Hello, and three cheers for autumn! The colours, the sunsets, the crisp leaves and cooler temperatures. Dogs on the beach, bright skies, stormy skies, we love it all. It is also tapestry season so we’re here with an update on life in our Somerset workshop.
2025 has been a productive year for new Jolly Red tapestry kits, some of which you’ll see here. We are enjoying using Appletons wool in our kits, and getting used to exciting new colour palettes.
Our move from Anchor to Appletons wool has provided an opportunity for us to broaden our kit range as we explore new colour combinations. We’re also refreshing some of our popular designs, which we know some of you already appreciate. You may not feel inclined to stitch the same design twice, yet family members have a habit of requesting a tapestry that they have seen you stitching!
Shangri-La Elephants is a new and updated version of our original Indian Elephants. Celestial Circles replaces Magic Circles, and is a lovely design to stitch from our complete kit with printed canvas and Appletons wool or buy the printed canvas minus the wool and stitch in your own colours.
We all love dogs, and many of our stitchers do too. We’ve enjoyed adding new dog designs to our range. We were delighted when Dizzy Dogs was featured in Country Life magazine in September.
Dizzy Dogs also has a smaller version, Dogs on the Beach, which can be used as a panel in a larger cushion, or made into a specs case.
We have embraced the pastel shades of Appletons wool with a new seaside-themed tapestry, Alphabet Seaside. We really like the variety of teal greens available.
We had great fun with the bright colours in the Appletons wool range when creating Cats Jumping over the Moon and Festive Fairytale.
How is the canvas converage with the new wool? Appletons has a very different feel to Anchor. I’ve been stitching with it for a year now, and I love it.
It provides good coverage on the two types of Zweigart cotton tapestry canvas that we use for the vast majority of Jolly Red kits. The first is our 10 holes per inch double thread for our large cushion-sized designs. Here’s a detail from the canvas of our new Festive Fairytale Christmas stocking.
The other canvas we use is also a Zweigart cotton canvas, 12 holes per inch. We mostly use this canvas for our smaller kits as it allows us to get more detail into the designs. Here’s a detail from our Regal Robins, one of our small designs that can be made into a cushion or a specs case.
We have lots of new designs planned for the coming year and will have two ready to share with you before Christmas.
Remember to sign up to our tapestry talk email newsletters to keep updated with our latest new tapestry kits. You can sign up on our contact page where you can also send us a message about a kit you’re stitching, ask about one you’d like to buy or perhaps which size frame you need, or let us know if you would like to come and visit us in our Somerset workshop.
Happy stitching. Stay cosy!
Kelly x
