How to keep the children amused...

and avoid too many mesages like this...

so i have time to play with my fabrics...

and get sorted in my new workspace... yeah!

worktop extension knocked up by R as the worktop wasn't long enough. He made the top with wood from an old futon base and the legs and frame from all our offcuts...perfect!

a bright little corner where i shall design and sew.

and a place to put our tea and cakes!

Now i am nearly set up , i will be sewing again. First project is to make myself a lightweight sun dress in time for my holiday... hope this glorious weather lasts!

g x

dreaming...

I am a bit of a dreamer. I like to muse over things and always have ideas bobbing around in my head of things i am planning or the seeds of new creations. This past week i have been musing about flowers for the garden. I mainly grow herbs and veg with a bit of fruit but really fancy introducing a bit more colour and tartiness to the garden. On Friday i treated myself to a little wander around our local garden centre with only myself and my thoughts to accompany me. I wandered around for ages. It's a good time to go to see the variety of plants available and to get ideas. I wasn't intending to purchase anything but something wouldn't let me leave empty handed. After coveting a beautiful heuchera, a replacement eucalyptus (yes mine died) and a nostalgic hydrangea (fond memories of visiting my granddad's house with a lilac hydrangea to the right of his front door), i came away with two dramatic 'gallery' dahlias (art nouveau) and 3 blue trailing verbenas. I wasn't even sure were i would put them. It wasn't until i got home that i realised my chosen plants reflected the exact colours i was wearing.


Have you ever done that? Deep pink really does seem to be a favourite just now....

my gardening gloves...

... and my new tulips are a similar colour.

Later that day i sat outside with all my gardening books dreaming of flowers and sowing my new seeds. Early that evening i started digging up a bit more lawn to make a bit more planting space.




My favourite flowers are echinacea or 'cone flower'. My clever youngest daughter discovered this and brought me two types of echinacea seeds for my birthday. They were sown a few weeks ago in a heated propagator and are doing well, so fingers crossed that they will be successfully potted on.


I also have studio progress to report...

The old purple wooden door was removed and a huge hole in the end of the building appeared late on Saturday afternoon.




The idea was to reuse the window we took out last week and put it where the old door was. This is a south east facing aspect so it made perfect sense put a window here to allow more light into the room.




The windows were originally recycled from an house near my father in law's some 7 years ago. Much as i hate UPVC i would rather reuse them than for them to go into landfill. Why buy new when you can recycle? You can see from this picture all the crates of fabric and stock piled up inside. Not long now before i can start to unpack.




My good man worked late into the evening to finish off the block work. He was able to reuse some of the original blocks which we discovered were actually sandstone. Unfortunately they had been painted a shitty brown colour so we hadn't realised . I had over painted them 'fly blue' some time ago... this was his first ever bit of wall building i might add. It's taking shape now. We covered it with a tarpaulin for the night just in case of rain....


and on Sunday morning the window went in, much easier than we had anticipated. So now the new shell is complete and it's just two more interior walls to finish. We sat outside last night drinking beer and marveling at what had been achieved. I want to move in now, but it'll be a few more weeks at least... so i shall continue dreaming for the time being....

Our Bank Holiday

We were so lucky this May Bank Holiday to have glorious weather here in the South of England.
My brother in law and his girlfriend came down to visit. These visits usually combine football with a wee bit too much to drink. This did happen but i also witnessed brute strength, lots of dust and some circular saw action. The two brothers took out the old window and made a opening for the new door into the soon to be 'garden studio space'. This was the result....



While they were partaking in brute force us 4 girls went off in hunt of some Maytime festivities.
We managed to find my older sisters folk group who were dancing locally along with 3 other local 'sides' in an event organised by Pilgrims Morris. She belongs to a Ladies North West Morris group. They wear clogs with bells attached and often dance holding garlands.
Some years ago i made her a little folk dancer doll in her colours. Before you ask... no my sister is not the one on the top left!!




We also found these beautiful gardens and Castle ruins. The girls got snap happy with the camera. These are their photos... My eldest got really excited when she saw the lady bird photo opportunity. (top right...click to enlarge)



I love watching them take photos. It gives me a peep into how they see the world, especially when they are given the freedom to shoot whatever they want to. The camera also has a film setting. Now that they have discovered that there is no stopping them... we have just been watching some very funny video they took around the house discussing to camera the clutter and the mess. Maybe they want to send it off to 'Clutter Nutters'?! We had better watch out.. or worse still... 'How clean is your House?'

