We’ve just passed that much-queried date on the tapestry calendar, the last date for UK tapestries to be sent to our making up service and arrive back home in time for Christmas. If you’re reading this and aren’t quite sure about the deadline date, we’re afraid you’ve just missed it – sorry!
This year has been a stitching year unlike any other. For many people, extra time at home has given them the opportunity to rekindle a passion for crafts that they may not have indulged since their school days.
We anticipate another busy year in 2021 so next year’s deadline dates – UK and overseas – will be slightly earlier. Here they are, but they are not set in stone and may have to be tweaked so please do call us or check here on our blog to avoid disappointment:
UK making up deadline 2021: 15th October.
Overseas deadline 2021: 1st October. This is the date that a tapestry that will need to reach us if it will go (after making up) to an address outside the UK. UK stitchers, please note that the October 1st date applies to your tapestry too if you’ll be posting it as a gift to friends of family overseas or if you’d like us to forward it on your behalf.
Please make a note of the dates, and sign up for our newsletter updates in case we have to change them next year, either because there are more canvases coming in than we can manage, or for other reasons beyond our control.
Let’s have a look at some of the tapestries we’ve seen in recent months in the workshop. We always enjoy seeing our designs together and the Bloom series has been incredibly popular. Below, from the front we have Ba-Ba-Birds, Ba-Ba-Bloom and Ditsy Daisies.
All fun kits to stitch, and ready to claim their space on a grey sofa near you!
2021 is set to be a baby boom year, so we’ll be seeing a lot more new baby tapestries in the years ahead!
Here, clockwise from top right we have Alphabet Cats and Dogs, A-Z Boys, ABC 123, another Alphabet Cats and Dogs, and Sophie’s Butterflies Sampler.
Another gorgeous group: Bloom-Pah-Pah and Summer Patchwork at the back, with a Hearts Red, White and Blue printed canvas in the front, stitched in a palette of lovely dusky colours.
Christmas stockings As you can imagine, we have a lot of Christmas stockings to make up. These bring with them their own extra pressure as we are well aware that the recipients would like them back before December if possible. And we know most of them are made for children, and Christmas is such a special time for them.
Thank you to everyone who sent in completed stockings throughout the year, as spreading the work out really helps us to manage the logistics, both at our end with the canvas stretching and sewing and with our suppliers.
This year our fabric suppliers have struggled to maintain production as they’ve struggled with furloughed employees, social distancing rules in the workplace, and were also in some cases providing fabric for the NHS earlier in the year.
We carried out a tentative adding up of the stockings earlier this week, and let’s just say there are a lot. Even working flat out we’ll be lucky to get them back by the middle of December but that’s what we’re aiming for – sooner if we can as we understand that families may not be able to meet up this year, so stockings will need to be posted.
We hope you have some relaxing stitching planned for the dark evenings ahead.
With all best wishes to you and your family and friends,
Kelly and the Jolly Red ladies x
PS We don’t have time to change our special offer kits very often, but do take a look every now and then as we might surprise you!
