It’s early to be thinking about next year, but I’m launching my 2024 daily stitching template now for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, we have accepted an unexpectedly prompt offer on our house, so it looks like we will be moving at some point in the next few months. I will need to close the shop temporarily when that happens, possibly at short notice. If we end up moving during the weeks directly preceding the start of January then the templates may be unavailable for a time.
Secondly, there is some optional preparation for next year’s template. You can either work one month at a time and add on each following month’s template as you go, or you can do some cutting and sticking to make one large template for the whole year, as I have done. Full instructions for this, including diagrams, are in the PDF.
I stitched a little sample just to see how it might look. It’s intended to be a kind of aerial map, a landscape seen from above. The whole thing will be about 30-31″ square or so. It’s about mapping the days to create a visual record of time passing, and thinking about the seeds we sow, the harvests we reap, and the paths we travel through the year.
You can stitch field boundaries in whipped running stitch, or you can couch textured yarns and threads around each block to create something that might represent hedgerows or stone walls.
And of course you don’t need to use it for daily stitching at all; you could just make a stitched sampler if you’re feeling ambitious or in need of a challenge. You can add paths, lanes, rivers, mountains – whatever you like. (If you’re new to daily stitching, you might be interested in my online course here.)
It’s exactly the same as life, really. It can look unmanageable when you imagine the bigger picture but somehow we get up every morning and work our way through each day, just to keep going. We always get somewhere in the end, even if it’s not where we initially intended.
So here’s to new beginnings just beyond the horizon.
Congratulations (and fasten your seatbelt…🙂)
ha, yes, it could be a bumpy roller coaster ride… though we’re hoping for a nice smooth cruise…
Good luck with the move – hope it all goes well !
very early stages so far – anything could happen! – but thank you, I hope so too 🙂
Great news about selling your house, enjoy the process no matter how bumpy it gets in the end it will all be worth the crazy ride. I love the new 2024 idea, I am preparing my own monthly projects for 2024, it will be here before we know it. I have several online shops and from mid September till late January I barely have time to catch my breath.
ha yes we’re strapped in and ready for all the ups and downs of house moves… good luck with the forthcoming busy times
I hope the move goes well – these things can be a bit of an Adventure at times!
yes, I guess we need to be prepared for anything. Hoping for nothing too challenging!
such a good problem to have … wishing you smooth sailing with all that moving entails …
and congratulations on creating a wonderful template for 2024
thanks so much, Liz. Hoping to have a new year and new start in a new home, but we’ll see how many times that plan can go wrong 😆
That totally says England from the air to me..you nailed it. Good luck with the move.
thanks so much, Bernie 🙂
Best of luck with the move Karen.
thanks so much, Catherine. Got everything crossed 🙂