Signing day

Thank you to everyone who wished us luck for our book signing last weekend. Your good wishes obviously helped and we had a great day selling all but one of the books that the store had ordered in.
It was so good to display some of the projects and to chat about the book.

I am pleased to say that i made no spelling mistakes. We did sign and write messages in most of the books and as Alice considers my handwriting to be better than hers it was down to me to write most of them!


A few books were bought as presents and we were asked to write things like 'Happy Christmas Susan with Best Wishes.....' etc. The hardest books to sign were to people we knew who just said, 'write me a message'.


We had a lovely surprise visitor too. Willow from Contemplating Change (one of my all time favourite blogs) popped over with her husband. It was so lovely to meet you both Willow and i would love to meet up again soon for a cuppa and a longer chat. Thank you so much for coming. I just wish i could have spent longer with you that day.

My mum and dad came over too and my mum took lots and lots and lots of photos. No kidding. It was like having the paparazzi. She is getting more eccentric with age and i swear she'll be wearing funny woolly hats soon with pompoms on... just because she can. I rather like the fact that often the older you get the more you feel you can get away with. Seriously though both Alice's and my parents have been so fantastically supportive about all that we have done over the past 7 years and we are so grateful to them for all their encouragement. It was good to see them proud of us.

After all the excitement of last weekend i have had a quiet week with the most exciting thing being the servicing of my sewing machines by Arthur. We were so pleased to find him as he has been servicing machines for over 40 years and our machines have had their best service in a long while.


So today i put my purring machine to work and have been catching up with Christmas orders. I finished this Stocking today and it is now ready to send out.





I have a few more to complete this weekend and then i can have some time with the girls next week as it's half time.
Enjoy your weekends.
Ginny x

Book event

This morning Alice came over and we have been in the garden studio getting ready for tomorrow. It's really great to be finally working in there properly, although as you can see it is already stuffed full..

We have been preparing a few samples....



Tomorrow is our book event/demo day at Waterstones, Farnham which has come around so quick - i can't believe it is finally here.

We will have on display some of the actual projects we created for Sew Fabulous Fabric and will also be there to talk about the book and to demo a few techniques and projects from it. .. and sign copies too which feels very strange. (been practicing my signature Em x hee hee... I am very worried though that someone may ask for a message and that i will make a spelling mistake as my spelling is terrible!) I am really looking forward to the day itself but am very nervous so
please wish us both luck. And if you are local , do try and pop in, it would be great to meet you.

Finally i just wanted to say thank you for the comments on my last post and just to clarify... Magic was on the way UP the banister! We are going to have some fun with these two kitties i just know it!
Happy weekends to you.
G x

Sew Fabulous Fabric and draw winners

Today is the 18th of September ... publication date of our first craft book Sew Fabulous Fabric.
It is a really exciting day for us!
As we are new authors and not famous there are no trumpets fanfaring and no book launch parties...aah! ... maybe one day though?!
We do, however have a book event planned next month on Saturday 18th October at our local Waterstones in Farnham. If you are nearby please do pop in and say hello.

So what shall we do to mark today? What about a virtual launch? Not sure how to do one really but my guess is a bit of bubbly and lots of cake with some good company.
Anyone care to join Alice and I?...we raise our glasses to toast the arrival of Sew Fabulous Fabric... hic!

please help yourself to a piece of virtual cake...

and some bubbly...

And now for the bit, as they say, you have all been waiting for...the winners of the draw for a free book.
Firstly we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who entered. We were overwhelmed with how many comments there were and offers to review it on your blogs and we thank you so much for all your lovely messages and good wishes. It has been great to make some new friends and to have some new blogs to read too.

Alice and I did the draw this morning, picking out 3 names as we have 3 books to givaway.
All we needed was folded up paper containing the names of each entrant... 54 in all,

a lady with a long nose (do i win Pip?), a green hat and a baby.

The names were then put into the green hat by the lady with the long nose and then the baby... the very cute Rufus picked them out, helped a little by Alice.