So an enjoyable long weekend with good company, lots of sunshine and gardening and most excitingly for me the studio space a little further on as we now have a door ... Actually 2 doors... but that's the next job... to take out the old door and to put the old window in it's place.
Hope you had a good time too. How did you spend yours?

studio farewell...

We have packed up our little studio and have bid farewell. We have been so happy there but things move on and new pastures beckon. I took some photos on my final visit to share with you.

Everyday after parking the car i would glance up at our little window to see if Alice was in before me. If she was i knew that the kettle would be on ready for the first cup of the morning.


There are two ways to walk to the front of The Old Bakery; one through the Market square or the other, as i often preferred, to walk around the back, past the railings at the top end of the Public Gardens. Much of my youth was spent here hanging out with my friends. My grandparents lived in one of the terraced cottages behind the park, this place seems timeless to me and holds many special memories.



As i turn the corner and look across to Lenten Street this wonderful house welcomes me.

Weybourne House

This photo doesn't do it justice as twice a year it's frontage is covered with Wisteria flowers. It is heavenly. I always meant to photograph it. I will come back again when it is in flower, so i can show you. The main building is 18th century but it has a 19th century addition on the right. It was rented in 1809-11 by Henry Digweed and family and was visited by Jane Austen. Lenten Street is home to some beautiful historic houses. Rose cottage was once owned by Jane Austen's brother Frank and number 25 Lenten Street was the birthplace of the botanist William Curtis. For further information and history about Alton please follow link. For details of Jane Austen's house in Chawton (a stone's throw from where i grew up) and forthcoming events, click here.



The Old Bakery is opposite Cara's cafe/tea shop where we often bought a slice of lemon cake, and a brownie or two. We shall miss it.



The Old Bakery entrance greets you with two massive folkydokee sign which Alice's Dad organised for us. They are so big that they are kinda shouty. They always make us smile. Must remember to take them down now.



In the lobby you can see the spiral staircase.


Yes the very one which Alice and i carried various stock and furniture up and down for the many craft fairs and events we have been involved in. This is also the very staircase which witnessed the near crushing of my husband when the two of us tried to carry a large metal filing cabinet up. I spent this Saturday with said same good natured husband, moving it all out again. (but the filing cabinet stayed!.. hopefully the next occupants will be able to use it.)



I was so trashed after moving about 20 crates of fabrics and haby, various shelving and storage chests down these stairs but at least it is the last time i will do it . Gigibird asked what we were going to do with all our accumulated fabric stash. Well we have kept all of our most precious fabrics and small pieces of most of the others. We have donated many bits to all our local schools and sold off some lengths. I have saved some good pieces which i hope to ebay and the rest has gone into scrap bags also for school use.


We often bought or were given old clothing from charity shops. Many of these were still complete , like these jeans, so a good few bags were returned to the local charity shops for resale.



So what happens next? Well everything is stored at present until our home spaces are ready, so back to the kitchen tables for us, where we started.
Gosh this is a long post... if you have got to this bit well done! thank you all for your sweet comments on the last post... i will continue the Flour Loft for the moment and trace these next months here in this blog space......and then after that who knows.....not even me!
Happy Monday wherever and whatever!!!!
ginny x

One day soon...

One day soon i will have a work space at home. This is very exciting. It will be in the building in the middle of the garden. It has needed a lot of work. In freak weather the space was flooded in the past so, although it is unlikely to happen again we decided to to protect it by raising the floor.

My man has once again found hidden talents and a use for all his beloved tools. I am so impressed. He is not a tidy worker, but he is a really hard worker. Over the Easter weekend he was out in the snow working on this project.

The room will be a place for me to work, a place for the girls to craft and paint and we are also hoping to fit in a tiny laundry area and space for food storage. So it really will have to work hard for us all. It is not huge but will be perfect for our needs.


I am in the process of clutter clearing both at the Flour Loft studio and at home.
The Flour Loft will close next week. Alice and i will continue to collaborate as 'Alice and Ginny'. Not a particularly inspiring name i know but ours nevertheless. We will be changing our website and Not on the High Street to reflect this.

Until the space is ready I will be sewing from my dining room table. Not such a bad place to be as the room is nice and light.

I would like to get back to posting about sewing soon. I am working on something for a special lady, who has been very patient for the wait.

Happy day. enjoy!

A manic day, a givaway and some perfect cards

Today has been manic.. i just haven't stopped.. even my hour off whilst the girls are at Brownies didn't happen. We were invited to join in a 'fairtrade' talk with guest speakers which was really interesting, and better still was the chance to buy some produce... so Divine chocolate and double choc chip cookies for us..mmm! so all good in the end. It is Fairtrade fortnight at the moment, for further information check out fairtrade.org.uk.

