Granny Ann

Oil painting by Roger Nicholson of my Grandmother Ann

I have been rooting about in the folios where I keep my father Roger Nicholson's loose sketches and paintings, and some flat oil paintings. This one appeared of my grandmother Ann, then in her 70's when I was just a small child of six maybe. She does appear very severe as many women of that generation could be and obviously took the whole process of having her portrait painted by her youngest son very seriously. She had six children in all, my aunts, Olive and Nina, and my uncles, Jack, Jim, Robert and Roger my father. It was Robert and Roger who were the bright young things in the 1950s in the textile world, designing beautiful wallpapers and fabrics. Some seen below which are now in the V&A archives where I put some of them for safe keeping after he died in 1986

Granny Ann ... Things I remember ... her making wonderful sardine sandwiches and battenburg cake for tea in fluted tea cups on a tray ...  I remember allowing me to riffle through her button box for hours and sit beside her in the sunshine outside her front door while the bees bussed about in the furry irises there, how she disapproved of me saying "yeah" as she was so very English and would rather I had said Yes! Though she lived when her children were small in a corrugated iron hut in the Australian outback where she had gone to be with her husband, and found herself bringing up her six children amongst the spiders and huge ants (my father loved telling me stories about the black Joe's and white Joe's and how they would pitch the two ant rivals in battles, as small boys) with the sun shining piercing swords of burning light through the holes in the corrugated iron roof of their hut ....
But when she came back to England with her youngest children she took pride in her Englishness, her soft white complexion which she powdered to enhance which highlighted the fine soft hairs on her cheeks ... She died at 93 I think ... it was a while back now

Furnishing fabric 1951

1951 Furnishing fabric

This Wallpaper was in my sister Naomi's room ...

Lovely stitchers

Thanks to all who wrote to me yesterday and I am so excited to send you out the first samples to be worked. This will make a huge difference to this project and I am looking forward to this new stage with you alongside! The results of your labour (well, I hope it will be fun for you too!) will be posted here along with credits and acknowledgements!


Now that the rain seems to have abated, these photos of the marsh near to me seem unreal. But the grassy flats by the River Rother were completely under water with waves lapping at the "shore line" ... It has been remarkable to look out of my bedroom window in the mornings recently and see the encroaching grey green water ever rising and shimmering in the near distance ... now the birds seem to be defiantly shouting out their spring songs, almost belligerently, and there is no stopping spring now ...

5 minutes from my cottage the waters rose and rose ... all this is usually green with sheep grazing there

Hand embroidered sampler

I have been working on a design for a sampler where my students can use their newly learned skills ... they have done so well and only two more classes to go. The download is now available from the website ... just go to this link and you will find it! Dimensions of the sampler 2014 is A4 which is approximately 29 x 21 cm 

http://www.nancynicholson.co.uk/sampler14.html

Above, it is half finished and below completed. You could stitch only the centre or experiment with hand embroidery stitches as a border ... the lines are there to guide you but you can use whatever you like. I have used hot sixties colours mainly because I am using my mothers old boxes of Anchor thread and those are the predominant shades of the time! But they are so lovely ... the boxes are a bit bished up but that is, of course, part of their delight.

And please don't be shy, I LOVE to hear from you and see your work, even if they are not my embroidery kits! But if you do finish a project like this one please send me a photo and tell me all about it nancy@nancynicholson.co.uk

Now I am also sending out a request. I recently had to let Sarah go as she has gone to live with her boyfriend by the sea, and starting a big adventure there. You can see her great shop here ... https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Bitsoffluffandfur

so now I am casting around for a different kind of help ... I am looking for ladies who are unstoppabley stitchy, who consume embroidery projects insatiably, hungry for fresh challenges, thirsty for thread. I need you to help me work some samples of my new designs, to test drive them if you like ... you can live anywhere as I can send them to you with everything you need. In exchange you will receive a kit of your choice and a huge named THANK YOU on the blog, Facebook, etc. 

Going back to the sampler, I am experimenting with an alternative to printing out the designs on a home printer see my blogpost on how to do that here . I have sent off for some to try ... but please contact me if you have found it easy/difficult/or just not tried to print any designs from the printer ... maybe you tried another method? I am keen to establish many more downloads for my customers so any information you can give me would be greatly received!

January in stitches

Great to start teaching again .... in this six week course at Hoop I am teaching all the embroidery families, starting with running stitches and all their variations, then chain and today was cross stitches and herringbone. We settle comfortably into a happy contentedness experimenting and discovering the different ways of embellishing a simple basic stitch into a glorious rich brocade!

I often use my mother's stitch cards to demonstrate what is possible, and my students now confidently work in stranded cotton on felt swatches which we will make into little sample books when complete. I am designing a special sampler for them to complete at the end of the course.

But this business needs new input ... it has taken all my time to build it with the designs I have but now that I want to grow, I need to take some time out, during the relatively quiet winter months to design a new range of kits, and finally get those stitch cards produced! So for the next two or three weeks that is what I am going to do. There are a lovely lot of kits made up ready to go when orders come in ( I have lost lovely Sarah who has gone to live in Pevensey Bay!) and accounts are done and studio ordered ...

