't really come much higher than that. It's difficult to describe because it's quite unusual, but I suppose it has elements of folk mixed with a little MGMT, some guitars resembling The Cure, a hint of Bon Iver... awesome indeed.

I was meant to be on holiday this week but I have so much work on that it hasn't really worked out that way! I managed to spend the entire weekend between the beach, the pool and the trampoline and felt so good because of it that I don't even mind that I now have a heap of orders to catch up on (thanks to all of you lovely people!). So I am now sitting putting kits and samples together whilst alt-J keep me company. It hardly feels like work.

Delilah x

Picture from here.

Simple Pleasures

The shadows on my wall.

Blue and white stripes; natural cotton; burnished brown leather.

A peaceful place to sit.

A clean and tidy house.

  

Flowers from friends.

Working from home can be a little overwhelming sometimes; I am trying to focus on the small things before the big things sweep me away.

Delilah x

Cushion Kits Are Here!

The cushion kits are now in the shop - hurrah!

As a special thank you to those of you that have been so patiently waiting for them, I am offering 20% off all cushion kits for this week only*! Initial stocks are limited so hop on over as soon as you can if you have your heart set on one right away. I have more supplies on the way though, so if your favourite sells out before you get there don't worry as I will be making more in the next couple of weeks.

*To get your discount enter "CUSHIONLAUNCH" at the checkout. The code will expire at midnight on Sunday 6th May 2012.

Delilah x

Delivery Changes

Dear all,

Due to the rather obscene increases in Royal Mail postal charges that come into effect tommorrow, I've had to re-jig my pricing and delivery system a bit. The good news is that delivery is now free on all UK orders; the bad news is that they may take a little longer to reach you.

Further details can be found here and here.

Delilah x

My New/Old Toy

In a corner of every house we have lived in since I was old enough to walk there has been a little wooden table with elaborate iron legs and an interesting looking carved hood. It has been a resting place for piles of junk, a spot for one of my naughty sisters to scratch her name with a pair of scissors (though she did this everywhere - including the woodchip wallpaper in the stairwell of our childhood home), and most lately the perfect location for another of my naughty sisters to hide a bag of her dirty washing for an entire year. And yet since it has been in my mother's possession, not once has it been used for its proper purpose. So I decided to clear a space in my miniscule flat and comandeer it:

Behold! My beautiful new acquisition - a Singer 201K treadle sewing machine. Yes it may be very old and quite rusty...and I had to spend an entire day cleaning and oiling it just to get it to move...and it still doesn't technically work yet...but despite all of this I heart it a lot.

I do have a sewing machine already - a beige and brown plastic 1970s jobbie that my mum gave me when she upgraded a number of years ago - but it is so ugly that I have to keep it in the garage since I have no cupboard space left inside, and it is such a palava to get it out whenever I want to use it that more often than not I just leave it where it is and stitch things (rather wonkily) by hand out of pure laziness and fear of its speed. Despite the fact that both my mother and grandmother are excellent seamstresses, I am not particularly gifted when it comes to using a sewing machine, so I thought that if I had a simple, slow, sturdy vintage affair I would have less opportunity to go wrong. Plus it looks so lovely that I can keep it out all the time meaning it will always be ready to use, therefore encouraging me to make more things. Once I get it working again of course.

At the moment it seems to do everything but pick up the bobbin thread, so you are left with what looks like a line of topstitch, until you pick it up and find it is not actually attached to anything...any advice on what might be causing this would be much appreciated! I think a trip to the Singer doctor in town may be on the cards.

Delilah x

The One With The Very Belated Christmas Present...

Being busy with work is wonderful but it does have its downside - namely that I never get time to do anything else! Which is why I only recently finished making this embarassingly late Christmas CD for a friend.

In my defense I did actually make the CD itself before Christmas but stitching the case and designing the insert took somewhat longer... The patterns for the initials on the front of the case are from the birthday issue of CrossStitcher - aren't they just lovely? They look so elegant in cream against the brown linen I think.

And on the back of the case I stitched a little stag in a really pale greyish-blueish-greenish thread, because I never tire of stags and they are not too girly for a boy I think. I spent far too long on the insert, but the finished result was worth every second I think. I quite wanted to keep it for myself actually! I listed all of the songs and the reasons for choosing them, and then added a few of the beautiful images from this wonderful website to illustrate it. I was informed by my friend that it was well and truly worth the wait.

The most awful thing though is that this is not the last belated Christmas present that I had left to give - my sister and brother-in-law are still awaiting gigantic circus letters for their wall, though to be honest at this rate I will be surprised if they are finished by Christmas 2012! They did have to request the most time consuming patterns I have ever made... I don't suppose any of you know how to make my Time Turner work yet do you?

Delilah x

Hello Mr Magpie!

Meet Mr Magpie - the last of the new collection.

