Karen

Goals

I’ve been making a new planner for next year, trying to encourage myself to be more organised. Last year’s planner got more use than I expected, so I’ll keep it up through 2026.

I use a cardboard template to draw each week-to-view page, and I stuck a bit of old ribbon to the spine to act as a bookmark.

I cheated with the cover and just changed the 5 to a 6

No need to reinvent the wheel or create extra work for myself.

It was a good opportunity to review this year’s goals, the ones I made in January:

2025 goals, made in the naive optimism of January

Well, let’s see how I did.

Don’t work at weekends: Fail. Pretty epic fail, in fact.

Don’t work past 7pm: ditto

Take 4 weeks holiday: Actually I almost made this one. Including the 10 days holiday I WILL take later this month, that will amount to about three and a half weeks for the year. Nearly.

Wednesday afternoons are for CPD (that’s a throwback from my corporate days, Continuing Professional Development) which essentially means throwing some paint/ink/thread around in order to learn something new: Managed that maybe a dozen times over the year at the most. Nowhere near enough.

End of year report: Must try harder!

On the plus side, I’m fairly sure I might win the annual Employee of the Year award. Only because my boss (that’s me) only has one of us to choose from (also me).

Next year I intend to make more use of my neglected YouTube channel, and I may well do more of what I’ve done today – daily stitching in real time, with running commentary.

You can see the making of this one here.

I have a few other goals in mind (as well as repeating those above that I didn’t quite get the hang of) which I’ll share in due course.

For now, I’m starting to wind down and will be officially on holiday from 17th December until about 29th-ish. I’ll be back next week with my last post before the festivities, and in the meantime I hope all your preparations for Christmas and beyond are going well.

Shop news

Just to say last orders for hand-dyed threads and fabric before Christmas is Tuesday 16th December, and that’s for UK orders only now as it’s unlikely that overseas orders will reach you before the festivities.

The shop will re-open for shippable items (hand-dyed fabric and thread) around January 5th. You can still purchase PDF downloads in the meantime. If you’re purchasing a PDF, the email containing the download link will go to the email address you used for the purchase, and that email may go to your spam/junk folder. Please save the download to your device before trying to print it as you may lose access to the link if you try to print it before saving.

I’ll be taking a break from 17th to 31st December, and may not respond to emails in my usual instant manner so please be patient if you have a question or problem with any purchases.

There isn’t much of the year left, and I can see the lower hem of my 2025 daily stitching scroll.

I’ll show the whole thing around new year, when I’ll also be starting my 2026 adventure.

And finally, a reminder that you can now purchase pre-printed fabric for daily stitching via my shop on Spoonflower. Please read through the information on the blog page before purchasing.

Samples of pre-printed fabrics for daily stitching

When you buy from Spoonflower, 90% of your money goes to them. For transparency, I earn a 10% commission on each purchase, but I’m unable to help you with any questions or problems regarding your orders. For help with your printed fabric order please contact the Spoonflower help team and they should be able to assist.

Back later in the week with a little end-of-year reflection.

November 2025 daily stitching

As always, just like that. Time passed, as it does.

A few stitches every day, not knowing in advance what will happen. No plan, no design. Any given moment could bring anything. Just a needle and thread navigating through time and hoping for the best.

I think my favourite this month is that little sprig of red leaves. I don’t know where any of these things come from.

Not many words today.

And not too much of this year left…

A reminder, if you’re embarking on a similar journey next year (and whoa, suddenly that’s next month 😳), that you can find my daily stitching templates here, and you can now purchase pre-printed fabric here. There is also a page here with Stitch Journal FAQs and general information.

Pre-printed fabric for daily stitching

Some quite exciting news.

You can now buy fabric pre-printed with my Intuitive Daily Stitching templates from my print on demand stores. This is something I’ve often been asked for, and finally I’ve been able to work out a way of doing it.

Basically you will need to select the template design that you want, and then select a yard of your preferred fabric to have it printed on. The fabric is then printed especially for you and sent to you directly from the print on demand site. The set of twelve monthly templates is centred on the fabric and is designed to fit one yard, so this is the quantity you will need to purchase.