Whilst at the studio today Al and I sorted out a little bundle for the mystery photo draw. So if you would still like a chance to enter and win a few little Springtime crafty goodies...

(sneaky preview of a few of the bits)

then please leave a comment with your guess.(see last post or click on mystery photo link). I will give you a few extra days and will draw at the weekend when i am less busy.

I will leave you with a link to my friend Caireen from the patchwork dress.

I brought some of her eco card packs recently and wanted to share with you how fabulous they are. Each card and envelope is made from carefully chosen pages from beautiful magazines. She has such a flair with theming each pack (comes in a set of 4) and they were such a delight to write and perfect to send as thank you letters.

My friends all loved them.
(thanks Caireen)

Caireen has a beautiful blog and for anyone interested in a great original eco product you can buy her cards here.

Have a good Thursday!

p.s. did you know that the Fairtrade logo depicts a person waving? I didn't. Have a look.. it's such a strong recognisable image but i suspect if asked to draw it from memory most of us couldn't.

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

Countdown.. Day 5

Arrived early this morning to the studio before Alice. Her lovely mum had only gone and swept the floor for us! Something we often forget in our haste to leave to go and collect the kids from school. And the table tops were cleared... which was great as we have one last lot of cutting out to do, which is now complete.
The post brought a proof of our new postcard which my lovely man ( he really is lovely... and he makes jam!) and I put together. It looked good so rang and ok ed them to go ahead and print. We had a brochure produced 18 months ago which is now out of date so thought a postcard reminder showing new products with our web address on would be good as brochures are costly to do and are a lot of work. Hopefully people who like our stand will pick one up for future reference.
It's been a finishing off day today really.... which is good ..but we want to make a few extras ...it's best to make as much as we can as you can never have too much stock. From our point of view the joy of what we do is that everything varies... it makes it interesting for us and stretches our creativity. Although at stressful times like this maybe we question why we do it , as working up to a big show hand making all of our products is tough, we do have so much fun and really do love what we do. Our stuff whether you like our style or not really is handmade with love and care. We are always striving to improve and perfect although the fact that we hand make and that we are humans and not machines give rise to gentle variations, textural imperfections... you know what i mean. ..giving that handmade quality, which we rather like. It's getting late and I'm rather waffling.. something i could win prizes at...
Sorry no photos today .. I started this post earlier, then bathed and put girls to bed , then supper..... a bit of glueing and sticking ( making my youngest's carnival costume) , taking a few photos.... and now I'm writing this on the laptop.. a very old one acquired from a friend but with no photos stored on it. My 'lovely' man ( must find him a blog name) is on the main computer where all the pictures are and has just informed me that he is killing the old website! ooh... new one not ready but soon.. hopefully....!
I'm off to bed now... night night.
G
x

Countdown.....Day 7

Hello, it's Day 7 in my countdown. It is exactly one week before the Gala Preview at Hampton Court Flower Show. Can't get off that rollercoaster now!
It does seem strange to be writing again so soon, so will just fill you in about progress today.

Picked up some knitted teacosies first thing from a lovely lady who lives in our village who has been kindly making some up for us. Then on to my mums who after a quick call to this morning said she would look after my 6 year old small person who threw up all over the landing last night! Poor little love. She woke up this morning full of beans as if nothing had happenened, but could obviously not go to school (just in case). She packed her colouring things, glue and scissors and was delighted to have nanny all to herself. I then went on to the studio.

Today i wanted to sew up some more flower brooches, many of which i had prepared some time ago. They are all different and each one is individually designed, from fabric combination to thread stitch colour through to final button finishing touch.

Threads chosen and ready to sew

I try and vary them as much as possible so most people can find a colour combination they like. So some are wacky and retro, some pretty and tonal and some simple and natural... and lots more in between.

A finished flower


Me and my summer brooch. I have 3 in different colours.

Alice has been finishing handbags today made by recycling various collected fabrics and giving them an Alice twist. Will try and photograph for you to see before the end of the week. We will only have a few but they really are special and we feel very original. A case of the fabric leading the design.

Our young friend A popped in today too and helped me prep some more flower cards.

A was one of our work experience students from a local secondary school last Summer. She is extremely talented and has a fantastic confidence with colour. She has just left school and is awaiting her results. We work with a scheme called Trident who organise work experience placements for year 10 pupils. We had 2 girls last year and are due another mid July. A very worthwhile thing to do and our way of giving something back to our local community.

See you on day 6.
ginny
x