Mostly small (approximately postcard-sized and smaller) pieces; there are some nice varieties, colours, and textures that will make lots of beautiful little collages.
representative sample
There’s also quite a lot of thread still available, plus some very pretty silk thread sets:
silk thread sets – delicious
I’ll be taking a break next week, so the shop will remain open until 2pm (UK time) this Friday after which it will be closed for a week or so.
Another month, taking us halfway through the year.
It’s a bit of a wobbly video, but here’s how it’s looking so far:
the year so far
Today is a few wild flowers. We don’t call them weeds in our house.
30th June
There have been some very long days, and some very hot days.
long days of June
As always, a few very simple stitches to witness the days passing.
June 2025
It doesn’t need to be complicated. Life is challenging enough without making extra work for yourself.
June, detailJune, detail
July tomorrow, and the second half of the cloth. There is a seam where I had to join two lengths, but you’ll hardly see the join once a bit of stitching covers it.
July ahead
I often look at the blank month ahead and wonder what it will bring. It seems strange to think that this time next month I will know what it brought, and today’s future will become the past. Good job I have a needle and thread to anchor me into the present.
Probably a better descriptor than ‘monochromatic’, since the latter could feasibly be any single colour. You can probably see how much I’m still enjoying my achromatic sketchbook – basically all just black and white, exploring compositions through painting, drawing and collage.
murmuration, pen and watercolour on cotton paper
I’m using two shades of black (ivory black and mars black), white, and buff titanium. I’m also allowing myself a little Payne’s grey and Goethite (a subtle warm sandy colour) here and there – probably a little outside the black and white rule but then I make the rules so I can also break them.
watercolour on soft cotton papercolour palette and pebbles
I gathered together a wide range of substrates when I made this book, including canvas, cotton rag paper, cartridge paper, watercolour paper and handmade papers. Each one takes paint and ink slightly differently, making this sketchbook perfect for all kinds of exploration.
pebbles, painting (left) and collage (right)
I’ve also used plain black india ink here and there.
ink on canvas
And some collage:
collage from magazine papers with textlayered papers with text
There’s some figurative work (or play) too. I like birds. I think the ability to fly would be my superpower if I could choose one.
Raven, coloured pencil on watercolour background Magpie, coloured pencil on watercolour
Something a little looser:
crow, black ink over watercolour
I also created some printed/stamped papers that I’ve stuck in here and there.
watercolour (left) and hand-printed paper (right)
Today I’m looking through some fabrics to make some textile/stitched samples.
black and white fabrics and threads
I’m actually starting to run out of pages, and I can easily see the attraction of a second volume. I would never have expected black and white to be so interesting and engaging. Just proves the value of venturing outside your comfort zone and having a go. I do like a creative adventure.
Recently I wondered what a monochromatic mixed media sketchbook might look like, containing explorations of line and shape but exclusively using tone instead of colour. I figured there was only one way to find out.
black and white sketchbook
I’ve made a sketchbook, about 10″ square, including black and white papers of various thicknesses and textures. It had to have a cover, of course:
sketchbook, front coversketchbook, back cover
I’ve painted some collage papers using only black and white paints and inks.
painted collage papers
Early days, but so far it’s interesting. The absence of colour is making me consider tonal value much more carefully and consciously than I usually would.
black and white sketchbook
The paper you can see in the photo above is very unusual and really beautiful. It has some sort of fibre or yarn embedded in mulberry paper to form those circles.
lovely paper
I included some of my favourite Two Rivers watercolour paper and only used Mars Black watercolour with details in fine drawing pen.
landscape in one shade of black
Most of the other pages are still in progress, and I’ll probably move backwards and forwards between them.
mark-making and hand-printed paper
I guess some things really are black and white or shades of grey.
I’ve been sorting through my fabrics and scraps, and I’ve put together a couple of options that are now available in the shop.
The first is a sheer and semi-sheer/textured fabrics scraps pack that looks a bit like this:
FSH – sheer fabrics scraps pack, example
You can see average contents here:
sheer fabrics collection
The second is a lightweight fabrics selection, mostly hand-dyed, and mostly cotton with some scraps of silk and/or linen:
lightweight fabric scraps, average contents
And one in the making:
lightweight fabrics
Both packs are good for layering, to create little landscapes or stitched samples. I used some of the scraps to create a very long cloth, which I’m starting to explore.
a long landscape
Not sure where this one is going, but it looks like a long road. It’s about 4″ wide by about eight feet.
May always feels like quite a long month to me, but not this year. The days continue to fly by and even though the days are getting longer here in the northern hemisphere, there never seem to be enough hours.
All of May
As always, a few stitches every day.
end of May
It’s been mostly winding/processing thread (and orders, thank you) and checking in with the various Making Zen groups and posts this month. Next month I hope to make a little time just for me.
