Avoid Black Friday and Shop Small Instead

This year, I have decided not to hold Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales. For me, this has been a difficult decision having had a successful weekend in the past. Well, I say successful, the orders have come in, but when I dare to look at my profit margins a week later and find out if it was worth it, I have found I have more or less given some products away for free!

I know these annual sale events are great for some items, TVs, furniture and the like, and for huge shops with even bigger profit margins, it works very well, though even that's questionable sometimes when you look at the mark downs. 

However, when it comes to small businesses, and especially craft businesses when the mark ups are very low indeed, this just doesn't make sense. I try my best to keep my products' prices as low as possible for my customers all year round in the hope of encouraging them to take up this amazing craft, or to feed their pre-existing sewing addiction. This makes it harder for me to offer such huge discounts.

As you know if you subscribe to my Newsletter, I do offer introductory discounts on kits and other products nearly every week. I also hold a couple of sales through the year and often offer free postage weekends. I would much rather offer my customers discounts throughout the year, rather than trying to compete with large organisations' ridiculous discounts over this one weekend. 

So this year, instead of offering knock down prices my business is unable to sustain, I am going to celebrate Small Business Saturday on the weekend of December 7th - 8th. I feel this event does much more for us small businesses, encourages customers to think before they buy and to support small and local shops. We do live in uncertain times at the moment, and while the big firms are doing their 'thing', I believe it will be the small independent businesses that will shine through all this mess. 

While a growing amount of people are thinking more carefully about what to spend their money on, I encourage you to also think about where your money is going... to a huge multi-national who cares very little about their customer or the quality of their product? Or to a small company who carry their passion for their business all the way through to their customer service and final product. We care what about our customers think, what they feel and appreciate every penny spent with us!

So when you think about your gift shopping this year, please help support your local shops and those small online businesses who, while they can't compete with the big corporations of this world, can instead offer you a much more genuine, friendly and caring service while being thoughtful in what they offer to their customer. 

During this weekend, I would like to offer, a much more sustainable discount of £5.00 off when you spend £35 or more on the Sewmotion website. This offer will run over the weekend of Saturday 7th until midnight on Sunday 8th December. Simply use the code SmallBizSat at checkout.

There will also be some extra offers available to my Newsletter subscribers over the weekend - so why not click below to sign up now and not miss out.

Wishing you all a happy and creative week, linking up with Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday

Stunning Scotland and an Easter Sale

It has recently dawned on us that having lived so far north of the UK for a few years now, we had still not ventured into our neighbouring country, Scotland, and decided it was about time we did! As my husband can never just go to one place, he set about planning us a mini tour starting in Stirling, then up to Glencoe and the Highlands and then finally a few days in Edinburgh.

I have to say, even though we expected the landscape to be as beautiful as you see in the films, seeing it in real life really does take your breath away!

We even drove up to the bottom point of Loch Ness to see if we could spot the shy creature, alas, Nessy was keeping well and truly hidden that day :) The loch was stunning though.

Justin found the wonderful Lochleven Seafood Cafe down a wiggly road alongside the nearby loch where we had some amazing local seafood, I wasn't too sure about the razor clams to be honest but the langoustines were gorgeous!

We then headed back down to Edinburgh where we dumped the car (I highly recommend the city's Park & Ride scheme, the buses are frequent, and you don't have to worry about parking in a busy city) We stayed at the Brooks Hotel, a very nice and comfy boutique hotel where we had an afternoon tea and bottle of fizz included in the deal - not a bad start eh!?

We like to amble on our city breaks, and Edinburgh is such a beautiful city, you don't realise you're walking up and down so many hills! We made our way to Dovecot Studios to see the much anticipated Orla Kiely exhibition...

I have always loved Orla's strong and colourful graphic design, and with all those curved shapes as inspiration, I can't wait to start designing some more Hoop Art and cushion EPP projects! And just look at that stitching on the red bag, totally love it!! Dovecot Studios is also home to the Tapestry Studio where you can see artists in residence working on their extraordinary pieces of art. There is also a very interesting exhibit on the rescue and refurbishment of these former swimming baths.

Our visit to Edinburgh couldn't be complete without a visit to My Bear Paw to see the very lovely Jo Avery. The shop is normally closed on a Tuesday but luckily Jo was teaching an evening class so we managed to have a quick cuppa and chat before her ladies arrived. My Bear Paw is such a cute shop and you must go if you're in town, Jo's also going to stock some more of my kits, which is great news!

Talking of kits, back at Sewmotion HQ, I'm holding my annual Easter Sale with up to 20% off in the online shop. This is a great opportunity to grab that kit you may have had your eye on for a while, or maybe try a new technique with one of my cushion or hoop kits, or maybe you just need to stock up on your EPP essentials. No code needed - you can visit the shop here.

Wishing you all a peaceful and creative week, linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday.

Summer Sale & New Designer Fabrics

The sun is kind of shining, now and again, up here in the North East, so I thought I'd celebrate with a Summer Sale!

