How it Started…
Michele originally formed the business to combine her love of antique needlework and social history, by reproducing her extensive collection of antique samplers. Unable to find suitable linen locally, and unwilling to “re-import” European linen back into Europe, she started importing the linen from Italy and Germany herself, and hand-dying it, to suit each individual sampler. Tabbycat Hand-dyed Linens was formed, and now proudly supplies and dyes linen for other sampler design studios.
A Feline Family Business…
The studios of Tabbycat Hand-dyed Linen and Reproduction Samplers (formally Mill on the Floss Samplers) sit in the beautiful countryside of Normandy; about 1 hour south of the famous Normandy Beaches and the equally famous Bayeax Tapestry, and 45 minutes to the east of Mont St Michel. Michele and her husband (and linen cutter) Max, live in a granite farmhouse, loving known as “Bonkers Farm” because of its quirky layout, with their 6 tabby cats, an ever increasing flock of hens and their cockeral, Boris.
Recently, their fur family increased, when a local stray, now called Hermione, took up residence in one of the barns and had her litter of three. Charlie, Ronnie and Reggie, must be the most spoilt stray cats ever, with duvets, a heat lamp, and hot water bottles (I kid you not!)
