The Weekend.

Such a busy weekend with what looks to be another busy week to follow. Both Dave and I had mountains of work to get through - him more than me poor soul - but we still managed to...pick the gorgeous dahlias grown by Mr Davey.



Such beautiful colours, though I still crave more. My favourite way to grow dahlias is in a glorious riot where the stems wind through each other rather than in regimented rows. Maybe next year we'll grow a huge tangle of them at the allotment.



Out for a walk on Saturday afternoon to find this pretty house tucked away by a river bank - and I do mean right by a river. About six steps away when the tide is high!



Down a winding lane to find this stall tucked into the hedge. We managed to help them out by bringing away a few things.



A huge roast dinner on Sunday broke the workload a little and was a chance to chat with the children. It is something of a ritual here to have the traditional Sunday roast and one which we love very much. I can't think of anything better than sitting around the table with huge bowls of food laid out before me, the family all chatting away, laughing at one of Isabella's appalling jokes and usually trying to match them with one of their own, following it all up with a leisurely ramble somewhere lovely to make room for a tea of scones and cake later on. It seems a shame to me that some people just don't seem to enjoy this sharing of meals with their children or maybe I'm putting an early Monday morning spin on it and conveniently forgetting about the food on the floor, piles of washing up and the fighting over the last yorkshire pudding!



Other than the usual food related moments the weekend consisted of me nipping off to dig the allotment (lor' I'm out of practice!) and picking marigolds by the jug-full. I even brought home some peas which Isabella popped for me. We sowed these very late with a let's see attitude and they've worked really well for us with plenty of sweet peas tucked inside the pretty pods. We also had cabbages, parsnips, garlic and onions to go with the roast, so felt quite pleased with ourselves considering we really have struggled to give the allotment the time it needs.



A little knitting of that blooming sock, a little shared glass or two of the red stuff sitting on the courtyard as the dusk fell and a little more sewing of Christmas stock saw the rest of the weekend finish all too quickly. Today is dull with heavy rain making the ducks dive through the murky waters of their pond with glee, shaking themselves and quacking far too noisily for such a dismal day. Let's hope it changes soon.



Have a lovely Monday x

Giveaway Result.

Bit late due to Isabella being 'fed-up-set' over something or other, but here is the result of my giveaway.

The winner is: Jane from Marigold Jam.

Jane's blog is new to me as is mine to her, so I am looking forward to popping back regularly. Head over for some wonderful views of the countryside near her home.

Jane, send me your address and I will post the Hush Heart off to you on Monday. My email is: poltiskofarm@talktalk.net

Thank you all again - so very much - for all your help.
Have a lovely weekend x

An Attempt at an Oscar.

Wow, I am so thrilled with all the amazing feedback I have received on my website update. It truly has been so helpful as I spend so much time working on it that it becomes impossible to see what is actually happening.



A part of me dreaded asking for help partly because I am a horrendously independent soul who makes life so much harder for herself by battling on rather than accepting that not only can others step in but are they are happy to do so, and partly because I felt that there may be suggestions that the overall feel of the site - my baby that I put my heart and soul into - missed by miles. A huge sigh of relief could be heard throughout Cornwall. That just hasn't been the case and you wonderful people have come back with such positive help that I am beaming!



Some of the points raised have already been worked on, some noted for future work - I really need to get back to the sewing for the moment - and one or two have been considered, but I have decided they are more about differences of opinion: a website, as with most things, could be built to look a million different ways. The feel you want for it is quite a personal thing and down to what appeals to the individual - things such as background colours, font choices, images, etc - these all influence the 'vibe' a site gives off and while what you end up with may appeal to some, it will inevitably not be everyone's cup of tea. Fortunately, mine seems to have scored a hit with those who commented - thank you x



I decided right from the start that I could only run this business if it reflected the things that are important to me: my family, the life we live and Cornwall truly are the things which inspire and motivate me every single day. I honestly do bake bread at ridiculous hours of the morning; I really do love having our children around (though appreciate a break like everyone else), play endless games around the kitchen table, cook enormous meals for the varying but mostly large numbers who congregate here; I honestly do sew in the evenings while Dave knits a scarf and drives me insane as he drops yet another stitch. And I really couldn't breathe without the sea and rocks, fields and woodlands that make up Cornwall, a place so entrenched in my soul that I think I would fade away without it.



Ahem, sorry about that extended ramble - I only meant to say that all these things are what lies behind the website and the stitchery that makes up the business. All these things from my dear Davey and our children, the ducks and the hens, the garden and the landscape, they are all what make up me...they are Pipany.



and I can't tell you how much it means that you all get that x

(Oscar speech over, but please feel free to enter the giveaway on the last post by leaving a comment there) x

Help Needed Please & a Giveaway!

I have spent much of the last few days working on my website - a job which involves hours of sitting staring at a computer screen until my eyes feel as though they are about to bleed! Attractive image isn't it?