You can find the options in my Spoonflower shop and my Woven Monkey shop (Spoonflower is based in the US; Woven Monkey is here in the UK). The template files are labelled with years (2022, 2023, 2024, etc) but this is only to reflect the year in which I first stitched them. They all have 365 daily blocks, so every set of templates will work for any year. For leap years you will just need to divide any daily block in two to create the extra day.

For more information about the templates, please visit my Big Cartel shop and read the summaries for the templates you find most appealing. Broadly, they will look something like this when printed on the fabric (you will probably need to zoom in a bit to see them more clearly):

The way most of the templates are arranged on the fabric is four columns and three rows, back and forth, so the pathway through the year works like this:

The 2024 version is rather different in that it’s more of a sprawling map than a formal grid, and you may need the paper templates as well to make sense of that one.

Having the fabric printed this way means that the format of the daily stitching templates will be roughly a square on a square yard of fabric. There isn’t currently a way to print the templates as a long strip, which is what you can opt to do if you transfer the templates onto fabric yourself from my PDFs.

I’ve done daily stitching both ways, as a long strip and as a large square, and I don’t find that one is any easier or more difficult than the other. It’s the same volume of fabric, whether it’s long or square, and you only need to handle the bit you’re currently working on. But something to bear in mind if you think you might find working on a large square piece a bit unwieldy.

If you’re in the UK, my shop on Woven Monkey will be easier and cheaper in terms of postage costs; if you’re in the USA then my Spoonflower shop will probably be better for you. If you’re anywhere else in the world, please check the postage rates to your country for both sites to find the best deal.

If you’re buying the printed fabric from Woven Monkey, I would probably recommend printing the templates on their cotton drill or faux linen.

If you’re buying from Spoonflower, I would suggest their linen cotton canvas will probably give best results.

Please note that you literally just get a yard of printed fabric when you purchase this way; the daily blocks or months are not numbered or labelled, and there are no instructions. If you need the additional supporting information, you can purchase and download the accompanying PDFs here.

If you’re intending to use your completed embroidery as a functional item, you will need to wash your fabric (cool gentle machine or hand wash) before stitching as there will be some slight shrinkage.

There’s a video here showing you some of the options and how it works:

see how it works

If you have any questions about this, or there’s something I didn’t mention, please ask in the comments section below.

Have a lovely weekend.

Preparing for 2026: new Daily Stitching Templates

Halfway through November seems a bit early to be thinking about next year, but really it’s only a few weeks away. I thought now would probably be a good enough time to share my plans for 2026 daily stitching.

Next year I’m returning to the large square format, only because I happened to have a piece of vintage Metis (linen/cotton blend) that is almost exactly the right size and shape for twelve templates in a 4 x 3 configuration (4 columns, 3 rows). I’m also returning to a more linear grid, really just for a change. The last two years have been templates with irregular/wavy lines, and this year the grid lines are straight. No better or worse, just different. If you purchase the PDF, the twelve separate monthly templates are rectangular, so will tessellate either as a long strip (sideways or lengthways) or as a large square(ish) panel like mine. Or indeed as separate pages that you can join together later.

As always, the monthly templates are hand-drawn so the grid is not perfectly regular; some blocks are slightly wider or longer, and there are a few elongated or smaller blocks to accommodate the variation in the number of days in each month.

I worked a practice panel first, just to see. I’ve made it into a simple fold-over clutch bag to keep next year’s daily stitching in.

The simple grid comes with a dozen or so shapes that you can cut out and stick to card, and you can then use them to draw round. This is how I’ve made the circles, hearts, leaf, triangle, star and house shapes in the example above.

Of course you can make up your own grid and/or shapes as well, whatever has meaning for you.

Here’s the back of the clutch-bag-case-carry thing, for an idea of how it might look:

One of the reasons I’m releasing the template earlier than new year is that you might want to do the same kind of preparation that I’m doing. I’m couching decorative yarns along all the gridlines so that the spaces are ready to fill each day, either with stitching or with a shape template.

