What Fun!

Well last week was one of the most amazing of my life! We opened in the new bigger shop premises and the response was both emotional and unexpected. I am so proud of what we have achieved in just 2 years and immensely grateful to the support of friends, family and customers who have made all the hard work so much fun!

We were open as normal on Saturday 3rd August as normal - and then we move EVERYTHING on the Sunday & Monday (which are the days we are usually closed). So on Tuesday morning we opened not quite sure what to expect! What we certainly didn't expect was a queue!

So I thought I would share a few pictures from last Tuesday - which was our first day in the new shop. We were visited by the FABULOUS Stuart Hillard from the Great British Sewing Bee. What didn't come across during the show was that he is a very keen quilter with regular features in magazines including Patchwork & Quilting so he was right at home with us! He was signing copies of the GBSB book as well as enjoying a chat with lots of our lovely ladies! He was thoroughly spoilt!

 

The lovely Stuart signing books - here with our friend Nicki from Anbo!

 

This Nicky's little girl who wanted to share her tortoise with Stuart.

It was a tremendously busy day for a Tuesday. At one point there were 80 cars outside the shop, not counting more that were spread out over the rest of the farm. I had one lady say that her daughter lives in the village and had trouble getting out to work that day with the all the traffic running through the village - so it will be a day they remember for a while :)

Here is a picture of a lull!

Friends and family came along to help with the move and special mention has to go to my lovely Dad - who did so much work building the fabric units and putting up about a million hooks and quilt hangers. And he even dressed up for the opening in tux and bow tie (and fitted the microwave in that outfit!). Thanks Dad - I love you xxx

My lovely Paul and his parents came along. Paul (bless'im) worked like a trooper all day Sunday and Monday with the move - and then helped with opening day. What a star!

Some of our ladies enjoying a bit of cake in the workshop area - we raised £160 on the cakes for the Brittle Bone Society.

We also had a fantastic raffle on Tuesday for some stunning prizes including the fabric for a 90inch square quilt! Along with a more alcoholic raffle on Saturday, and the cake, we made a total of £1000 for the Brittle Bones Society.

So after a very long day, Julie and friend Fiona test out the Man Crèche area and it certainly passed!!

Well that was a hugely busy week, and now things should settle down a bit - with some time for me to get back to my creative buzz rather than running around like a made thing organising telephone lines or sourcing mdf! Phew!