The whole site needed a little tweaking which, once started, turned into a lot of tweaking. The result I hope will make it a little easier to navigate. I have changed the product page so that there are now four categories: gifts, bags, children's corner and home accesories. Some of the products will appear in a couple of categories because they fit both - hey, who am I to say a door hanging can't be both a home accessory and a gift?



By clicking on the images you should now be taken through to a page of products available in each of the categories and from there to further details (size, price, etc) of each item.



I have also updated at last the Where we are and What we are doing pages with more current pictures of our life here in Cornwall - it is after all what inspired and continues to inspire this little business of mine.



Now for the 'Help' part of this post: I wonder if you would be so good as to pop over to have a look at the site? What I want is for you to have a wander around, try out some of the links, generally test it out for me and then let me know what you think. In return I will put all the names of those who leave a comment between now and Saturday morning - shall we say 10am closing? - into a hat and send whoever is pulled out one of these Hush Hearts as a thank you. I know how hard it can be to find time to just read blogs let alone have to do some work, so I really am very grateful to those who can help out. Not worried if you've never visited before or never commented - always nice to meet new people. The pipany website can be reached here.



(And dear Twiglet who has waited forever, yours is in the post finally and should be there tomorrow - let me know if not!).

Thank you x

Seeds and Grasses.

When will I learn that it really doesn't pay to leave product photography for another day when the conditions are pretty much perfect at the time of making said decision? Yesterday there was soft, golden sunlight where today there is only a dull, flat light which makes it so difficult for a very amateur photographer such as myself to get the product images I need for my website. Hey ho, no doubt such things will eventually stick in my mind and I won't allow myself to be seduced by the thought of lazily quaffing wine on the courtyard as the sun descends possibly not to return for far too long...hmm, or maybe I won't.



So, here is the Grasses Lavender Cushion, the first of my new range. It is one of two lavender cushions inspired by the grasses and seedheads I see everywhere I go at the moment. Whether I am in our garden, roaming around the lanes or by the sea the colours and textures of autumn seem to leap out at me and this is my interpretation of what I see.



I have changed the way I work slightly for these pieces using a mix of freehand machine and hand embroidery to get the effect I was after, that of wispy grasses waving in the breeze layered with the bulkier, denser forms of seeds and seed cases.



The second cushion - aptly named Seed Lavender Cushion - also has a little applique, my working of the granite rocks glimpsed as a backdrop to so much of the landscape in Cornwall.



A little close-up of embroidery detail.



Each cushion is approximately 12cm square, quite small to be called a cushion really, but somehow sachet or pad didn't fit with how I feel about them. I have given them each a string handle to enable them to be hung if desired rather than tucked away in a drawer(far too pretty for that methinks!) My hope is that whoever sees them will view them as miniature pieces of art (if that doesn't sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet?), something which will add to their home and be a little heirloom in the making. Well, that's my hope anyway.



Each one will obviously vary slightly due to the nature of handmade items, but that is the charm of something handcrafted isn't it: something unique and worked from the heart, which these certainly were. More items to come over the next few days - if the light returns that is!

A September Morn.

It is cloudy here now after the most beautiful start to the day. I wanted to show you the things that are inspiring my work at the moment and so took these pictures early this morning after Isabella and I had taken Lucy to school. Seedheads and grasses of every description catch my eye, from golden grasses



to rumex of the darkest red



and as for these...oh, how beautiful they are.



Thay seem to change from soft and downy



to harder, more scratchy in texture - does that make sense?



Such amazing colours from vibrant green



to wheaten yellow.




From starkly structural



to spindly and delicate.



Pure inspiration. If only what I see in my head would leap onto the fabric - or, read another way, if only I could stop scribbling ideas and leave it at the thousand or so designs I already have. My business head says the new range is ready to go, items made and set to be showcased, and yet I feel nervous.



There is a change evident in this range, a slightly more 'grown-up' feel for want of a better description and I am nervous at the reaction to it. Silly and not very business-like of me I know, but perhaps it is because these designs speak to something in me, the bit of me that loves autumn and the restful feel that comes with the softened tones of nature, the fires lit in the lengthening dusk, the soft-and-sad song of birds on quiet mist shrouded rivers. All these things I love and I hope they are evident in some small way in the stitches worked, the gentler tones weaving through the cloth.



I hope to show my new range next week after a little final tweaking (though heavens knows I have probably built it into something it isn't now and thus will regret mentioning it at all!). In the meantime,



have a lovely weekend everyone x

Time.

I may not have mentioned it much lately, but sewing has been pretty much filling my days; come to that it has pretty much been filling my nights too. New designs, orders, fabrics to sort ... these are just some of the things which demand of my time and as they are also the very things which lie at the heart of a textiles business such as mine, then time must be found - somehow.



If only days were longer; if only I had more energy; if only I could find more time for stitching grasses...



baking breads...



more grasses...



knitting socks... still...sigh...



playing games....



but mostly trying to perfect darned designs that swim around my head



they'll get there



in time.



What are you struggling to find time for? Just one thing will do!

Have a restful evening x