More than time to update this I think!

The summer is drawing to a close, and it's been a lot longer than I meant it to be since I last updated the blog.  It got a bit neglected in the Spring with moving house, and I never got back into the habit of posting on it again over the summer.  I'm planning on keeping it up to date from now on, so it's a good place to see what's coming soon, and what's new.

Coming soon:

• Septembers Ltd Ed fabric and thread, the fabric will be up on the site on Thursday, the thread will follow a few days later.
• Some new colours, it's been a while since I released anything new into the main colour range and I have a nice pile of fabrics to sort out and decide while are going to become permanent additions to the site.  The first of these, Gold Rush, will launch Thursday.
• Grab bags!  I've been busy dying offcuts to make up some more grab bags.  These will be very limited in number, more details will follow in a couple of days, when I've caught up with the orders from the sale weekend.
• An iPhone fabric calculator app, this one is being submitted to the app store in the next few days.  As soon as it's approved I'll give you the full details.  I'm very excited about this one.

Feedback needed:

• I want to extend the range of charts that are available on the website  to include more that are suitable for use with hand dyed fabrics.  I'm  looking for suggestions for designers you would like to be able to get the charts plus a sized piece of fabric to stitch it on (your choice in colour or a suggested colour), and I will see if I can track them down.  I'm also looking at stocking Rainbow Gallery braids and possibly Mill Hill beads.

Right that's it for tonight, I will be updating this later in the week when the new colours are ready, and getting the past monthly ltd colour page back up to date so you can see the full range of colours that have been released over the last year.

Happy stitching.

A mid month new colour

I know I don't normally release things in the middle of the month, but I have something newish that I didn't want to hold onto until March.  So meet Daybreak.  If the names familiar it's because there is a fabric in the gradients range on the site called Daybreak Gradients.  Daybreak is the more normal hand dyed style of those colours.  I was asked to do a custom dyed piece for Nene Thomas Daybreak from HAED, and I was so pleased with how it turned out I had to release it.  The picture is just the section that would fit on the scanner. 

Gift Vouchers!

I hope everyone is having a good week.  I have a couple of small updates today.  The first is I have added gift vouchers to the website.  They're available in assorted values or you can customise them.  If purchasing them on their own please do it via email so that you don't end up getting charged p&p.  You can find them here.

My other update for today is a WiP picture from Cathy, it is her updated picture of HAEDs Terra Fairy Sprite (Brigid Ashwood).  It's being stitched on 18 count aida in Dawnblush.

I've also got 2 completed work pictures from Donna to share.  The first is stitched from some designs by Maria Diaz in Cross Stitcher, the second is a freebie from Helga Mandyl.  Both have been stitched on Strawberry Sorbet in 27 count Linda.  You can find these pictures and more in the Crafty Kitten Galleries linked off the Crafty Kitten homepage.

Pinch Punch....

First of the month, and that means new colours!

I have just updated the website with February's Ltd ed colour.  This is a pretty blend of pinks and violets.  If you're looking for a background fabric for Rachel Anderson's Lavender Moon from HAED this would be perfect (it's the design I had in mind at the time I was dying it!).


I've also released the neutrals range.  These should work really well for designs with a more vintage feeling, or designs which are difficult to background match.  there are two colours available at the moment, but there will over time be more added to the range.

Oatmeal

Vintage Petal

Finally the Crafty Kitten has a few auctions for UK Cross Stitch magazines up on ebay  You can see them here if you're interested.

I'm plotting!

I'm having a fairly quiet day today, and enjoying plotting next months offers and newsletter.  There will be a new colour range launched in the hand dyed section at the beginning of February.  It will be called neutrals, and should contain neutral hand dyeds that will work well with sampler style designs and anything you want a more muted but still hand dyed background for.  Here is one of the new colours as a slight teaser, it's currently named 2601111, so I need to come up with something a little better than that!

Another beautiful WiP picture

This WiP was very kindly sent to me by Karen to share with you.  This is the first part of German Christmas Market (Chatelaine Designs).  Karen is stitching it on 28 count Jazlyn in Evening Magic.  I love the way it's coming out.  I'm really looking forward to seeing part 2!

Reminder and upcoming competition information

Firstly the reminder.  There is less than a week left in January, if you want the LTD edition colour for the month don't forget to order it!

Secondly.  I've got some early warning competition information.  The Crafty Kitten will be celebrating it's first birthday in June.  I know that's quite a way off, but I wanted to give you some pre-warning.  There will be a submitted stitching photos competition.  Basically it'll work like this.

Any photographs that are submitted for the galleries stitched by yourself on a crafty kitten fabric by June 12th 2011 will automatically be entered.  Here are the preliminary categories (these might change a bit, and I will add stitch count info nearer the deadline.

1)  WiPs: you can submit as many WiP pictures as you like before the deadline, only one entry per design you're stitching will be counted (e.g. if you send me weekly updates of a design I'll only count the most recent picture as the entry), if you're stitching multiple designs each will count, as long as there is a reasonable amount of stitching on them (e.g. 10 stitches on a bit of fabric isn't enough!).

2) Completed Small Designs

3) Completed Medium Designs

4) Completed Large Designs

Winners will be selected randomly for each category using a random number generator.  Obviously any WiP pictures from me won't be eligible for the competition!

Prizes will be gift vouchers for the Crafty Kitten, again more details in a few months.

Now for the small print bit!  You MUST only submit pictures of things you have stitched yourself and they MUST be stitched on a Crafty Kitten fabric. 

To make my life a little easier, when you send me a photo of a new WiP please can you let me know who the design is by (saves me hunting about online and acquiring more stash while looking for it!).  What fabric you're stitching it on (colour and count, again my memory is good but it's not perfect!).  Also if you've got a blog I'm more than happy to link to that in the photo album and here on the blog and on FB when I upload your picture.