The fabrics are carefully selected from my collection of both new and vintage, each piece is unique and 100% cotton throughout. They make a perfect gift for a new baby, God child or wedding present and will be enjoyed for generations to come – unlike most things quilts only get better with age and love.

Prices start at £120 for simple crib quilts and from £185 for special commission which can be embroidered with initials or dates of birth and made from fabrics that might be special to you, such as dearly loved old shirts and other clothes.

Please get in touch if you would like photos of current stock and do pass on info to Friends, Mums, and Grannies who you feel might be interested! polly@pollyhope.co.uk

This is set to be a great event, The Papered Parlour is putting on a mini festival, in celebration of ethical fashion and contemporary crafts. Taking place Thursday 3rd March at V&A museum of childhood.

Come along to take part in workshops, listen to live music and take part in topical panel discussions. There will also be the opportunity to shop at some of London’s best crafts stalls all set amongst the museums exquisite collections.

I will be teaching patchwork, and hopefully during the evening anyone who would like to join in will have the opportunity to learn the basics of cutting, piecing and sewing patchwork squares to together. This will contribute to a communal quilt project, promoting the craft and the idea of preserving fabrics to reuse and recreate something new out of old.

Fine Cell Work will be amongst some of people exhibiting at the event – so come along and see some of the best hand embroidery and patchwork all hand made in U.K prison.

....there are beautiful gardens behind these walls!!!

The main reason to get tickets for this years open garden weekend was to go and see the gardens at HMP Wandsworth, i used to go into Wandsworth regularly when i was working for Fine Cell Work and my Mum had always wanted to visit – so this was the perfect opportunity.

It had been about 5 years since i had been into the prison and the gardening initiative was all new to me. We were shown round by 3 guards all involved in training the inmates to garden – it was amazing what had happened in the 5 years, grotty dank areas of the prison had been transformed into intimate well kept flowering spaces. It was so encouraging to hear the officers talk about the spaces with pride.

Part of the tour was visiting the Fine Cell Work new work shop, were Hilda, who now runs the show at Wandsworth was. There was the opportunity here to talk to some of the inmates involved in both the gardening and embroidery, it was great to really get a feeling of productivity and pride in the work that was going on here.

The garden had such soul and vibrancy all the plants had so much life and were loved and well tended – it really was a hive of activity and really did take you out of the context of prison and the feeling of confinement that usually has such a strong presence in prison.

Sadly because of security now pictures could be taken of the gardens…..

Share Community Horticultural project

…next on out list was to visit the gardens run by Share community, set in the grounds of Springfield  university Hospital. The garden here is used to train adults with learning difficulties and is a hive of horticultural activity, vegetables are being well produced by trainees, who also maintain the gardens and produce plants for sale… I highly recommend this place for buying plants they had a high variety of very well grown healthy looking plants at very good prices, how nice to support this very worthy project as well as go home with some exciting new things for your garden!