If you don’t have decorative yarns then you can work whipped running stitch, stem stitch, split stitch, back stitch – or any other kind of outlining stitch, just to mark in the lines. I’ve drawn the lines on my linen with a standard ballpoint pen, which doesn’t show once you’ve covered it with yarn or stitch.

Seeing a whole future year laid out like this is always intriguing. The days look like blank spaces, ready to be filled – some with joy, some with sorrow, others with tragedy or celebration. But of course time isn’t out there waiting for us. We are time, here and now as well as then and when, and our time is recorded on a cloth with needle and thread as it passes.

I’m really looking forward to working with this template, even though time isn’t square and time doesn’t run in straight lines. I’m thinking of each space as looking through a viewfinder, finding a detail in the bigger picture.

If you’re interested enough to follow along and stitch your own, you can buy my daily stitching templates here. You don’t have to use the 2026 template, by the way; any of the templates will work for any year – though if you use the 2024 one, you’ll need to smoosh two blocks together because that was a leap year so has an extra day. All the others will work fairly flexibly.

If you’re new to daily stitching, you might like to take a look at my Intuitive Daily Stitching online course here.

I’m looking forward to a little more happy stitching; I hope you are too.

Shop news

After a very busy few weeks, the shop is about as full as it can be.

I’ve re-stocked a limited quantity of hand-painted chiffon scraps:

There are still some other lovely fabric packs too.

I’ve made some new half-skein Randoms thread collections – these are (broadly) colour-coordinated half skeins from my current thread range, in sets of 8-10. Good for small projects, and good for expanding your thread collection. Because we all need more thread, right?

I’ve curated some cotton threads collections, one of each from my current range of cotton threads:

And I’ve made some really pretty mini-collections of silk threads, one each of silk perle 8, silk perle 12, and fine silk:

Good for secret Santas and stocking fillers, because we probably have to start talking about Christmas.

I’ll be closing my shop around 10th December-ish, only for the holidays and only for tangible items that need posting; PDFs will continue to be available throughout the holiday period. It seems early to be closing, but I really can’t do the whole panic-last-minute rush thing, spending entire afternoons in a queue at the post office, worrying about whether post is going to arrive in time etc. Last date for overseas orders (that’s outside UK) will be around 2nd December – so if you’re not in the UK, you’ve got about three weeks to buy what you need 😱

Three weeks? Better start writing a few lists myself…

Happy shopping! Get in touch if you have any questions about any of the products, and thank you as always for your valued support. I know I couldn’t do any of this without you.

October 2025

The end of October, and the beginning of the long dark winter nights. My favourite time of year.

As always, the time flies.

Many of the daily blocks are outlined with textured yarn – silk or cotton boucle, or cotton slub. I use mainly my own hand-dyed silk and cotton threads for the stitching.

Today’s ghostly grey stripes for Samhain (or Hallowe’en) are in fine silk. Looking at, looking between, looking beyond; sensing the veil between the worlds.

As usual, some daily blocks turned out better than others. That’s life.

None of it matters, really. This is just a visual witness to the passage of time as each day moves to the next. These are moments within the days in my life. Moments arrive and then are gone forever, the present constantly melting into the past before our very eyes.

The other side is almost as interesting.

And the end of the year is in sight:

I’ll be back later in the month with news of the templates for 2026. Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend and happy stitching.

More thread

I have given myself too much to do, as usual. It started as an experiment to see whether I could produce enough hand-dyed thread to sustain a stand at Knit and Stitch in Harrogate next year. It was an idle thought, which I have tested and unfortunately found wanting. The crucial points I hadn’t factored in are that I only have one pair of hands, and there are only twenty-four hours in a day. I haven’t completely given up on the idea, but it will involve a little more rigorous planning and pacing if it’s going to work.

Hey ho. More thread for the shop, then, in the meantime.

There’s a big pile of hanks awaiting winding into skeins:

cotton and silk thread ready for winding

There’s a growing pile of threads that have been wound into skeins and are waiting for labels:

Apologies for the light, by the way – my north-facing room doesn’t get any sun, and the view from my window is mostly trees. Definitely not complaining about any of that, but the light is decidedly blueish at my desk at this time of year.

