MY CRAFT ROOM: JOANNE & SUZANNE
AT THE HISTORICAL SAMPLER COMPANY We get to see a glimpse of two designers’ own craft space…
“Last year we moved from a very cosy, pre y home office which we adored, to a rather larger office site with a warehouse – we had simply outgrown our wooden cabin. Luckily we found offices nearby, with the added bonus of a large warehouse space. We have decorated the office space with lots of lovely clean white furniture, with pink accessories and have displayed lots of our stitched pieces around the space to make it feel more homely and pre y.
“We have several different rooms at the office, even one that just contains cones of DMC thread, it’s a real ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ – we have a fabulous machine, designed by Joanne’s father, that helps us put the threads onto the thread cards – it’s a lifesaver and allows us to keep up with the demand for our designs.
“We have over 1,000 subscribers a month to our Co on & Twine Cross Stitch subscription box, so we send out a lot of packages and needed the warehouse space for storage and box packing. We always stitch all our designs before they are released to our customers. Wecan check how the colours are working together and are constantly unpicking and changing colours as we go.
“I (Suzanne) prefer to use a wooden hoop on a stand for my work and, of course, a daylight lamp for these darker evenings. I also have an addiction to needleminders, which I discovered a couple of years ago, they are so pre y and useful for storing your needle. Sometimes, if the needleminder is big enough, I like to keep my scissors on the minder too – I’m forever losing my scissors down the side of the sofa!”