The Golden Years Story

The story of our popular 'Golden Years' range from concept to finished kits, told by Heritage Crafts Managing Director, Susan Ryder.

The idea for Golden Years had been chasing me round for quite a while. It started with a music video which my son, Jon, showed me. I didn’t like the music, but I found the pictures of an elderly couple and their family very heart warming and emotional. After this I kept coming across other pictures and words, all telling me that life is to be enjoyed and shared with others, and it is never too late to do new things. This is certainly true of my yoga and walking friends. By 2019, I felt that a series of cross stitch designs was needed, and Peter Underhill was the man to do them!

I phoned Peter and ran the idea past him. He was most enthusiastic, and we made plans. My staff were keen on the idea too, and ideas for design names ‘flowed’ out of us all, but first we had to develop the characters. We decided to start with an elderly couple and their dog, and later they would have friends who would come into the designs. Peter started sketching, and very soon I received pages of drawings by email. They were amazing – how Peter could draw these characters so quickly and with such detail is beyond me. He is so talented. 

One lady caught my eye as she reminded me of my Auntie Betty. She was to be one half of our elderly couple and quickly a gentleman was chosen to be the other half. He was Norman. We gave them names to make things easier for us, but no doubt stitchers will give them their own choice of names. Peter needed to make drawings of Betty and Norman from all angles so that they became ‘real’ characters, and, again, he did this very quickly. The dog, whom we called Monty, appeared, and we all loved him straight away.

Next we had to choose the first designs, which we decided to launch at the trade show in February 2020. There was not much time, but I needed to have something to work on over Christmas, which I find a very difficult time, and these designs would certainly keep me busy.

We decided to start with ‘You are my Sunshine on a Rainy Day’, showing Betty, Norman and Monty sharing an umbrella. Peter came up with the sketch which we approved, but we did ask him to make the dog like the one in another sketch.

Now it was colour. Peter produced three colour choices for us. His email accompanying them said: ‘We had a power cut earlier and I did the lettering by torchlight. There's dedication!’ He ‘played around’ with colours digitally before doing any proper brushwork. We printed out the three choices and all the staff, and unsuspecting visitors, voted on them. Here is Peter’s finished painting which I received on 12th December.

From sketches to first design had taken about two weeks! The next day, 13th December, I received ‘Together Forever’ with two colour choices and on 19th December I received ‘The Two of Us’. All were approved and it was now over to me to put the designs into cross stitch and stitch them. I had three to get on with over Christmas!

Before I could start, we needed to decide on the sizes of these new designs. We decided that they would be worked on white 14 count aida and contain whole crosses only. This done, the pictures were printed out at the correct size for me to work on. The Christmas break started on December 24th, and I had interesting work to do! 

I use the software which my husband, Ian, wrote for me over thirty years ago. I love using it as it does exactly what I want! I use an old DOS computer and an old printer, both of which have to go on forever as I don’t want to use any other software (I’ve tried and don’t like it!). Perhaps when they give up it will be time for me to give up too! 

It probably only took me a day to produce ‘My Sunshine’ and it was a very enjoyable task. The stitching takes a lot longer.

I always stitch the designs I do, whether they are my own designs or conversions such as these. In this way, as well as making sure that the colours work, I can tweak bits of outlining to make it easier. The first job is choosing the colours. I work with DMC stranded cottons and have the whole range to choose from. For this I need natural light which I get in my north facing conservatory, which is my stitching room. I do spend quite a lot of time choosing the colours, but it is not until you start to stitch that you can see how they really go together. I frequently blend the threads, mixing one strand of one colour with one of another to get the effect I want. By doing this I achieved ‘tweedy’ looks for Norman’s jacket and Betty’s coat. Monty had a blue grey mixed with a dark grey to make his coat look ‘real’.

I loved stitching this design, but I did have to make one or two fresh starts to make sure that the colours were right. Then I found it very satisfying and enjoyable work. I did have a few problems! My three cats like to ‘help’ by sitting on the charts and paperwork and purring. I can’t move them, can I? I just have to have a little break then and stretch my legs, which is probably a good idea anyway. The cats usually follow me, so I have my charts back!

Peter was working throughout Christmas too, so we were constantly in touch by phone and email. I sent him photos of my work and he sent his approval. It was so nice to have this contact.

When the design was stitched I put the changes I had made while stitching onto the computer, and printed out the finished charts. I always keep a record of how much thread I use as I am stitching, and Ian’s software does this too, adding a few strands of cotton for safety. The computer lists the colours and quantities of thread which will be used to generate the thread cards.

The next design was ‘Together Forever’, a beautiful design of our couple, with their dog, sitting on a bench. Peter wanted to keep the bench simple – to be almost a suggestion of a bench, and for this I used two strands of black cotton which worked perfectly. Again the stitching of this design was a treat, and Peter and I enjoyed ‘talking’ about it as I stitched it.

I had finished two ‘Golden Years’ and was ready to start the next – ‘The Two of Us’, showing Norman walking with Monty, who is interested in a butterfly. Don’t worry, Betty is still around, she just decided to stay at home!

I didn’t quite finish ‘The Two of us’ before work started again, but I think two and a half designs finished in nine days is pretty good going. They certainly made my Christmas ‘bearable’!

Back at work everyone was most enthusiastic about ‘Golden Years. These were the first designs where all the staff were in agreement. We just hoped that stitchers and retailers would like them too!

After ‘The Two of Us’ was ‘Tea for Two’, which, again, I loved converting and stitching. The little cakes worked so well, as did using two strands of black for the table and chairs.

The fifth design was ‘Golden Years’, which Peter designed as the collection’s logo.

Paula stretched the finished work, and everything went to Daz, who is our ‘graphics man’. Daz scanned the designs and then ‘colour matched’ to get the colours to print out as close as possible to the real thing. This always takes a long time as it is a very sensitive thing to do. The images went straight to Jon, who was designing our new catalogue, and ‘Golden Years’ made the first page with a bit of time to spare before the catalogue had to go to the printers.

Daz’s job is to produce the kit fronts, the charts and the thread cards. First he has to take my charts into software which he uses to generate the finished charts. The charts have the colour key and other information, as well as the charts themselves, and these are printed out next and checked. There are cross stitch charts and outlining charts and our checking process is very thorough and takes a long time. Every stitch, outline, symbol and colour description is checked, and this is done by Paula, Chris and at least one other person, often me. Any mistakes are corrected by Daz and the finished charts are printed. The thread cards are printed, cut, and holes punched on our pneumatic punch. We then puts up boxes for our outworkers who put the threads onto the cards. These usually take about a week, during which time Daz designs and prints the kit fronts.

Everything is put together by our production team, Chris and Lyn, who make up the kits, and Janet who cuts the fabric. The kits go into stock.

Our finance manager, Kirsten, works out the price of the kits which is based on the cost of the fabric and threads and the time it takes the staff to produce the kits. Kirsten produces new price lists, and our office manjager, Trudy, enters the kit details into her computer ready to go onto invoices when we get orders.

We are now ready to tell people about our new designs. Jon puts them on our website and on advertisements, and Paula sends information to the editors of magazines and Trudy informs our distributors around the world. I write email ‘newsletters’ which I send to retailers, and also to Heritage Scene members.

‘Golden Years’ made the Trade Show, and much to our relief they were loved by the retailers who came to our stand, as well as by editors of cross stitch magazines, who also came to see us.

 

I hope you enjoyed this insight into the design and production of this range. It's now five years later, and the Golden Years range has gone from strength to strength, with new designs added regularly. You can see them all by clicking here!