The first name out was Karen .... well done to you. We really hope that you will enjoy the book x



The next name drawn was Louise from this is my patch and home is where the heart is and the final name to be pulled out of the hat was miss sew and sew.



Well done to all of you and if you could please email me your postal addresses i will send the books out to you.

For anyone who is still interested in buying a book it is now 'available' and can be purchased online via Amazon and other similar sites both in the UK and USA. It is also listed on some Australian sites too. It will also be available in local book stores and if it is not in yours just ask and they should be able to order it in for you. It is also available from our publishers David and Charles.

So back to the bubbly.... cheers everyone... this has been fun! ...and fingers crossed for us for good reviews!
warmest wishes to you all.
ginny and alice xx

Sew Fabulous Fabric and a competition...

In November 2006 Alice and I exhibited as 'folkydokee handmade' at Country Living Magazines Christmas Fair at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. We spent a fair bit of money on this show to achieve a warm friendly little shop like space with a counter made by the lovely Rod (my other half), a wooden style floor, a gold painted border a with Merry Christmas stencilled greeting and a mock up mantlepiece where we hung our handmade Christmas stockings.

Country Living Christmas 2006

As many of you who do these kind of shows will know it is very hard to have space to store everything, put samples of all the product ranges on display and to also make the space welcoming and uncluttered and importantly fit us both on the stall (we come as a pair!) and allow space for folk to come in and browse.

As a small company we could only ever afford a small space but the long thin ones always worked best for us as you get a lot of wall space to hang products and still have room for browsers to come in and have a closer look. We achieved what we had hoped for and i think it was all worth the extra time and money spent as we received lots of lovely comments about our little space. I feel it also was an important element in why we were approached at that show by the lovely Ali from the publishers David and Charles. This meeting was the start of an exciting collaboration for Alice and I which has now reached completion.

Ali, who had been drawn to our stall and our recycled textile products asked us if we had ever considered writing a book. We had both toyed with this idea before having both had teaching backgrounds, but had never really pursued it.... (i secretly always thought i would write a self help book.. god knows i am an expert as i have read so many.. but that's another story). We arranged to meet to discuss the possibility of this after the Show.

The next stage was for us to submit a synopsis of the structure that a book would take and a list of projects. We had to wait a while to see if our proposal would pass various stages, costings.. etc. Finally we got the go ahead and then began... With the sad loss of Alice's baby Poppy in mid pregnancy, working towards Hampton Court Flower Show and with the Summer Holidays in between, we certainly had our work cut out...

Creating the projects for the book was such fun and the process of writing the text a real creative challenge which we both loved. Alice and I have different styles so we were constantly editing what each other had written. The book contains beautiful illustrations which accompany our step by steps drawn by Helen Philipps and for the project photography we were so lucky to work with the wonderful Simon Whitmore. These photo shoots were tiring but great fun.



The book was finished back in April and we received a copy in July.... this is me (photo taken by my 10 year old) with my copy... i could not stop jumping up and down i was so excited... i am on the phone to Alice sharing the excitement.

Here is a little sample of some of the projects included in the book, having been created from a mix of recycled fabrics, natural fabrics, remnants and scraps as is our style....

Simon Whitmore's photographs

a full contents list can be found by clicking on the book cover
in the side bar and following the search in book facility.

To celebrate the launch of Sew Fabulous Fabric I wanted to run a little competition open to all bloggers as as thank you for all your support and comments over my last (almost 100) posts.
Our publishers, David and Charles have kindly given me a few free copies of 'Sew Fabulous Fabric' so, these are up for grabs. You don't have to answer any questions to enter or live in the uk as we will post the book worldwide (please note that it is written in English), but what we would ask is that if you win you could write up a little review of the book and post it on your blog.

Our books official publish date is 18th September, although i understand that it is now in stock, so i will do the draw on the 18th September at 9am. Good luck.
ginny and alice xx

p.s. a thank you message for Diana from Pebbledash who sent me one of her wonderful handprinted cards to wish Alice and I good luck with the book launch... so lovely of you, thank you so much x

Summer fun

Despite the weather being pretty crappy we do have some summer fun to report.
Our little camping trip went well and most importantly the tent went up on a sunny day and thankfully was packed up on a dry day too. So no tedious airing it in the back garden when we got home!



