 While working as a secretary and raising her first two children, Ashley undertook some development work for the Women's Institute on quilting.Revisiting the craft she had learnt with her grandmother, she began designing headscarves, napkins, table mats and tea-towels which Bernard printed on a machine he had designed in their attic flat at 83 Cambridge Street, Pimlico.The couple had invested £10 in wood for the screen frame, dyes and a few yards of linen.