Rounding up all the scraps of painted paper in a quest to Do Something Useful with them. I’ve been cutting and pasting into an 11″ square sketchbook, and very therapeutic it is too.
From this…
to this…
to this…
Quietly having a good time. Comments are off for now, to preserve the quiet.
The third Monday in January (2025) is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. It’s nonsense, of course (though I guess some of you in the US may not be in agreement right now…) The concept apparently was invented by a travel company in 2005, to sell more holidays, and only applies to the northern hemisphere because of the cold weather and the short daylight hours here. As you know, I love the winter and the chilly, grey, short days. I also like January, blue, and Mondays, so I’m just here today to disprove the theory. I hope you haven’t fallen for the marketing/sales hype that’s trying to persuade you to feel miserable today. You might want to look away at this point if you don’t like blue, though.
Today’s daily stitching had to be blue, if only to justify the title of this post.
And a closer look:
Recently I’ve been gathering together some little zero waste samples that I put together last year. These are just tiny scraps of fabric laid on a foundation, covered in a sheer fabric, and randomly (or purposefully) stitched. I thought it might be nice to compile them into a mixed media sketchbook. More on this later.
I’m doing zero waste with collage papers too, using all the tiny scraps and strips of painted papers, letting the stitched samples and collage elements begin a little conversation.
It’s all very intuitive and kinaesthetic. The hands start doing something with fabric or thread or paper, and the brain eventually gets interested enough to join in. You have to start doing the work in order to do the work.
There are a few more basted samples that need stitching.
And a box of glorious blue threads vying for attention.
So when I say ‘wishing you a Blue Monday’, I mean it in the happiest way possible.
Not the everyday stress kind, but the tension in stitching. I’ve had a few messages recently from stitchers asking what kind of hoop or embroidery frame I use. If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I hardly ever use one at all.
I have a variety of frames, from the tubular/modular plastic kind to the traditional round wooden hoops, and I don’t get on with any of them well enough to use them regularly. I also don’t do ‘proper’ formal embroidery very often, the kind that needs stretching and framing. If I did, then I’d have to learn to stitch in a hoop more consistently.
If I do have to use a hoop, I prefer square/rectangular frames like these by Nurge (no affiliation, I just like them):
I prefer these because I never understand why most embroidery hoops are circular when the grain of fabric is square. With a round hoop, there’s always a danger of overstretching the bias into the frame and distorting the fabric.
Here are some of the reasons I don’t like using a hoop, and these of course are my personal preferences, not in any way an instruction not to use a hoop. Most stitchers seem to like them.
For informal embroidery, or general hand stitching like the daily stitch journal, I find it’s very easy to manage the tension without a hoop. Half the battle is having the right fabric: if your fabric is too lightweight or slippery, then (probably) hello Mr and Mrs Pucker. But then sometimes you might enjoy that effect, where the stitches pull slightly too tight and cause undulating ripples across the surface. If you’re working on medium weight cotton or linen, then it’s fairly easy to maintain an even tension.
Circles are probably the trickiest thing to stitch without a hoop, because it’s very easy to pull the thread fractionally too tight, and that will cause puckering. General good practice is to support the work on a table (sit upright, it’s good for your posture) so that you can hold the bit you’re working on as if your hands were the hoop. The rest of the cloth just relaxes on the table.
If you work slowly, you can check as you go that the fabric isn’t pulling under the stitches. You can use a thumb to press each stitch into the cloth, which also helps to check the tension. I sometimes get irate messages on Instagram saying ‘get your thumb out of the way, I can’t see the stitch’. The thumb is an essential piece of equipment if you don’t use a hoop. With practice, you can feel when the tension is right.
There’s a section on managing the tension in my Intuitive Daily Stitching course, which might be helpful to beginners.
So there we are. How many of you prefer to use a hoop?
Seven days into a new year, and already I’ve broken my No Working after 7pm and No Working at Weekends rules. Must try harder!
I rearranged the practical corner of my workroom with a wire rack thing that has lots of hooks and clips. I’m looking forward to filling it as the year goes by.
The shop is now open again for threads and fabrics. Threads are disappearing quite quickly (thank you for the recent orders) but I hope to dye some more in the spring.
I am currently unable to post anything to Northern Ireland or Europe. I am truly sorry about this but it’s a consequence of the recent update to GPSR regulations, and as a one-woman cottage industry I just haven’t the means to comply with all the rules.
In happier news, there is a new stitch journal in progress.
It’s the same vintage French cotton/linen sheet I’ve been using for the last three years, but this is the last of it so next year I will have to think again. I had meant to tea-dye the fabric before starting but I never got round to it, so white it is.
Although winter is probably a good time for quilting, I like to knit at this time of year. I’m no expert knitter, but I do enjoy it. I find it’s a very relaxing evening activity.
I recently discovered the brilliant Åsa Tricosa and her ziggurat knits. I was lucky enough to find a reasonably-priced secondhand copy of her book, which I think might be out of print.
Her patterns are for top-down seamless knits with integrated fitted sleeves. Most top-down seamless knits have raglan sleeves or circular yokes, which I find aren’t as flattering and don’t fit as well. Having converted to circular knitting some time ago I no longer knit flat pieces that need sewing up. I love the way a garment comes off circular needles practically ready to wear.
