SQUAWK
The Curtain Girls Blog
15th February 2010
Always a rush running up to Christmas! I am sure there is a day thief at work from the end of September as the time seems to just disapear like sand down a hole. We had our hot air heater serviced by a new firm this year - a good clean and a new thermocouple and off we go for another year? - Well not this time; it was deemed that our meter did not supply enough gas for the heater to run properly and we must have a larger meter installed - any idea how long the wait is for a new meter? 6 - 8 weeks! ! We are lucky in that we have 2 units and they have independant heating systems but even so, parts of the building were very cold indeed. I have to pay tribute to all our girls who dressed up, wore hats, thawed their fingers on steaming mugs and kept sewing!We are always in need of a break between Christmas and New Year and this year we were truly thankful to be at home in the warm. Back on 4th Jan - new meter fitted on 5th Jan and bliss. Now I am thinking hard about a better source of heating if we have to renew the heater in the future, a biomass boiler perhaps? We have also paid close attention to our insulation and are adding a layer of 2L2 bubble & foil in the hope of keeping our precious heat in the building.
One of the things we did do was to make a very large interlined curtain to close off one section of the workroom - with my wonderful thermometer we fould that the difference in temperature was in excess of 10c - just goes to show how much heat you can conserve with interlining.
We have all seen quite enough snow for this year and are looking forward to some spring sunshine.
We are also hoping that the fabric supply situation will improve as it often difficult to get stock and understandably, clients get fed up with 'there's no stock and delivery will be 6 weeks' It is not allowed for in the schedule.
I have also just been off filming for a documentary - will keep you posted - I can't steal the TV company's thunder before the day.
The Curtain Girls Blog
4th November 2009
I have asked the site developer to add an interactive blog here as I do think I might just be prattling into outer space? I also think it would be nice to hear from some ( OK, lots) of you. When we have our fabric sale day we get to meet many of our customers and it is obvious that you enjoy fabrics and making as much as we do.
Thankfully we have been busy since June, I have been working on projects as far apart as Tetbury, Ashby-de-la-Zouche and Faro. Curiously, it is quicker to get to Faro than Tetbury but more difficult to take the long stepladder.
Ally and I made a point of going to Decorex this year to see what is new in the design world. We fell in love with a silk wallcovering that was part painted and part embroidered - just beautiful. If you are renovating a country house and have a Georgian drawing room, be very tempted!
Closer to home, October has been a very busy month for me. After many years of co-habiting, my partner and I finally got married. We fully intended to sneak off somewhere warm but our so called friends got to hear of this plan and would have none of it.
A proper do, was required ! We are so grateful to them as the day would not have been nearly as much fun and memorable without them ( rowdy lot of sailors) The registrar started the fun by saying that she had seen our ages and we were not what she expected? Presumably the absence of a zimmer frame for him and pale blue crimpelene for me was the confusing factor.
Thanks to the great generosity of our friends from The Decanter, on Angel Hill, we used their restaurant as our reception venue. I had two daughters and their partners as my elves and spent the Saturday and Sunday cooking a four-course feast for the Monday evening and in our usual way of doing things in reverse order, we had our traditional looking but chocolate with raspberries & cream, wedding cake in the afternoon so that our guests were not overcome by the fizzy falling down water. The whole experience finished off with live music from Mr Tim Lee, all the way from Alberta and my daughter Raychel making her debut on bass
Thankfully, while I was knee deep in posh fish pie for fifty, the nimble fingered seamstresses here were sewing away so that I had lots to deliver and hang for my customer in Leicestershire.
For those who didn't spot the date of our next end of roll fabric sale on the home page,
Saturday 30th January 2010
Before you all think I have gone soft, I am just checking my facts before having a bit of a snarl about the bank's latest way of replenishing their balance sheets at their customers' expense. GRrrrr.. Squawk
The Curtain Girls Blog
29th June 2009
Just look at the date! absolutely pathetic - what have we been doing?
Well April was very busy; I have to confess to a holiday in May ( went to visit my daughter & grandson in Edmonton. ( Alberta not north London) and before you can turn round, it is June! There has also been a spate of funerals, weddings and big birthdays in my extended family, so time has to be made for those occasions. Is this all sounding like rather like excuses? I think so. Also, my garden has the aforementioned rabbits, squirrels and pigeons in equal ( large) number. That pie-dish needs to be a cauldron.
However, with or without me the workroom has been making curtains, making curtains and making more curtains, not to mention the Roman blinds, the cushions and all the other drapery items. We are working on large projects in London, Oxford, Leicestershire and South of France. There are several more where we would like to make a start but the builders are still in residence and can't give a date for when they will be out - we see Christmas looming with some of these still on the 'to do' list.
We have had a good look at the feasibility of hosting some curtain making classes and with more people wanting to learn the skills and make their own curtains and blinds, we think we will offer beginners classes for both curtains and blinds, an intermediate class for sewers who would like to learn about interlining and hand finished headings, plus maybe an advanced class if we have the interest in hand pencil headings?