Simply use the code SUMMER20 at checkout to get 20% off everything across the store, including quilt and cushion kits, fabrics, pre-cuts and patterns or what about a backing for that previously bought quilt kit?

Talking of fabrics, I've also just listed some new designer fabrics in the shop, available by the metre. When I buy these fabrics, I have great intentions of making quilt and cushion kits in all of them, but time is catching up on me, so rather than have them sit on the shelf staring at me, I thought I would share some fabric joy. This first range, Wildflower Garden from Michael Miller comes in two colourways, and I know they would both make beautiful quilts, I thought my Mosaic Garden design would be perfect, it's on the list!

Next up is a collection I have been using in a secret magazine project. This Riley Blake range, Gingham Girls is in a lovely retro colourway, though I seem to have missed the actual prints featuring the gingham (?) Still, I love how the navy and yellow sit so nicely together....

Finally I've also listed the latest gorgeous collection from British company Dashwood Studios, Norrland is Bethan Janine's Winter collection and features her signature woodland creatures and gold metallic accent. I've also been using this in another mag project, and those animals are great for fussy-cut EPP!

Enjoy the sale, meanwhile I have larger-than-expected top to quilt so I can get on with my EPP BOM ;)

Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday

Moving house means Sale time!

After five long months we're finally moving into our new house! I'd be lying if I said it's been an easy process, I always forget how long these things take! Anyway, we're moving into a 1930s 3-bed semi in the lovely area of Linthorpe Village in Middlesbrough - complete with wood chip wallpaper and the most expressive artex I have even seen. It's strangely growing on me, much to Justin's annoyance! One thing we do agree on though is the beautiful log burner in the front room and these wonderful door knobs - aren't they cute!

With no time or budget to tackle the wood chip, for now I've decided to just whitewash the second bedroom which is to be my studio, I'm sure once I've got shelves of fabric adorning the walls and some pictures and hangings up, I'll forget all about what's lurking underneath.

While packing up my room, which seems to be taking forever, I've realised how much stock of handmade items I actually have... and I really need to make room for 2017's creations. So I'm having a little pre-Christmas sale, it is now December after all. I've reduced my Teessider Cushion Collection by 30%, this is a great opportunity to grab a one-off gift for someone from, or maybe living away from, the North-East. Maybe you've got a homesick student who would like to be reminded of home now and again. Click below to see the whole range.

Amazingly moving house has made us get ahead with our gift shopping just to get it out of the way, and I know I'm not alone! So I've taken 20% off selected smaller gift items in the Sewmotion shop, including coin purses, pencil cases and make-up pouches, perfect stocking fillers, gifts for school friends, or secret santas. Click below to see the collection.

This month's free Pre-Cut Party pattern is for this cute Bargello Make-up Pouch which uses 2.5" strips and a clever tube technique to create this staggered squares pattern. I also show you how to make up your quilted panel into this pouch to hold all your everyday essentials - also great for last minute gifts!

For this free pattern, just subscribe to the Newsletter for the link to this and past patterns based on quilting pre-cuts.

For more quilty fun and inspiration, why not pop along to these linky parties
and say Hi!

Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts 

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication 

Summer Sale

Sewmotion on Folksy is having a 15% off sale, running from Sunday 26^th July to Wednesday 29^thJuly (ends midnight). If you are one of those super organised people who have started thinking about Christmas already, or if there’s a special birthday on the horizon – this is a great opportunity to pick up something pretty. Simply enter the code SUMMER15 at checkout to get your discount.

 
One reason for me holding this sale is as a kind of apology… due to work commitments, as in the Festival of Quilts (!) followed by a much needed holiday, I’ve decided to close my Folksy shop for the month of August. While this probably isn’t great business sense, as I don’t have anyone to look after the shop, and I really can’t see me traipsing around Europe with my boxes of purses in hand, I think this is the sensible thing to do. So my Folksy shop will be closed from 1^st – 31^st August – I will be processing orders again on the 1^st September.

However, my PDF patterns will be still be available for instant download in my Etsy shop – so if you are looking for a summer project, maybe something to do with the kids, why not teach them - or learn together - the wonderful craft of patchwork and quilting. 
You could start with my free Beginner’s Quilt – this online tutorial takes you through the whole quilting process, from choosing and cutting fabric, and piecing your shapes, to quilting and attaching the binding. 

Based on simple squares, this quilt will teach you all the basics for you to then develop with my other free quilt tutorials – All Squared Up, Fox in the Nine Patch and Novelty Nine Patch.  

I will hopefully be blogging from the Festival of Quilts with lots of photos - probably taken on mad dashes to the loo. Even though it is a crazy week of hard work, I'm looking forward to being surrounded by gorgeous fabric, stunning quilts, and some wonderful people, if you are going and happen to be passing one of Doughty's stands, come and say hello - chocolate is always welcome!