Wellington mum of 2 Sarah Ashford is celebrating success after striking a deal with the Home Bargains store chain to sell her crafts range across all 400 UK stores.

Sarah has had a life long passion for needlework. She took up cross-stitch at 8 years of age, before learning crochet, sewing and quilting. Ms Ashford has authored two books and writes for magazines on the subject. A self-described 'life-long learner', Sarah has travelled the world to develop her vocation.

Now Sarah is celebrating her biggest win yet as an enormous 40-strong product range bearing her face and name on the packaging goes on sale across the country.

Sarah Ashford has has invested a lifetime of experience in needlework into developing the Home Bargains range
Sarah Ashford has has invested a lifetime of experience in needlework into developing the Home Bargains range (Home Bargains)

Sarah said: "It's amazing, because I’ve got my face on lots of the products, it was a real honour to be asked, I’m so passionate about sewing and quilting. I love what I do I’ve been doing it since I was a little girl and I’ve made a career of it; it was a real honour to work with Home Bargains on this collection.

They listened to what I had to say, we talked about branding and colours – I feel it really reflects me as a person and what I do. It’s just fantastic."

The Sarah Ashford range covers many aspects of needlework and crafts, with products available for beginners through to more experienced needleworkers. Sarah hopes her more accessible products will get people into the hobby. She said:

"Working with Home Bargains we knew that we wanted to have cohesive range withs strong branding across all of it with something to appeal to beginner quilters and children but also the more experienced sewers and quilters as well.  For example, with the cross stitch kits, we have these little wooden ones which are for the children and we’ve got these more advanced projects. The idea was to make the range affordable and easy to get started because a lot of Home Bargains customers might have never done a creative pursuit like this before."

A thread box set, one of 40 products in Sarah's new range
A thread box set, one of 40 products in Sarah's new range (Home Bargains)

Sarah enjoys a large following on social media, with over 12,000 followers on Instagram alone. After becoming aware of Sarah and her work, Home Bargains approached her to develop and launch the product range.

"Home Bargains came to me, they had seen my work and heard about me and they thought my brand was the right fit for what they were trying to achieve. They did already sell some craft and sewing products but not a lot and they wanted to extend the range.  Instagram has formed a big part of what I do, I’ve got 12.4 k followers and growing, hopefully. Instagram is fantastic because it is a visual portfolio of your work and I keep my feed strictly to sewing and quilted related content. I’ve been doing that for quite some years now. There’s a big online community of quilters, sewers and tactile artists and that’s something that I’m part of."

Sarah lives in Wellington with her husband, 2 children and a Maltese cross miniature poodle named Leo. Neither of Sarah's children have taken up sewing as a hobby, instead they are both keen hockey players. Considering if sewing was going out of fashion Sarah remains optimistic:

"Hockey is their passion but maybe one day they’ll return to doing some sewing. I think there’s a big resurgence in sewing. Sewing and quilting are really are taking a different turn. It's not just musty colours and quilts that hang in museums it can be all about making a statement. There’s so much scope for quilting to be so much more than sewing a few bits of fabric together."

These funky tropical brush holders will go on sale along with the other 39 products in Sarah's range
These funky tropical brush holders will go on sale along with the other 39 products in Sarah's range (Home Bargains)

Sarah was keen to explain that needlework can be beneficial for a person's mental health, and that it's a great activity to socialise around, saying: "One thing that’s important to me is sewing for mental health and sewing for mindfulness.

I think the benefits are really great. You’re doing something mindful and purposeful and learning new skills when you’ve made something even if it's not perfect its something to be proud of. I’ve run a lot of sewing groups in the past and found it brings people together. I’m really keen to promote the mental health benefits of stitching"

Sarah had a message for anyone tempted to get into the hobby, she said: "The range is really affordable and there’s something for everybody. Don’t be afraid tot give it a try, it's better to give it a go than not. It could be the start of a whole new hobby for somebody."