The instructions are very clear but the process is quite complex until you figure out where you’re going: there are lots of short rows and picking up stitches to begin with, but the way it all works out is pure genius. You can also find Åsa’s patterns on Ravelry.
I guess knitting is a kind of stitching too, isn’t it?
The last day of December and the 2024 stitch journal is complete. A map of my year.
366 days, 366 blocks, a few simple stitches marking the passing of each day.
Days of different shapes and sizes, different colours and textures. Minutes, hours, and days that fill a life.
This is what I mean by Stitching Life. It’s verb, noun, not adjective, noun. Stitching my life, to be more precise.
Every month seems to pass in a blur, however much you try to slow it down. December has been no different.
I like the way this cloth displays its memories in a non-linear sequence. Because of the way I laid out the monthly blocks, the month directly above December is May, and I like the way memories of the summer sit next to the winter days. November sits underneath June, early winter sharing an improbable border with midsummer. But the flowers of summer became seeds that sleep in the winter earth, ready to wake up and grow again in the spring.
I guess stitches are seeds too.
The stitched area measures about 31″ square. The fabric is the French cotton/linen bed sheet that I used last year and the year before. Next year (tomorrow!) will be the last of it.
Its function is to be a visual depiction of time passing. It’s also a mini-reference library, showing the effects you can create with a small range of very simple stitches.
It will rest in the cover that I made for it earlier in the year.
It feels right to put the year away like this, on New Year’s Eve.
Ready to continue tomorrow.
Not starting again, just continuing. That’s what we do every day, all our lives.
Next year will be long and thin, only because that’s the shape and size of the last strip of bed sheet. If you want to try something similar, there’s a stitch journal FAQ page here on my blog. There’s also my Intuitive Daily Stitching course with instructions on how to work and combine a range of simple but effective stitches. I also show you how to choose suitable fabrics, threads and needles for your daily stitching. The course is prerecorded so you can learn at your own pace, and comes with lifetime access so you can watch as many times as you like. You can find my daily stitching templates here, or of course you can design your own.
Tomorrow, we go on. Wishing you a happy and peaceful 2025.
It was supposed to be down time, and it very nearly/probably was. The trouble is, I don’t like piles of half-finished things all over the place and I can’t sit down and relax if things need doing. And things always need doing, right?
I finished the simple quilt for the reading chair (you can see the making of the seaside-Mondrian cushion/pillow here):
I made a planner for 2025, using up some 150 gsm cheap drawing paper that I had on the shelf. Usually I buy a diary for planning the year, and usually I’m too busy to use it effectively. I figured if I invest time in making the thing myself then surely I will make the effort to actually plan things in it.
I made a start:
I made a start on forming some resolutions for 2025:
Yes, 2025 will be the Year of Less. I work too many hours. No real time off this year, no holiday – too busy doing essential improvement works on the house. My choice, and not complaining. But next year has to be different. I probably say this every year. Let’s see what happens.
Of course I made a cover for the new planner:
I made a cover for my 2025 order book too:
It has pockets on the inner covers because who doesn’t like pockets?
I used a bit of an old window envelope as a pocket too:
I hemmed my 2025 stitch journal fabric:
I didn’t quite get round to finishing the little landscapes:
I am not Superwoman.
This is my last post before Christmas week, and I really will be having some proper time off over the next week and a bit. I’ll be back here on New Year’s Eve with (I hope) my finished 2024 daily stitching.
For now I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported my work this year, especially to everyone who has bought courses, thread, fabric, and PDFs – you make it possible for me to do what I love, and I’m always grateful for that – and to everyone who takes the time to leave kind comments here and elsewhere. I wish you all the joy and peace of the season.
Out of curiosity I recently joined Threads, the chatty side of Instagram. I don’t need more social media, and I have no idea what I’m doing there really, but so far it’s a bit like what Twitter used to be in the good old days. I think I’m only there to explore, read, and reflect rather than to post anything much myself. It’s been reassuring to see so many UK small business owners talking about how hard it is to juggle all the jobs and to find any decent stretch of time out for self-care and rest when you’re a sole trader.
I’m feeling the need to step back a little in the run-up to Christmas, because I want to be able to enjoy a week off later without being exhausted before it starts. In my experience you can be too tired to enjoy a holiday. I’m sorry that I’ve closed the shop so early for fabric and thread orders, but I’m unable to get to the post office this week, and next week is too close to Christmas to be of much use. The fact is that I appear to have overtaxed myself and need a few days down time.
Today’s daily stitching turned out to be crossing paths in a slightly untidy backstitch. Two steps forward, one step back. Slow progress, but progress overall I guess.
Even my downtime is full. I have a few things to tidy up and finish, or at least try and catch up on.
This year’s stitch journal needs hemming on the raw edges. There are some little landscapes that I started, with unreasonable optimism, some weeks ago and that have been sitting around on my work table ever since.
There’s a quilt that needs sustained attention, at some point.