I stitched this before Christmas but have been waiting to share it for all this time because he looked too cheeky to be consigned to a flat piece of fabric and I have only just gotten around to bringing him to life as a cushion. I am surrounded by magpies where I live and I find myself saying "Hello Mr Magpie" about five times a day to ward off the fabled sorrow that descends when you spy them alone (utter nonsense but I do it all the same). I thought it only fitting to stitch one as they are so handsome, though on second thoughts maybe I ought to stitch him a wife sharpish to be sure of an endless supply of joy...

If you visit me often you will know that whilst I adore stitching I am not the world's biggest fan of sewing, so most of my embroidery tends to wind up in hoops and frames. But last weekend I figured out a really easy way of making lovely cushions without much measuring or cutting or faffing about with zips and I am now a convert. They are such a doddle that I made two actually, and they will be the basis for the new kits - everything you need to turn five of my large patterns into cushion covers (including the backing fabric to make them up). So if you want to make a magpie cushion exactly like my one above, I hope to have them ready in kit form by the end of April.

If you can't wait until then the pattern is in the shop now. Be sure to say hello to him!

Delilah x

Another Prolonged Absence = Another Exciting Development!

Somehow spring is on the doorstep and I hardly noticed the time passing. I would dearly love to go and lounge in a flower meadow, but alas this is not a picture of me living out my heart's desire, just a still from my favourite film that accompanies me while I work - any such dreams will have to stay firmly in my head for the time being. The promising thoughts of books and baking and walks and all those things I hoped to do when I cut my hours in the office have fallen hopelessly by the wayside as something else has gotten in the way...

But is is something brilliant. Whenever the blog goes quiet for a while like it has over the past month it is fairly safe to assume there is something big happening behind the scenes. I'm afraid I am not able to tell you very much (well anything really) about it yet, but trust me when I say that it is incredibly exciting - another dream come true; another box on the way to being ticked; another mountain of work to get through - and that it will be absolutely worth the wait! To me it is even more exciting than the last Very Big Thing, by quite a margin in fact, so that might give you a small idea of just how giddy I am feeling about it. Bring. It. On.

 

Aside from that, you may have noticed that things are looking a bit different around here - I was running out of space with the old website and there were lots of things I couldn't do with it, so with the help of an awesome template from here I have been building myself a new one. It looks pretty basic at the moment and there is still rather a lot to do because the exciting thing happened before I could finish it, but hopefully it is a little easier to find what you are looking for with all of the links for the shop and blog in once place. I plan to prettify it and add some video tutorials and other things as soon as I can find the time, but I need to finish the new kits first so it will remain a work in progress for now.

Also, I have been having some irritating trouble with comments, so if you have left one and it hasn't shown up I am very sorry but they have not been working properly. I think they are fixed again now though so please do say hello!

There are new kits on the horizon, and I still have the last of the new designs to share with you so pop back soon :)

Delilah x

Image: Bright Star, 2009 from here.

And the winner of the Rocky & Balls album is...

 

EMMA!

Thanks to all of you for sharing your excellent recommendations, they should keep me entertained for a good while I think!

Emma I shall email you with instructions on how to claim your prize.

Delilah x

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Chosen via random.org

CrossStitcher 20th Birthday Issue

I have absolutely loved working with CrossStitcher magazine recently (and thank you so much to everybody for all the wonderful feedback on the dragonfly pattern I designed for them) so I am delighted to wish them a happy 20th birthday!

The whole team really is the most friendly bunch you could hope for and they do a brilliant job of showing off the more stylish side of cross stitch. I must admit I have never been a fan of cross stitch magazines before as they are generally full of teddy bears and other not-so-inspiring designs that I would not want to have in my home, but since Charlie introduced me to CrossStitcher last summer it has been winning me over issue by issue (and Harriet's lovely feature certainly didn't hurt either!).

My copy of issue number 250 dropped through my letterbox today and I am completely in love with this project:

Bordering on granny territory, but channeling just enough Cath Kidston to keep it firmly within the realms of the desirable. This little picture really doesn't do it justice, but in the magazine the cluster of floral hoops just looks so beautiful. Normally I am content to appreciate other people's designs from afar and stick to doing my own thing, but for the first time ever I am itching to stitch a design that I didn't make myself - it is so different to what I do, but I think it would make a wonderful change. I just need a gypsy caravan/garden hideaway to hang it in.

I also really like this cushion designed by Emma Bridgewater (whose pottery I adore) for the jubilee:

As part of the birthday celebrations, CrossStitcher are running a competition every day this week, and today you can win this actual cushion for your very own. But even more exciting is Sunday's competition to win £250 worth of Emma Bridgewater pottery! I will definitely be entering that one...

If you haven't seen CrossStitcher before it is well worth a look - the chances are not every design will be for you, but there are always a good few gems and with new designers like me on board there has never been a better time to let is surprise you.

Delilah x

PS - Bonus points if you can spot my cheeky little face peering out of this issue!