We stayed on the east coast of the Isle of Wight this year and explored from there. We didn't plan each day rigidly but rather let them unfold gently. This worked so well and kept everyone happy. The girls were a delight and we all enjoyed this holiday and easily adopted a much slower pace.

The first day was a scorching beach day, with deckchairs, picnic, warm sand, swimming and ice cream.

We also made it to the garlic farm this year and the lavender farm.



Elephant garlic flowers.


lavender farm

A fantastic time was shared with friends here at a fabulous Medieval day. There were demonstrations and activities for the whole family. We all had a go at archery, watched some Medieval dancing and talked to the costumed exhibiters about Medieval life from herbs and food to dress and latrine pits. The company who run these events have a website which has some great links on and this event is planned at the end of August too. Looks great!? I was particularly drawn to these as you would imagine...

Medieval poppet dolls made from wool and linen and stuffed with moss.

Many hours also were spent looking out to see and waiting to catch the waves as they crashed over the rocks. So exhilerating!

waiting to get wet!

and finally here is a photo of a friendly tiny rabbit who with it's friend were seen nibbling leaves just 50 yards from our tent. The girls were over the moon to see wild bunnies so close.



They are so desperate for a pet and now that i am going to be at home more we are looking...
there is a possibility of a friends kittens (they are sooo sweet!) but we think R is allergic to cats. We have arranged to borrow one when they are a bit bigger (only 4 weeks old now) to check. Although we may not need to as black cat appeared on our doorstep last week wanting to get in... it has been back a few times and when i got home at 12.30 the other evening there was a loud miowing ... we are so soft that we let her come in. She (we think it's a girl ) had a look around, brushed up against our legs in that affectionate moggy kind of way and went upstairs and curled up on the end of the girls bed and settled down. It was like she had always done that. We both think that she is here for a reason.. maybe she is a magic cat says my eldest, come to test daddy's allergy. I have always loved black cats.

We made her a bed and let her sleep downstairs. She went off a little reluctantly in the day and appeared back last night and appeared hungry. We fed her outside the back door and then another black cat appeared! almost identical. Our feeling is that some folks may be on holiday and that she is being fed but wants some petting (although she did seem hungry). She is very friendly. She has no collar but i understand that cats can be microchipped nowadays. I have a contact of a local cat protection lady and i hope to talk to her today. I would be gratefully if anyone has any advice on this and on cat allergies too. I will let you know what happens.

Nearly the weekend. Hope yours are good.

Will be back soon with book news... very exciting as it is nearly September!
ginny x

1 year on!

It's my blog birthday!

I tentatively started The Flour Loft blog a year ago today. I had come across the world of blogs by accident after doing a few 'goggle' searches. Different blogs kept popping up and i found myself reading more and more and became inspired by the huge amount of creativity and passion which i saw. Initially this blog started as a background to the business 'folkydokee' which Alice and i have ran for the past 6 years. It has been a place for us to show some of the things we make and to keep folk informed of upcoming fairs and new projects. It very soon also became a place where i could share other interests such as vegetable growing, activities with the children and my enjoyment of taking photographs.




I have also been working on a major project with Alice during this past year but have been unable to show much of what i have been doing, which has felt a bit strange. The process has involved many late nights, pressing deadlines, lots of cups of tea and most of all lots of fun.This project is now near completion and i can soon share more with you. This of course is our book, 'Sew Fabulous Fabric', which is published by David and Charles and is released on September 18th 2008. It feels great to finally tell you the title. The book is about using fabric, particularly as you may have guessed, using recycled fabric. In the book we offer 20 different sewing projects which we hope the reader will be inspired to create using some of their own saved and recycled fabrics.

On Friday i drove down to Devon for a last day's photo shoot and on Sunday Alice and i sent off the final text revisions. The book is nearly ready for the print stage and we will see the final colour proof in the next few weeks. It is very exciting. I am waiting for an image of the completed cover to show you and of further details should you wish to pre-order.

