Hello! We’re here today with an update about our Brighter Days Daffodils tapestry, a special design that we’ve created as a fundraiser for the people of Ukraine.
We were keen to do something to help in however small a way but at first we weren’t sure quite what to do. We considered holding a raffle of some sort, but our instinct is that Jolly Redders like to show their support by stitching. We were right about that! In the first week of the launch of Brighter Days Daffodils your enthusiasm for stitching for a good cause enabled us to donate an amazing £860 to the Disasters Emergency Committee. With Gift Aid the DEC will be able to claim a further £215 on this donation.*
Thank you all, and very well done!
This is a brilliant start. We have received a second delivery of canvases and more wool is on its way. We’ll keep making up our Brighter Days Daffodils tapestry kits for as long as you want us to, and will continue to donate £10 from the sale of each of these kits to the Disasters Emergency Committee.
For those of you who enjoy hearing about the background to a new tapestry, this was my work table on 12th March. In front of me was an assortment of blue and yellow wool to try out together for sky and daffodil colours. Time to start work!
Why daffodils? Daffodils were the natural choice of subject matter for our fundraising design. In early spring, daffodils brighten up our gardens and roadsides and pop up in cheery clumps just about everywhere. They are such a welcome sight after the grey winter months. They are a sign of optimism…there are brighter days ahead.
I settled on my colours, using Anchor 8672 as the background blue. I was almost half way through stitching the daffodils when I had a sudden panic and thought that the blue background should be more of a bluey blue. I didn’t really want to start again and change the blue because by now I’d let our Facebook friends know what I was working on and they were keen to show their support once the new kit was available. I didn’t want to unpick any stitching either, who does?!
The solution is to offer a choice of two blues for the background in the kit, and we’ll come to that later.
After a very intense couple of weeks, our Brighter Days Daffodils tapestry kit was ready to be be put up on our website, and we could start packing and posting kits. Don’t they look great! We even created the packaging labels ourselves because we knew there’d be a delay if we used our printers.
This was our first packing day, March 26th. Very exciting! Having now sold almost 100 kits we know the wool shades and quantities off by heart!
Which background blue for your Brighter Days Daffodils? We mentioned earlier that you have the option of two different blues for the background blue of the daffodils. In the picture below the blue wool on the left is Anchor 8672, the same shade that we used for our own Daffodils. We love this colour but some of you may prefer a blue which is less turquoisey so we are happy to swap it for the shade on the right in the picture – 8644 – if you would prefer it.
How do I do that? Simply let us know in the notes when you order your kit that you’d like the bluer blue, or even put ‘8644 blue please’ and we’ll take care of it. If you’ll be calling us on 01460 281111 to order, just let us know and we’ll make a note of it.
Offering the choice of two shades of blue has helped us because we started to get low of shade 8672 quite quickly when we were packing. We have lots more wool on the way – in both blues – and a second batch of canvases has arrived, so we’ll be able to make up a good stock of Brighter Days Daffodils kits.
We can’t wait to see what you do with your tapestries! Will you make yours into a specs case or a cushion? We include an alphabet chart with each kit so you can add lettering in the blue sky area.
Making up service Our sewing ladies will be glad to help if you’d rather stitch your tapestry but send it to us for our making up service to guarantee a professional finish. Give us a call if you need to see any fabric samples, or to have a quick chat before posting.
Our own cushion, above Janine made our own Brighter Days Daffodils tapestry into a cushion with a 3″ border in soft cotton code Chelsea SC10. We used Primrose JRCY01 for piping, and the backing was in the Chelsea. There are lots of colours you could choose, in our cotton, woolly and velvet fabric ranges.
Thank you so much to everyone who has ordered a Brighter Days Daffodils kit, and by doing so has enabled us to donate to the DEC. We have started a Brighter Days Daffodils album on Jolly Red’s Facebook page and will update with news of further donations.
Take care, and happy stitching!
Kelly x
*Fundraising Update We made another donation to the DEC on 15th April bringing our total in donations so far to £1130, and the DEC will be able to claim a further 25% through Gift Aid.
Update June 2022 We have now made a total of just over £2000 in donations, and the DEC will be able to claim a further 25% through Gift Aid. Absolutely brilliant, please do spread the word among your stitchy friends!
PS Remember to sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear about new designs – and we’d love to say hello on Facebook and Instagram too! If you’d like to show us how you’re getting on with your Daffodils or other Jolly Red tapestry please use #jollyred. Thank you!
