What Delilah Did

Nurture Sampler

I am not usually a pink person, but I have had a bee in my bonnet about this particular combination of colour and design for a while now and it refused to go away until I did something about it. I am so pleased that I did because this may just be my favourite pattern yet. I know I say that each time I release something new, but it is always true - my newest work is almost always my favourite, which I hope means that I am headed in the right direction.

Simplicity is at the heart of everything I make, and I try to make my home as calm and pared back as possible too, so this sampler fits right in. It was also delightfully quick to make - from idea to finished product in just a few days. I always know I am on the right track when things come together like that - I go into a sort of making frenzy and can't focus on anything else until it is finished. After spending silly amounts of time working on things that really weren't 'me' at all (none of which I have finished or plan to release), this was an absolute joy.

I also wanted to make this sampler to act as a daily reminder to myself that I need to take its sentiment to heart more: to care not just for others, but for myself and my surroundings too. Rest, explore, make, feed, learn, grow, and take time to do the things that feed my soul. I am often so caught up in trying to get everything done and not let anybody down, that these small (but massively important) things fall by the wayside. I hope that seeing this gentle reminder every day will help me to change that.

The sampler is available as both a kit and a PDF pattern - both can be found in the shop now.

Wishing you all peace, calm and all the nurturing things.

Delilah x

Stitch the Halls for £7!

Happy first of December lovelies.

In celebration of this festive time of year I am offering copies of my 'Stitch the Halls!' book (inside which patterns for all of the ornaments in this post can be found) for just £7 this week in the shop. The projects are all small and sweet and perfect for whiling a way a blustery December afternoon.

You don't need a code as the discount is automatically applied, but you do need to be speedy as it is only valid until midnight (UK time) on Friday 8th December.

Enjoy :)

Delilah x

Garden Girls Sampler Kits

Now available in the shop.

Delilah x

Garden Girls Sampler

I am so thrilled to finally release this new pattern. It has been such a long time in the making.

Over the past few years I have played around with a lot of different styles and projects while working on my books and commissions for other people - I am truly grateful to have had that opportunity and have loved collaborating, but it has also meant that I lost my way a bit in terms of what I really wanted to make. So with this pattern I stripped everything away and went back to basics. The result is something that is unequivocally my style; designing it has felt like coming home.

It has all of the things I love: history, simplicity, nature, texture, a little magic, calm and quiet. My boyfriend laughed when I first showed it to him because he said it looked so much like me.

The pattern is designed to be stitched in its entirety and displayed in an A4 size picture frame or stretched over an artist's box canvas. However, you can also pick out individual elements of the design and display them in their own little hoops and frames, or add them to greetings cards. The simplicity of the design also means you can play around with colours to make something that is uniquely yours: opt to stitch the pattern in a single shade like I have, or use a mixed palette of your favourites to give the sampler an entirely different look.

You can find the pattern in my shop now. I hope you love it too (and that it is worth the very long wait I have put you through...).

There will be kits of this pattern too, but we are off to Wales for a holiday later this week so they won't be ready until later in November. I will keep you posted.

Delilah x

New Cindermice Kits for 2016

Since last Christmas both myself and Nicole (from Cloud Craft) have received a lot of messages from people who were sad to miss out on last year's Cindermice kits, so we have decided to re-issue the kits in new colours for 2016!

You may remember my pink version of Cindermouse (above) from last year's testing phase - whilst I am not traditionally a pink sort of a person, she turned out to be my absolute favourite and so for this year's kits we have based all of the colours around her. The new clothes are made up in modern brights - neon pink, chartreuse, mint green and aqua. And the mice themselves are all white (or technically cream) in this set.

Alongside Cindermouse is the dashing Mouse Charming:

...and the splendiferous Fairy Godmouse:

The whole set of kits is available to pre-order from Cloud Craft now :)

Delilah x

Bee cushions and other best sellers are back in stock

I re-allocated some of my remaining threads to different kits this weekend, which means that some of my best-selling cushion styles are now back in stock (and still in the sale!).

'The Bee' is back in all colours, 'Spectacular Stags' in plum, 'Beautiful Birds' in green and plum, 'Glorious Geometry' in green, and 'Winter Fair Isle' in sea green/golden olive and plum - all are available in the shop.

