The Family business of it all
Tell someone you are about to start a business with your sister and watch what happens. The eyebrows go up. The advice arrives uninvited. Never mix business and family, they say, like it is a law of nature.
Natasha and Alonsa would like to lovingly, respectfully, and very firmly disagree.
In this episode of Oh, Stitch, the sisters behind Georgie & Lottie get personal about what it actually looks like to build something with someone you have loved your whole life. The good parts, the complicated parts, and the parts that make the whole thing worth it.
First, Their WIPs
Before any heart-to-heart, there is always The Current Stitch. Alonsa is working on the newest member of the Georgie & Lottie topiary family, a lemon topiary on 13 mesh, complete with a soft purpley blue pot and six cheerful lemons. If you are new here, a topiary turns up in nearly every drop, because the sisters are devoted topiary people.
Natasha, meanwhile, is wrestling with a bargain. She picked up a pre-finished canvas from the Jonathan Adler collaboration at Michaels, color swapped the original black and white into a pale blue and navy, and learned a lesson along the way. At twenty dollars, the canvas is exactly as inexpensive as it sounds, and it snags her silk thread at every turn. She is determined to finish it anyway.
The happier news is her latest finish, a darling little dirty martini canvas with two olives that she beaded herself, her very first time beading. Alonsa finished it with green and cream cording and a Very Velvet bow, and it is the kind of piece that was made to live on a bar cart or arrive as a hostess gift wrapped around a bottle. A few dirty martinis are still available on the website, for the record.
The opinion they refuse to accept
Here is the thing everyone says: never mix business and family. Natasha and Alonsa hear it constantly, and they are not buying it.
For them, building Georgie & Lottie together has been one of the great joys, and they have a theory about why it works. They balance each other out. Alonsa is the artistic side, the creative queen who designs and paints the canvases. Natasha runs the business side, the website, the social media, the product photography (a skill from her thirteen-plus years behind the camera), and the ordering. Sometimes the ordering goes perfectly. Sometimes a person accidentally orders an entire batch of Milan thread, and a few new designs quietly get built around those colors. And, yes, this really happened.
They are quick to say it is not all seamless. Their communication system needs work, mostly because business decisions tend to get buried in a text thread that is also full of kids, parents, and everything in between. Alonsa is a happy procrastinator. Natasha is type A and wants it done now. But because they are sisters, they can be honest with each other in a way that is hard to be with anyone else, and somehow a disagreement has never become a fight. Ask them again in a year, they say. Maybe by then they will even have systems.
A sister edition of the newlywed game
For Off the Frame, the sisters turned the mic on each other with a newlywed-game style quiz, guessing each other's answers in real time.
A few highlights: Alonsa’s dream canvas according to Natasha? She’s certain it would be one of Alonsa's own paintings, turned into a pillow. And Alonsa says Natasha’s would for sure be Taylor Swift lyric. Alonsa's go-to drink is a gin dirty martini, while Natasha is firmly in the mocktail, iced tea, and newly beloved London fog camp. A perfect Tuesday night means a home-cooked dinner with her boys and an early bedtime with Lottie for Alonsa, and a later Pilates class, a sauna, takeout, and a little Law and Order for Natasha.
And their most iconic qualities? Alonsa is the friend who makes everyone feel like her best friend. Natasha has grown into someone who speaks her mind with kindness and a lot more zen than she used to have. Two very different people, which is exactly the point.
Before you go
A quick reminder that restocks are live in the shop right now. If something you love happens to be sold out, the waitlist is the move. It tells the sisters what to reorder, and you will be the first to know the moment it is back.
Special Offer
Use code OHSTITCH10 for 10% off your first order at georgieandlottie.com.
Georgie and Lottie Products Mentioned
Little Dirty Martin: georgieandlottie.com/shop/p/darling-im-a-stitch-queen-project-bag
Lemon Topiary georgieandlottie.com/shop/p/needlepoint-rescue-kit
Links Mentioned
Beginner Needlepoint Video Playlist: georgieandlottie.com/playlist