We also think there maybe room for a 'professionals' day for the many designers who are great at the design/colour/fabric side of things but who's curtain knowledge is a little sketchy. Did you know that there are probably 30 variations of pencil tape and where to put it?
Soon, Soon, we hope to make the blog interactive. Much more fun if you can have your say too.
The Squawker
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The Curtain Girls Blog
31st March 2009
What a difference a month makes! We are just heavingly busy, which is very nice for us and if we are busy, then others are too. Speaking to other artisans and tradesmen, I haven't come across anyone who is not working flat out and with a decent order book. Long live curtainmakers, saviours of the nation!
Talking of saviours, one of our customers who can't be named, is hanging 10 pairs of 3.5m sheer curtains that were just rolls of fabric at noon yesterday. We would have started them earlier but the fabric only arrived on Sunday and Monday am was spent making 9 long Roman blinds that were just fabric on Saturday. We have had 2 assignations at South Mimms to hand them over to the fitters who, in turn, have sped into London to hang them. Must be finished by midnight or we will all be turned into pumpkins. Tonight all the makers are going home proud but **ackered and tomorrow we start on a little project for the South of France.
It is certainly never dull here.
Love the light evenings. I feel as if I haven't seen the garden since October! Since the death, at a very good age, of my beloved Abbyssinian cat, we have seen our rabbit population expand! and they are making short work of all the early growth. I need a cunning plan or a rabbit catcher or a large pie dish.
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The Curtain Girls Blog
3rd March 2009
I'm sure it is not all down to me but I notice that the free laptop that cost more than if you just bought it, is being gently 'U-turned'
Well done people for spotting a total rip-off.
speaking of rip-offs; I have a cunning plan for recycling Sir Fred's pension. All his suppliers should move the decimal place to the right so that his daily paper costs £20.00 not £2.00 and his shopping at Aldi costs £2000.00 not £200.00. We could really have fun finding inventive ways to get all that cash back into the local economy and it would be quicker than waiting for the government to sue.
Am I going to say anything about curtains? Well, I should say that Voyage have a very attractive offer on some of their fabrics, 30 - 50% discount on selected ranges. These are current ranges and not clearance or seconds. We will find a way of identifying these on the fabrics page, but a really good offer.
The new pattern books from Casamance are in! There is a beautiful fur/fleece book - just right for the end of bed throw and some just delicious embroidered silks.
Four cushions and a bed-throw will really lift your bedroom without the cost of a full redecoration.
I hope some of you will call us up and demand to come and see the vast number of pattern books we hold.
I am also busy working on some downloadable booklets on how to make various furnishings the professional way. These should be available by the end of the month and we are also talking about holding some one day taster courses. We don't expect to be able to teach a lifetimes experience in just a day but we can demonstrate the techniques and get you started.
We are also planning a 'How to get it right' leaflet. We notice that so many people paint the room before choosing the curtains fabric or furnishings. How to make life difficult! Fabrics have possibly 10 or so colourways, carpets maybe 20 -30 in a range
Paint - 50000 colours. Far easier to do it choosing the paint last.
Looking forward to spring? me too -
Squawk
The Curtain Girls Blog.
5th February 2009
We have had weeks of discussion about the name for our blog. Should it have a curtain theme? Hanging out ? or hooked up? Or be personal to me, Jane Blog, another blogger? I have a presence ( doesn't that sound so posey?) on both Facebook and Twitter and somehow Twitter with attitude has turned into SQUAWK.
I'm sure I don't know why, but my colleagues here have a small smile when they say they like SQUAWK best. something to do with suiting my personality?
I have always said that we could sell tickets outside a workroom with glass all round. Our visitors are always fascinated by the fabrics and the way we work. There is very little time spent at a sewing machine; just the fabric joining seams and the lining hem. The rest of the time we are standing up at 10' x 5' tables. If the curtains are over 3m /10' long, we join 2 or even 3 tables together to give 9m / 30'.
Do you ever wonder about the free making offers?
Well, on the 'there's no such thing as a free lunch' theme:- free making, free lining, free measuring, should be truthfully described as ' making / lining or measuring included.'
With free making, the amount you pay for the fabric, lining and heading tape, covers the cost of very basic machine making.
In the case of free lining, it is the cost of the fabric and the making that cover the lining.
However, when you come to free measuring, there is a difference, as the cost of all the measures must be covered by the customers that do order.
It follows that Mrs White, customer, is also covering the cost of measuring for Mrs Green, Mrs Brown, Mrs Jones & Mrs Smith who are not customers!
We don't think that is the right way to treat any customer, just because the true meaning of Free is not understood!
I went to a nameless computer store a few days ago. They are offering a free laptop if you sign up for wireless broadband. They also offer the same wireless broadband without a laptop. There is a £25 -35.00 per month price difference. Over two years,you can find yourself paying £850.00 for a laptop that is priced at £500.00 - Which bit of free is covered by that? Surely we are not that dim?
SQUAWK about to be re-named as Rant! |
