Sign up for our newsletter

Sunny (!) summer stitching

It's hard to believe that only a week ago we were basking in the sunshine! On one sunny morning I managed to grab a few hours to head down to the Contemporary Craft Fair at Bovey Tracey in Devon. The show is set up in marquees in a field so is totally dependent on good weather. And good weather they had, in fact it was roasting on the day we visited and we wondered how the exhibitors would cope with the heat! The rain has set in now, but we will stay optimisic and feel sure that more sunshine is on its way.

At this time of year the light is wonderful for stitching, so at least if it continues to pour down you can make a head start on some 'end of year' stitching. I do try not to mention the December 25th event too much, but it''s a fact that many of you stitch Christmas stockings all year round, so I'm not alone with having Christmas on my mind. We have just brought out Santa Christmas stocking, a new addition to our smaller shaped stockings to accompany Dreaming of Christmas, Noah's Christmas and Puppies Christmas Stocking. We are working on another one in the larger shape...watch this space!

The latest news on our blog

All of our new designs can be seen on our blog, so please just click through on the link above to see them. We occasionally run competitions and giveaways and put the details of those on our blog too, and link it with our Facebook updates. We have also started putting together our next catalogue, never an easy task!  

Making Up Service

Our making up service continues to grow, so much so that we have just taken on two new helpers specifically to help with the making up of your Christmas Stockings.

If you have tapestries any lurking in a cupboard, do give us a call and we will advise on fabrics, colours... anything you need to know! Our skilled upholsterers (we used to say 'ladies' but we now have Lee, a young man, in our team) are adept at turning finished work - however wonky! - into a masterpiece. If you have something ready to send in do have a peep the Making Up Service page (click through on the left) for more information and prices. The gallery in the drop down menu will inspire you, with lots of examples of recent making up. 

Facebook and Twitter

We are really enjoying our Facebook page and the opportunities it provides to share with you all the goings on in our workshop. The star of the show is usually Flik, our Jack Russell. He does have a way of getting in front of the camera, and whines if we don't take regular pictures of him. We've created some helpful albums on Facebook, giving you more pictures to look at from our workshop and showing making up options and fabric colour combinations for many of our kits. If you click the 'f' button above you can have a look. Once there you need to go to our 'Pictures' area, and then within that you'll find the 'Albums'. Some Albums feature individual designs such as 'Super Seaside Samplers', and others are grouped by theme such as 'Hearty Party'.

We're also on Twitter, where I'm @mrsjollyred so again please do take a look if it's your sort of thing...and if it's not, don't worry we'll keep you updated via our email newsletters. Speaking of which...

Sign up for our newsletter

We do like to keep in touch if and if you are on our email mailing list you should have started to receive our new style newsletters. We spent the early part of this year working on installing a new system which will enable us to send out more regular newsletters and they will look much more professional too.  We'll be able to let you know about new designs, competitions and let you in on more secret discount codes. We still won't bombard you, and of course we will never pass your names on to any other companies. 

If you woulld like to receive our newsletter please put your name and email address in the relevant boxes on our home page and that's it, you'll be on the mailing list for the next one. Thank you and welcome!

A Big Thank You...

... to you all for your continued support for and loyalty to Jolly Red, not only with your orders but also with your emails, messages, letters and phonecalls too. We are so lucky to have customers who communicate so freely with us - thank you, we appreciate all of your comments, and even design suggestions...

As always, we look forward to hearing from you - and to seeing you if you are in Somerset. Visitors are always welcome at our workshop. You can come and see where the kits get put together in our lovely wool room, marvel at the cottons wonderful colours of the stranded cottons on cone, and last but not least you can stroke the friendliest Jack Russell in the county. Please do call first if you can as sometimes we are very busy and you might not be able to get in for piles of boxes!

With all best wishes,

Kelly

Kelly Fletcher

Designer, Jolly Red

Somerset Art Weeks 2013

We love Somerset Art Weeks!! There is just one small problem and that is that the two week long celebration of visual art in Somerset coincides with one of the busiest times of the year here at Jolly Red.

This year we have decided to become involved in the Arts Weeks events ourselves, and will be open throughout the day from 10am - 5pm on the Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays of the Art Weeks which run from 21st September - 6th October. We will be running mini tapestry lessons and inviting people to bring in tapestries that they are working on. We are already very excited about this, as so many of our visitors can't believe that there is a little tapestry treasure trove right on their doorstep. We look forward to welcoming many more stitchers! If you will be on holiday or driving past on the M5 or A303 on one of these dates please do drop in for a cup of tea or coffee. 

For the last two years we have helped to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support as part of their World's Biggest Coffee Morning. This year the Coffee Morning takes place on 27th September - right in the middle of Art Weeks - so I think we may have to take a break from it this year. With Somerset Art Weeks, and our own 20th Anniversary celebrations - and a new catalogue - it's hard to see how we can fit anything else in!