Cheryl Chambers
There was never a time when Emma Mae Stanford didn't stitch. She was very young when she was taught to sew. By the age of 12 she had the responsibility of producing every garment that her family needed. Throughout her life sewing was her main focus, both for pleasure and to earn a living. She spent years working in a shirt factory and also took piece work home at night. At anothe
r stage of her life she owned a dress shop in Wellington, creating one of garments for wealthy clients. By that stage she could no longer sit at a sewing machine, so she stitched herself new dresses entirely by hand. She was truly and inspirational woman. Emma May Stanford was my Paternal Grandmother and at her knee I learned to love fabrics, laces, threads and all things sewing related. With her encouragement and strict tuition I learned to sew for myself at an early age, and have continued to work with a needle and thread throughout my life. Although I have continued to make the odd garment for myself and my family my focus has shifted to quilting, and has lead me to designing patchwork patterns, hence the birth of Stanford Hall Designs. Bev Douglas
My Paternal Grandmother Vera Keenan - maiden name Hall died when my father was 5 years old. I loved hearing stories about this special lady as I grew up and wish I had had the opportunity to meet her. From stories my father was told by his father and his older siblings, she was a very loving woman who provided well for her family. From the treasured memories and stories of two wonderful grandmothers came the name for our new business "Stanford Hall Designs"
Family is where my love of fabrics and embroidery started. I grew up watching my mother and aunts sewing clothing for their families. A very special aunt made beautiful ballet and tap dancing costumes for one of my cousins and I loved the fabrics, the embellishments and embroidery she so carefully sewed on them. I learnt to sew on the old Singer treadle sewing machine that belonged to my maternal grandmother and it is still one of my treasured possessions along with her old doilies and embroidered pieces of linen. Cheryl and I met when we lived in the same street in Christchurch about 38 years ago. Cheryl, myself and two other friends in this street started up a small business called Fern Cottage Crafts. We made children's clothing and sold crafts on behalf of others. We sold the business and 3 families moved out of the area. We kept in touch and had reunions about every second year. This continued until our children grew up and had jobs over the holidays so didn't want to go any more (or grew tired of us reminiscing about the old days). All our children are grown up now, have their own families and are scattered around New Zealand and overseas. Us girls still get together once a year, catch up on what our kids are doing, stitch our latest project, make clothing for our grand kids and laugh a lot. My passion for quilting started about 16 years ago. However my first attempt at making a quilt was in about 1985 when my daughter Jo asked me to make a blue patchwork quilt for her. I gathered up heaps of blue polyester fabric!! And I made a quilt (I didn't know any better then). I had no idea what I was doing except cutting up fabric into squares and sewing them together. no proper seam allowances - and soon it started to pull apart - quite a disaster but she loved it. Yes, I still have it but it's hidden away out of sight. I now make proper ones I get great satisfaction from creating something from fabric, thread, lace and other embellishments. I love the challenge of designing new projects to share with other quilters and stitches. We hope you enjoy making our projects as much as we enjoy designing them.