All of my threads are now gone, so once these final kits are sold they will not be repeated. A few designs will reappear in a different guise further down the line, but others (especially 'The Bee' and 'Beautiful Birds') are almost all gone and will not be available again.

Delilah x

Further Reductions

My remaining kits now have up to 70% off - I have run out of some styles and colours but there are still goodies to be had! Find them here.

And the Cindermice Stitch-Along winners are...

The winner of the grand prize for our overall favourite photograph is...Christina Snellgrove!

Nicole and I were blown away by all of your fantabulous #cindermicestitchalong entries and saw some especially excellent eleventh hour photos submitted in the final days, but after much deliberation we agreed that Christina (aka @gussetsandgodets) had really gone above and beyond the call of duty when it came to capturing such wonderfully imaginative images of her little mousie characters.

We struggled to choose just one of her pictures - the above is probably my personal favourite, but the four below are some more examples of the almost impossible cuteness to be found in her feed. Well done Christina!

    

    

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NEW CATEGORY

The winner of my favourite unique Cindermouse variation is...

Miranda Mae Turton!

This wasn't even a category originally but one of my favourite things about this stitch-along has been seeing the unique variations that some of you have made to my Cindermice patterns, and I felt that this little beauty of Miranda's deserved a special prize - she has combined the Cindermouse body, Fairy Godmouse dress and Mouse Charming crown to create the most beautiful little Princess Cindermouse - well done Miranda! For your prize you get to choose any kit from my shop, be it hoop kit, cushion kit or supply kit :)

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 And the runners-up are...

(L-R: @weefairytales, @sophiemay103, @fairygirltoo, @doesmostthings,@misslavelli, @nanniebirdie, @lemmingkings, @zusenfluf, @daisyeyes)

 

...all of you!

This race really was a very close run thing, and choosing the main winners wasn't easy at all; it genuinely could have gone any number of ways and I think that everyone has done such a stellar job and put in such a lot of effort that I want to offer a personal thank you treat to all of you who submitted images of your projects!

And so, I am offering everybody who took part in the Instagram contest a free What Delilah Did PDF pattern from my shop; yay! You can pick any one of these that you'd like. To claim your pattern, just send me a private message to @whatdelilahdid on Instagram (from the account where you shared your pictures), telling me which pattern you would like and which email address you would like me to send it to :)

 

Thanks again for taking part; it's been a ball!

 

Delilah x

The one where I make a cosy floral blanket cape for Mollie Makes

 

A few months ago Mollie Makes asked if I would turn this £3 Ikea blanket into a pretty cape for them - I can't deny that I was a little dubious about it to begin with, partly because I generally only work with natural linen and cotton fabrics, and partly because I thought it would take me an eternity to make (when the deadline was super-tight), since blankets are obviously massive and embroidery is small and time consuming.

I persevered with the idea though, and I am so glad I did because it turned out really nicely and was an absolute pleasure to stitch. Sometimes I think it is a very good thing to push your boundaries and try something totally different; the unknown is where the magic happens after all!

 

 

To make the project work, I decided to use a combination of leftover knitting yarn and tapestry wool to make big, chunky, freehand stitches that are simple to copy, beautifully textural to look at, and cover a very large area in a relatively short space of time. Bargainous supplies, enjoyable stitching and a usable finished object = a very satisfying project.

 

 

If you'd like to make yourself one you can find all the details on page 40 of the latest Mollie Makes (issue 61, pictured above) - and if you share your make on Instagram be sure to tag it with #whatdelilahdid as I'd love to see it!

Delilah x

PS, I saw that Ikea make that blanket in cream and red too - if I was making one to keep for myself, I'd go for cream with pretty coloured flowers; perfect for keeping on the back of my sofa ready for winter swaddling.

Today's stockroom discovery

Today's stockroom discovery - enough supplies to resurrect a few of my all time bestselling hoop kits: The Raven, The Guardian, Key No. 2 and The Little Bird. I have added them to the sale in my shop, £11 each.

This is the last shop update I will be doing before Christmas and I am already running extremely low on some things - the new batch of bee supply kits has gone already, there are only three wolf bags left and lots of the cushion kits have only one remaining of certain colours - so if you want something specific you may not want to leave it too long to place your order.

Thank you so very much to all of you who have been keeping me so busy!

Delilah x