Sadly this week the Flour Loft Studio will close.(more news of home spaces to follow) . I am undecided as to how to continue this blog. Should I change it's name or even start a new blog as a continuation? I really hope that in whatever form it takes that i can return to posting about mine and Alice's sewing projects and explorations.


I would like to finish today by saying a huge thank you for all the encouragement and support which you wonderful bloggers have shown me over this past year. Your comments and posts really do make me smile and lift my days.
g x

Blogging and work

Hello there.. long time no post i know......

When i started blogging i was hoping to post every 2 or 3 days. It now seems to be once a week if i'm lucky.
I do want to say thank you so much to everyone who reads my blog ... i love getting the feedback and comments. I also want to say that once a week is probably all i can manage at the moment... maybe it will increase when i'm a little less busy and when i can share more of what i'm working on.



This week for us at the Flour Loft has been another busy one. We have just finished working a full week on the book with a few orders thrown in for good measure. I am unable to show the actual book projects but can say that we are working very hard. In addition to the 20 step by step projects we are also making many extra items to illustrate variation and to hopefully give further inspiration. We have a 2 day photo shoot next week, so the pressure really is on to finish everything. Then the final copy has to be submitted by the end of the month. Aside from the book, we are also in the busiest time of year.... the run up to Christmas. So orders are coming in for handmade stockings and personalisations. Sometimes it's hard to work out what to do first. Alice is fantastic at working steadily through but i tend to dart from one thing to another. I try and tackle the smaller orders as soon as they come in to get them out before they pile up.
Luckily most folk who place larger orders appreciate that there will be a short wait.

This week we have made many brooches and decorations, which are being ordered through not on the high street, including these pretty beaded hearts which i posted off earlier.



I also made up a heart peg bag today for possible inclusion in a February magazine. Typical that the one thing that is requested (also via not on the high street) is the one thing which is out of stock!


I have also managed to get myself a some part time work for next year at a local college. I had an interview on Monday and they offered me a job on Wednesday. I hadn't had an interview for over 10 years!

Alice and i will continue collaborating and we have some possible other projects that we are musing over. Our priority at the moment is to finish the book and complete our Christmas orders. We will then hopefully be in a position in the new year, without studio overheads (which is a large drain on a small business), to have the freedom to continue with commission pieces and to further explore our own creativity.








Three Christmas card designs are now for sale... star and snowflake .. £3 each and tree £4.50 and the last of our Advents now at £45 over at the website.. here


Please check out our other Christmas products and handmade gifts on our website . More updates soon.
Happy weekend to everyone.
g
x

Proof i am still sewing.....

This is to prove i am still sewing and creating .....

even though the posts of late, haven't included much reference to this.



notice all the threads and scraps? ..must get the broom out!

I have been taking lots of step by step shots of new things we have been making and have had the camera permanently in my hand.. this shot just appeared in my view finder and reminded me of a many similar blog shots I've seen. These are my 'pretty' sandals.. the only ones really as my usual footwear attire is more suited to walking and gardening.

Unfortunately i can't show you what i am doing as it's a secret...

I haven't wanted to say till now, as it is all a little unreal, but Alice and I are writing a book. Still won't believe it till it's published. Deadlines are getting close... with our first photo shoot next week! arghhh! Actually i am really looking forward to it and am loving the opportunity of creating new projects for this book with Alice. This is what we really love doing best.... the challenge of designing, the collaboration of ideas and the joy of creating. The book is already written in synopsis form and all the projects it shall include were agreed earlier in the year. Last week we submitted the first two completed projects with all the 'blurb' and step by steps. The publishers create a BLAD (book , layout and design) from this with cover shots and contents page and use this to discuss and fine tune the final layout and design of the book. It is hard work but very exciting and we feel so lucky to be given this opportunity.

Life in the studio still continues and we are also working on some commissions.

Some cushions adapted from our 'Tree of Life' Cushion,

Some specially commissioned Angel dolls as Holy Communion gifts and a made to order Advent. (yes it is coming around again..).

So life is very full , but also very creative, which is what makes me happy!

Have a great weekend.
G
x