It feels oddly like a guilty pleasure ....

Stitch Cards by Joan Nicholson 1960

Running Stitch variants 

Sticthed sample cards

Embellished chain stitches

Herringbone variants

More Stitch cards

Emroidered bracelets

Well now it's back to normal  after a jolly Christmas with the boys, but they have both gone back to Berlin where they are forging ahead with their lives with great gusto! Tom my eldest and his lovely girlfriend Marcella dressed up as Joseph and Mary for the Christmas children's service and really were superb at it, so good that one child rushed up to them and exclaimed " I've just been reading about you!" Proud Mother me ...

But now it's back to work again with so much to do ... This year will see a big change in the business, hopefully moving up a few notches with the launch of some new kits, both the printed panels and tapestry kits too, based on some designs my mother did 50 years ago, and the long awaited stitch cards! I have had to lose dear Sarah as she has gone to pastures new with her boyfriend to Sussex and so now will be taking on help with admin and manufacturing so I can at last get on with the new designs and building up the business, ready for the Hatch showcase in London arranged by School for Startups the wonderful but demanding course I am on. So this year will be full on!

I have had a few birthdays to make things for too ... I am finding it a little of a displacement activity too when I should be doing my accounts but all work no play as they say ... These are little felt embroidered bracelets, quite traditional I think but very satisfying to do. 

Having just begun teaching at Hoop for the new year too, a six week hand embroidery course which we began today and which will culminate in a sampler which I still have to design! News to come on that ... 

Ah much to do and post Christmas sit ups only a part of it!

Tom and Marcella doing the Nativity so well with Charlotte's donkeys
and Biddy suffering Christmas humiliation.

Christmas all wrapped up!

What a hectic few weeks!
Here is a wrap design I have been doing for my small gifts and also as a Freebie for last orders before Christmas! To claim your download just email me on info@nancynicholson.co.uk to let me know who you are and I will send you the pdf to download and print onto any paper you desire. It also can be cut up to make paper chains as long as you like! I remember being sat in a corner to do these as a child while my mother was stirring puddings and what have you, going into a paper chain zone, not know quite when to stop! Anyway enjoy!

Tutorials for Christmas No.6 ... Bauble

The Bauble, all made around a polystyrene ball. satisfying in extreme to push pins into polystyrene! All instructions, templates, and stitch guides available on the website http://www.nancynicholson.co.uk/baubletut.html

Tutorials for Christmas No.5 ... Toadstool

Well you know how I like fungus! Very easy little project and you could make it in lots of different sizes.
All instruction, templates, and stitch guides available on website http://www.nancynicholson.co.uk/toadstooltut.html

Tutorials for Christmas No 4 ... Heart

And here is the heart, easy to make for friends and family. Instructions, stitch guides and templates all available on the website http://www.nancynicholson.co.uk/hearttut.html

Tutorials for Christmas No3 ... Little House

Little house decoration, very simple to make. All templates, instructions and stitch guides available on the website http://www.nancynicholson.co.uk/housetut.html

Tutorials for Christmas No2 ... DRUM

The Drum, made using a milk bottle cap! Templates, instructions and stitch guides all available on the website http://www.nancynicholson.co.uk/drumtut.html

Tutorials for Christmas No1. ... BIRD

Here they are, hope you enjoy making them. Templates, embroidery stitch guides and instructions available on the website http://www.nancynicholson.co.uk/birdtut.html

Giant Puff Ball

Sliced just after picking

preparation with good butter salt and pepper

Frying with the bacon

Consumption ... satisfaction

I found these photos on the camera today ... completely forgot to post them though the event was quite spectacular! We almost fell over this giant on a walk down a familiar route one weekend in late September. It was as big, no bigger than a football and weirdly attached to the soil by the smallest of stalks. looking rather like it had been blown up from the earth ... I was very excited to scoop it up and made a sling for it out of my jumper, which smelt heavenly all the way home. It squeaks when it is cut like cutting polystyrene ... and the aroma is indescribably delicious. Butter, bacon, salt and pepper great slices of it on good bread ... we had risotto too, and stuffed a squash with it. It was handed out to friends and kept me in food for a week. A huge soft cloud of a thing. Delicious.

Teaching ... Christmas decorations

 Here are some pictures of the teaching I have been doing recently at ... The Sewing Place  and at Hoop, where the course continues each week (6 in all, two more to go)
It has been great to work with everyone and we have had lots of laughter and creativity. The Christmas decorations will be available on the website to download, next week. The crowdfunding has begun with 5 backers so far! I can't wait to begin The Thread club in the new year ... if we reach the target it will make everything speed ahead!
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/nancy-nicholson-design/

The little felt bird decoration and all the variables made by students ...

The Toadstool decoration and a the Kit bag embroidered using thread spun by the student, wound onto a beautiful old wooden spool

The original designs for the classes ... patterns coming soon

More Teaching ...

The Christmas decorations course at Hoop ... tea, sewing, chatter, happiness.

The Advent calendar course at Hoop. Is it too late to give you all an online tutorial?

The Bauble making class!