Welcome to Prim 'n' Raggedy

It all started with a course for decorative crafts at her local college about 15 years ago, and Carole was bitten by the crafting bug! She started with sewing, making many different items from cushions, wall-hangings, rag dolls & old fashioned teddy bears .... then Carole ventured into wooden signs....Now Carole has added home fragrancing to her list of crafting loves, and she makes a wide range of wax melts & room sprays....In all of her handcrafted items, Carole uses American fabrics & fragrance oils, and loves to make home decor items in primitive or shaker themes, Carole also has a real love of the Amish culture, after a holiday to Pennsylvania two years ago! She is always looking out for new crafting ideas, and is about to give soap making a go....Carole is Mum to six great sons, four of whom are married, two teenage boys still at home, and has four beautiful grandchildren, so she's kept quite busy! Carole also works part time as a registered child minder for 5 children...& last but not least, she has a fantastically supportive husband who, when he's not busy working, is happy to cut wood for her, go to the post office etc!

Carole also has a special offer at her web store primnraggedy.com , take a look as she is offering 10% discount on all her website sales from 10th-17th November, go have a look you wont be disappointed!

Autumn/Fall Swap

Each season our group participates in a seasonal swap and we thought you might like to see the creative talents of the members that took part in the Autumn/Fall swap.

Another Member Introduction

Welcome to another one of our members.


Stephanie is a member of our Crows and Roses Group who enjoys creating various types of fabric craft. She says that she cannot remember a time when she wasn't creating something. Her love of crafting is often influenced by prim, primitive, country, shabby chic or sometimes a little retro, all depending on what fabric she is creating with at that moment in time.


Handcrafting presents for family and friends was the starting point for Stephanie and this has developed more and more as people asked her to create that little something special just for them. She says that she likes nothing better than creating for someone who appreciates the time, skill and the love that goes into everything that she handcrafts.


When asked to share with us which craft creation she was most proud of Stephanie found this difficult to pick just one, but finally dedcided on this angel, as she has a passion for angels. She loves the fact that this angel has a neutral feel but still manages to incorporate lots of texture by using different techniques which gives a beautiful finish without lots of patterned fabric.


Stephanie is married with two children and is currently working within education. She is continuing to create her range of fabric gifts under the name of My Calico Heart and is a committed and passionate supporter of all things handcrafted.

So . . . Just what is Primitive?

If this is your first time visiting a primitive related Blog and you're wondering just what primitives are, let us explain it for you. "Primitive" is a present-day term coined from the early 1800's referring to a style from an era where making-do was a way of life. Back in those times, sewing was not so much a hobby but a required skill. For example, quilts were needed to keep warm in the winter and folks didn't have alot of spending money for fabrics, so old clothing was used instead. And all of those pieces were sewn by hand (no machines then!). Dolls were often stuffed with rags or sawdust and had very little, if any, clothing or detailed faces.

Today, you will find primitive artists creating pieces such as dolls that look old, worn, stained, and very simple; this process takes several hours or even days to create. Many artists use vintage elements within their artwork to 're-purpose' and give life again to something otherwise known as junk to those around us. In some cases, the more older and worn items you use, the more value it has. Many artists scour antique shops and flea markets, looking for that perfect piece to work with, to inspire a whole creation.


In styling terms, primitive can mean rustic, simple, grungy, worn, and anything to reflect a style of yester-year. From time to time our members create wonderful OOAK primitive items to fill your home from rag garlands and wreaths, dolls, fixin's, soap, candles and many more unique products.

Congratulations to Carole and Stephanie

Two of our members son's had their "A" level results yesterday and both of them passed with flying colours.

Congratulations to both of the boys and also to their proud parents.

An Introduction to our members

Over the next few weeks we will be introducing you to our Crows 'n' Roses members and what better way to start than by introducing the founder of our group, Lisa.

Lisa is the designer behind 'Just for You' and has been crafting for as long as she can remember. She is currently designing a brand new range of one of a kind home decor accents in a blend of "Prim & Country" steering away from her current Shabby Chic range of hanging hearts and garlands . . . Lisa is a true artist and enjoys going where the mood takes her.

Over the years she has tried her hands at many different crafts ranging from candle and soap making and through to decorative painting but has now settled on her favourite so far which is fabric art - admiting to having made a wide variety of things such as cushions, tote bags, prim decor items, dolls, wall hangings and, knowing Lisa, a whole lot else too. On being asked what was the favourite thing that she had made, Lisa was keen to mention the "Night before Christmas" decorative book that she had made last year from fabric with accents of dried moss and rusty bells.

As you can see from the picture, Lisa is a very talented artist indeed. She has also recently started a new career in Environmental Health and has a family of three children, a husband and 2 family pets. Lisa lives with her family in a 100 year old stone fronted house in rural Wales which she and her husband are renovating.

Be sure to check back soon for an introduction to some more of our members . . .

What uninspiring weather

It's been cold and wet here in my little corner of the Derbyshire Peak District too so I decided to get down to some belated tidying of my sewing room at long last. I've spent a very productive afternoon sorting out all of my embroidery threads and fabrics. Now that's done I can get down to some serious sewing and make some more things for my stall at our local Victorian Weekend which is held every September. I'm designing some Victorian style perfumed sachets at the moment which I am hoping will sell well. The only problem is, with the weather being so bad I keep on drifting off into thoughts of what to make for Christmas!! I'm praying for a heatwave to get me back on track into summer mode as I'm not sure that primitive snowmen shelf sitters will sell too well in September. Back in June I had visions of sitting out in my garden this summer doing some leisurely sewing and enjoying the sunshine. Even my roses have given up waiting for the summer sun now and I've only had a few blooms this year compared to previous years when they have flowered right through until October.

What a day for a daydream . . .

I don't know about anyone else but the dreary, cold wet weather has completely put me off task and I have not been able to complete all of my summer designs . . . . I sat there last night dreaming up a new range entitled 'Autumn Blessings', the first of which will be launched this time next week . . . I don't know what'll happen if the sun decides to make an appearance!!

Lisa

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A couple more photographs of things that have been made by two of our group members.

The primitive stitchery cushion was designed and made by Pam and the beautiful fabric sunflowers are just one of the lovely things that Carole makes.

A Taste of things to come

These photographs are just a few of the things that some of our talented ladies have made. The Anniversary Keepsake was designed and made by Lisa and the Toybox shows some of Kaz's toys off to perfection. The beautiful Halloween decoration was made by Debs and the delightful Standing Angels were designed and made by Sharon.

Four very talented ladies, each with their own indivual style and, off course, you can find more of their work on Ebay UK.

We'll be adding lots more photographs of our work over the coming days and weeks and we'll also be introducing each of our members and telling the world a little bit about their particular crafting "speciality" and how they started.

Welcome to Crows 'n' Roses . . .

I think we'll start off by introducing ourselves . . . we are a group of artists, crafters and designers who all have a huge 'bundle' of things in common the first of which brought us all together - our love of all things primitive and homespun.

The idea behind creating a blog was to share the fabulous creations that have been put together by our talented members and to offer a place where you can stop by for tutorials and inspirational ideas . . . to read more about the faces behind Crows'n'Roses why not visit our 'ME' page which will be update over the next couple of days.

Get comfy . . . sit a while . . . and feel inspired!