And finally there’s a smaller pile of threads being labelled:

These are ‘spares’ that will go into Randoms, which will be in the shop (I hope) some time next month. I’m trialling a new labelling system which so far is working quite well. The swing tags get a bit cumbersome in a set of threads, and it can be fiddly to get them all to lie flat when packaging them for posting. These are smaller and flatter and I hope might work a bit better. I sourced some plastic-free sellotape so the labels and tape will be compostable.

I estimate there’s probably another hundred hours or so of winding/labelling/sorting into groups, so this will keep me busy for another couple of weeks at least.

I’ll be back at the end of the month with October’s daily stitching.

Fabric heaven

It’s been a busy week of curating and creating some lovely new fabric scrap packs.

There’s a new selection of black/white/neutral sheer and semi-sheer fabrics for you to layer and/or paint:

This one contains scraps of very sheer nylon chiffon, unusual textured tulles, dress nets and plain tulle, two-tone voile, and black and white printed chiffon that takes paints and inks beautifully. These are synthetic fabrics so they won’t take fibre-reactive dye. I’ve had great success using diluted acrylic inks on these fabrics – the inks are semi-translucent so they don’t interfere with the sheerness of the fabrics, and they’re pretty much colourfast when dry.

There’s a collection of hand-painted fabrics (and I’m especially pleased with this one):

hand-painted chiffon, tulle and other scraps

This one contains paint-dyed synthetic chiffon, painted textured tulle, fine nylon chiffon, hand-dyed cotton scrim and a few snippets of hand-dyed cotton organdie and other tiny scraps. Fabulous for layering, and good for my Stitched Samples for Sketchbooks course, and my Stitch a Little Landscape course too.

And finally, if you like a little luxury in your layered stitching, there’s a collection of hand-dyed silk organza and silk chiffon:

The silk chiffon is ultra-soft and floaty; the organza is stiffer and semi-transparent. This one comes with a couple of yards of hand-dyed/tea-dyed silk ribbon.

hand-dyed silk organza and chiffon scraps

I even made new labels and sourced some compostable cellophane bags to package them in.

These collections are available now while existing stocks last; I don’t plan to restock before Christmas so when they’re gone they’re gone. Still lots of choice in threads too. Just saying.

Overseas news: I’ve now sent a couple of trial packages to the US, one of which has been delivered (it took about a week) and the other is well on its way. The system appears to be working fairly smoothly.

Unfortunately for anyone in Canada, Royal Mail is not currently delivering there due to the postal strike. You can still place an order if you want to, and I will post it when the current troubles have been resolved.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Good news

Good news if you’re in the US.

Royal Mail is now providing an international mail service that replaces the flat fee for US customers and instead charges the 10% tariff at the point of posting. What that means is that all charges and fees are paid up front before your parcel leaves the UK, leaving you nothing further to pay when your parcel is delivered. It also ensures that your parcel clears customs as smoothly as possible. Definitely no $80 fee.

Unfortunately I’ve had to increase the postage costs for US customers, to help cover the cost of the tariff as well as the administration fee that Royal Mail charges for providing the service.

There may be some delays to begin with, until the system becomes familiar and runs more smoothly, so you may want to wait a few weeks or so before placing an order – but you definitely can order again if you want to, and hurrah for that.

In other news, I’m preparing some new sheer fabric collections and have been painting some lovely chiffon and tulle fabrics.

I have some sheer silk fabrics to dye next week and then I’ll have some fun curating an inspirational collection for you.

We’re in for a wet and windy weekend here in the UK, so a comfy chair, a hot chocolate, and a good book may well be on the menu. And some quiet stitching, of course.

Author: Karen

Goals

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Shop news

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November 2025 daily stitching

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Pre-printed fabric for daily stitching

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Preparing for 2026: new Daily Stitching Templates

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Shop news

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October 2025

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More thread

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Fabric heaven

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Good news

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