Beautiful Pots and more!

Olive Oil Pot in Spain

This is how the mini revamp of the garden here at Pinks Barn began – We were visiting our friends in Spain who have four of these giant pots on the terrace. After a week of looking at them from our bedroom window, I was simply green with envy. The following weekend, Carole Weighill from Threadneedles in East Grinstead took us to visit Pots of Pithoi in Sussex!

Pots of Pithoi

This was my first view of the hundreds of terracotta pots they have in the garden courtyard and I was in heaven. Bill went a bit grey when he saw the price of these beauties but still encouraged me to think big!

Charming group with some planted

Many of the pots are planted or in lovely groups and this makes you want to buy even  more. In the end, the size of our car had more to do with decisions, rather than the cost. Fortunately, we found their hospital or jigsaw corner where they have a few slightly damaged pots at a fraction of the original cost. Simply bliss!

The doorway to the shop!

In addition to pots from jigsaw corner, I found a lovely beehive shaped pot and then saw it turned in to a fountain and I was hooked! This is a larger version to the one I have purchased but once I have tackled the plumbing, I will take some pictures for you.

Perfect or what?

Issue 81 is in the post

Issue 81 of Stitch That is in the post and I have already complete the designs for the next magazine. With luck and a following breeze we will be back on target in September and hopefully stay there.

I have very disturbing news from my Publisher – Axis Publishing who have put my new book together for Search Press have run so late that there are now rumours that we won’t see our bulk order until August. You can imagine, I am very fed up with this as we have had four delivery dates so far and still no books. Lots of you have placed orders with us and I am so sorry. We will not process any of your paperwork or credit cards until we send out the books.

I have spent the last week remodelling the main garden and I intend to take some photographs later today after my gravel has arrived and I have put it where it needs to go. One of the lovely pots purchased at Pots of Pithoi will be a bubble fountain and I am very excited! My daughter. Louise has discovered gardening and has been an enormous help – we have completely filled a skip! I have been very disciplined and only bought long term plants  and lots of David Austin roses and I am hoping this will give me the all year around colour and low maintenance garden of my imagination! We will see…

My web site wizards are jumping from a plane!

I would have hoped that they would have had more sense but if you look at the picture above you can see there is simply no hope of them ever growing up!

Back to work again!

Bill and I are back from our long weekend in Spain much refreshed and ready to go! Bill starts a precautionary course of radiotherapy on Monday for 6 weeks or so and therefore we will be at home resting, stitching and designing and having early nights.

We will be posting Issue 81 of Stitch That, our Members magazine very soon  (not a Member? – go to Join us) and I have almost finished designing Issue 82 including the Christmas element! It is odd drawing Christmas presents and holly leaves in June but it has to be done. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, we always feature the Christmas projects in September so that you have time to stitch them all if you want to! This year, I am doing a set of Christmas Initials as well as the usual motifs and gift card ideas.

The Flower Sampler Book

Issue 81 of Stitch That features the first part of our new Part Work The Flower Sampler Book which will be completed in your January mailing. As Members, you will be able to send for a Materials Pack which includes all the fabric pieces, charms, pre-sorted threads and the hand painted silk needed to complete the book.  If you do not know what I mean by a Sampler Book, please have a look at our original Sampler Book designed for us by Sue Hawkins which is still available as a complete kit in our on- line shop.

In addition to the Flower Sampler Book, this issue of Stitch That is packed full of stitching and I have featured my antique sampler book I aquired some years ago – you will be able to see where we get some of our ideas!

Alice Flower’s Sampler Book 1890

Alice’s Marking Sampler

Almost every week, I am asked when and where I get my ideas and I have explained in some detail how the Merry Sparrow design came to pass. It started with a dog walk and ended up as you see below

Merry Sparrow by William Blake

That is all for today folks. I am off  to visit Pots of Pithoi and try to keep my credit card in my wallet. I expect there will be photographs for you later this week

Happy stitching

I cannot believe latest news on my new book!

Grumpy Greenoff here

I have just heard that the new book has not actually left the Far East where it was printed! This means it may be the end of July before it arrives. I am so sorry – I am very, very cross!

To those of you who have ordered in advance – we have not processed any cards or cashed any cheques so please bear with us. I will post out the day our copies arrive