Our new Conkers tapestry kit will transport you to happy times of autumnal woodland walks, days with clear skies, bright sunshine, and crisp leaves underfoot.
We moved from Bristol to South Somerset in the early 1990s and the village we were lucky enough to find ourselves in had a fantastic horse chestnut tree by the village green. Our boys loved playing there, gathering up conkers and taking them home. That village conker tree was no doubt (and still is!) the reason that many children arrived home late on their walk back from school, with the conkers exerting an irresistible pull as they passed by.
There’s something special about conkers and even as adults it’s hard for us to resist the urge to pick up a nice shiny conker when we spot one among fallen leaves.
For a while now, I’ve wanted to create another design to accompany Magic Circles and Whirligigs. Each of these tapestries is popular with Jolly Redders and there’s something about circles that makes them very appealing to stitch, particularly Jolly Red circles as we like them to be a bit wonky with no two the same!
The challenge I set myself was to create another ‘circles’ design, but without the grid background of Magic Circles and Whirligigs, and I didn’t want it to be entirely abstract. Bubbles? No. Big polka dots? No. Conkers provided the perfect subject matter so I started to allow time for extra detours on my way home from the workshop to stop by the old conker tree and collect its treasure, taking care to leave plenty behind for the local schoolchildren.
I do hope you like the new Conkers. As with Magic Circles and Whirligigs, the ‘circles’ are all a bit different and unsymmetrical which makes them easier on the eye and more relaxing to stitch.
A Conkers cushion like ours below which we made up with a wide fabric border could quite happily find a space on your sofa…but at the same time it gets me to wondering, do you think we need a larger version of Conkers, a 16″ x 16″ design?
Conkers is a great new addition to our growing range of needlepoint tapestry specs case designs, another option to consider if you’ve already stitched several. A handmade specs cases is a thoughtful and useful gift. Most people wear glasses of some description even if only for part of the day, and would appreciate their own spectacles receptacle!
Top gift-buying tip If you’re thinking of buying a kit for someone who is new to tapestry or who perhaps doesn’t have the time to stitch a cushion-sized design, a specs case design is an ideal small project.
Below from the left we have: Dachshund Stripes and Dachshunds Blue, Whirligigs, Conkers, Birds in a Tree, Brighter Days Daffodils, Jolly Campervans, Jolly Jack Russells and Pigs and Piglets, These and others are in the specs case designs category on our website.
New recyclable packaging In other news, we have just taken delivery of our new and fully recyclable red packaging bags for our smaller sized kits, eg the specs case designs.
The new red bags are made with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved paper, and have woven paper handles in place of the older style cotton rope handles. We are excited that Conkers will be among the first of our tapestry kits to find their way into these bags.
As soon as we can, we’ll be applying the same changes to our larger tapestry kit bags but we still have quite a lot of those to work our way through.
Thank you for reading, and for getting this far if you have! We wish you well in these busy pre-Christmas weeks, and hope that you’ll enjoy some moments of quiet time amid the festive hustle and bustle.
We’ll be in the workshop a lot over the next few weeks, so call us on 01460 281111 if you’d like to talk to us or order over the phone. Out of hours you can fill in our contact form and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.
Best wishes as always,
Kelly
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