One day Pippa Haynes was working on a casual basis as a florist when she had an epiphany.The flowers were so beautiful, each one its own perfect world, that she started to think how she could recreate them in three-dimensional stitch, keeping their transient beauty alive. She had seen a couple of examples on Instagram and was living in Islington, London, a borough with a thriving creative culture, when she discovered a local haberdashery shop that was a bijou gem, with all that she needed to start stitching.
At the time, she was a jobbing window and editorial set designer, suffering from the last-minute cancellation of jobs, leaving her with little in the kitty. During moments of downtime she started to sew, teaching herself a variety of stitches and learning how they could build together to create the effects she desired.‘Then I got obsessed with it,’ she admits.‘I’ve always been the kind of person who can’t just sit and watch TV, I’m always crocheting or stitching.’ Her apt Instagram tagline is:‘She sews wherever she goes.’ That initial obsession served her well. In the intervening years, Pippa has become the proud proprietor of Lemon Pepper Studio, which sells exquisite stitch kits, all Pippa’s original designs, and the tools and materials you might need.‘I live in the countryside now, close to Salisbury, and I’m married to a farmer. My husband’s family farm is just over the hill. My life is very tied in with nature. When I’m making pieces in my studio I tend to create kits and projects to do with the time of year. I created a crocus kit that came out in the spring and a viola hairpin kit that came out in the summer. Everything is tied to the seasons. My life is literally run by the seasons now.’