May, stitch journal, detail
Of course we can’t ‘make’ time. It’s all the same time. The same twenty-four hours in every day, perpetual motion as the minutes pass and the world turns.
May, stitch journal, detail
It’s very easy to get caught up in the minutiae of daily life, and sitting with needle and thread for a few minutes every day is very calming.
May, stitch journal, detail
I calculated that it’s 1,247 days since I started this practice. I guess that’s a lot of stitching.
May, stitch journal, detail
I sometimes wonder where these annual stitch calendars will end up. I was half-joking when I said in my Making Zen chat with Kate that I might exhibit them when I’ve got ten years’ worth. Only another six and a half years to go, if that turns out to be a thing.
May, stitch journal, detail
The other side is important too: the side we don’t see, the side that forms the foundation and stability for daily work. The side that shows where you went and how you got there. It doesn’t need to be tidy or neat. Beneath the surface I suspect we’re all a fairly chaotic jumble of thoughts and feelings. It’s a kind of map, I guess. I think of these things as maps of time.
The other side of May
Looking forward to meeting June tomorrow:
June ahead
A warm welcome to all of you who are new to the blog as a result of Making Zen. Nothing much happens here, but if you enjoy a few quiet moments now and again then you’re probably in the right place. If you’re thinking of beginning your own daily stitching journey, please do take a look at my online class Intuitive Daily Stitching. Learn at your own pace, and watch as many times as you like.
And if you enjoyed my Making Zen workshop, you can take those ideas and techniques a bit further with my Stitched Samples for Sketchbooks course.
Just a quick fly-through to remind you that my free Making Zen workshop is available for 24 hours today. Depending on your time zone, you may need to wait for it to become available.
Making Zen workshop
If you want to watch this (and the other 30+ workshops) in your own time, and if you want access to the inspirational artist free gifts, then you’ll need to upgrade to the VIP pass, which you can do here. It’s absolutely worth having, if you can – the value of the free gifts alone is over $3,300, and you get ongoing access to everything.
Making Zen workshop
For transparency, upgrading to the VIP pass from the links on this page allows me to receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) that helps to support my work as an independent artist.
If you’ve got the free ticket, the Making Zen retreat starts today!
With the free ticket, my workshop will be available for 24 hours tomorrow (Tuesday 27th May), so don’t miss it 🙂
My zero waste stitching workshop for Making Zen
If you have the VIP pass, then you can watch the workshops whenever and however often you like, AND you get access to all the very generous free gifts on offer from the participating artists.
If you enjoy my Making Zen workshop, then you might like to develop these ideas and skills further with my online course, Stitched Samples for Sketchbooks, which you can find here.
Stitched Samples for Sketchbooks Stitched Samples for Sketchbooks
And if you’re still waiting for thread – the wait is almost over, I promise. I decided it made sense to hang back until after the bank holiday weekend, since I can’t post anything until after then anyway.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks: over 950 skeins of thread, wound and labelled and coming soon. Soon-ish. I’ve just got to list and describe a couple more batches, then I’ll take a couple of days off, and after that they’re all yours.
I picked out some of my favourites – I call it dyer’s perks. Hank ends, oddments and leftovers, and all mine. I wind any skeins that are for me onto rolls of paper to keep them reasonably neat.
threads coming soon
These are some of the thread taster sets:
delicious!
Be patient. Not much longer to wait, maybe a week or so.
The free ticket gives you access to the workshops for 24 hours on the day they’re released. Upgrading to the VIP pass gives you lifetime access to all workshops AND you also get the free extras that participating artists are generously sharing. If you bought your early bird VIP pass then I hope you’re enjoying your exclusive early access to all the amazing workshops and free gifts.
For transparency, buying your VIP pass from the links on this page will result in my earning a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps enormously to support my work as an independent artist. Thank you so much.
And a reminder that you can watch my Making Zen interview with Kate here
Amid all the thread winding I’m just dropping in to let you know that my recorded interview with the lovely Kate Ward of Making Zen is now available to watch on YouTube here.
It was a joy to chat with Kate about daily stitching, mark-making, time and other things, and I hope you enjoy watching it. Please do give it a thumbs up on Kate’s YouTube channel if you liked it.
In the meantime if you haven’t got your Making Zen ticket yet, you can still get it here. Upgrading to the VIP pass will let you access the workshops two weeks early, from 15th May.
zero-waste stitched samples
The VIP pass gives you full access to all the workshops plus some very generous free gifts from 32 participating artists. For transparency, I am awarded a small commission (at no extra cost to you) when you purchase your ticket from the links on this page, so you will be helping to support my work as an independent artist. Thank you so much.
You know, middle-aged English people rarely get truly excited about anything, but I am genuinely very excited to be taking part in Making Zen this month and I’m looking forward to sharing some of my favourite techniques with you.