And next year’s stitch journal fabric needs a join where the strips of vintage sheet weren’t long enough. It also needs hemming. I’m looking forward to starting the 2025 template in January.
Hoping for a quiet week, but accepting that life often has other plans.
It took some doing, but my templates for next year’s daily stitching will fit together widthways and lengthways, so there’s a fair bit of choice about the format.
You can see I made a sample to see how it might look. Artist’s impression, I guess you might call it. I made some slight tweaks to the template after stitching the sample so this is not exactly the same as what’s in the PDF. The divisions between the daily sections are mostly whipped running stitch but backstitch or couched yarns would be effective too.
The monthly template has wavy edges that tessellate in all directions, so you can do separate monthly blocks, or join the monthly templates lengthways or widthways to make a long strip, or you could go for a large whole-cloth approach (as I’ve done with the 2024 template) by fitting the monthly templates together as a 3 by 4 block. If you want to make each month as a standalone block and turn it into a cloth book, there are brief directions for that here.
I’m looking forward to starting it. I like the fact that it’s a grid and all the days touch each other, but there are no straight lines. If you want to join me and stitch along, you can find the templates here. I’m going back to the long thin format next year, I think, mainly because I only have a long narrow strip of my vintage linen left. It’s lasted well; I’ve managed to get four years of stitching out of a single sheet. I like the way a long cloth suggests a long period of time, although the speed at which years are passing, a year doesn’t seem that long to me any more.
Incidentally, a few people have got in touch to say they’re using the 2024 template for next year but they’re not sure what to do with February. 2024 was a leap year, so the February page has 29 sections. The easiest way round it is to choose any two daily sections and merge them to make 28. Or you could stitch two sections one day, or redraw some of the dividing lines and adjust it that way. Plenty of scope to get creative with problem-solving.
But first, of course, we have the rest of December to enjoy. I’m looking forward to taking some time off once the shop closes for fabric and thread orders tomorrow (the shop will remain open for PDFs, which will continue to be available throughout the holiday period).
Currently I’m trying (and, if I’m totally honest, mostly failing) to make sense of the new EU regulations for General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR) that take effect from 13th December.
The new regulations are designed to ensure enhanced safety of goods supplied by businesses, and naturally that is a Good Thing because we all want everything to be safe. (Though I can’t help veering off on a little tangent here to point out that, existentially and philosophically, it’s impossible to say anything is safe because it very much depends on what you do with it…)
The regulations require various compliance statements and appropriate labelling for all products, which in itself isn’t an enormous problem. The main issue seems to be that any business supplying physical goods to the EU or Northern Ireland must have a named representative resident in one of those areas, and that representative must be responsible for ensuring compliance with EU regulations. There is some lack of clarity on whether the rules only apply to products listed for sale after 13th December, in which case my existing courses and digital downloads are probably OK – but what that means in terms of any new material or products I might create in the future is unclear right now.
The pressing fact right now is that, as a one-woman cottage industry, I can’t afford to employ an authorised representative in Europe, nor can I afford the £20,000 fine for non-compliance.
There also seems at present to be some uncertainty about what is and isn’t covered by these new rules, and the regulations themselves are in dense legalese that is largely unintelligible to the lay person. The regulations definitely apply to most tangible products (in my case that’s thread, fabric, and original art), and possibly to some digital products (in my case that’s PDF pattern downloads and online classes), although it turns out these may be classed as services rather than products and therefore may not be affected. Until there is concrete clarification and I can be sure that I totally understand what is and isn’t permissible, I think I have to assume that everything is covered and therefore (for now) no items, tangible or digital, can be available to customers in the EU or Northern Ireland after 13th December.
I had already decided to close the shop for Christmas on 6th December in any case, which is well before the deadline of 13th, so we’re all fine there. I’m going to assume (until someone corrects me) that digital products – or rather services – that were already available before 13th December are unaffected. My Black Friday discount of 25% off all courses (not PDFs) ends tomorrow (remember to enter the coupon code BF2024 at the checkout). This is my one and only ever sale – I don’t intend to do this again – so take advantage while you can.
If you’re anywhere other than the EU or Northern Ireland, then everything will carry on as before (as far as I know…)
In light of possible restrictions, I’ve decided to launch my 2025 daily stitching template early, so that it’s listed well before the cut-off date. You can now find it here and here.
More on templates later in the week. I am truly sorry for the unhappy news in this post, and I would like to express heartfelt thanks and gratitude to my lovely customers and friends in Europe and Northern Ireland. I have been so grateful for your kind support.
Another month.
Days crammed and jostling cheek by jowl, gone almost before they started.
In the chaos of our kitchen refurbishment, a little quiet stitching turned out to be a happy oasis of calm each day.
As always, I’ve used mostly my own hand-dyed threads. If you want something similar, threads are available here until 6th December. The shop will re-open in January. I really like the random colour changes and subtle variations you get with hand-dyes. It makes any kind of stitching look more impressive than it really is.
The orange/red/green scroll stitch section below is in a Stef Francis variegated silk thread and is one of my favourite threads.
The other side is almost as chaotic as our kitchen.
I can see all the Embroiderers Guild members throwing up their hands in horror. There are knots! There are thread floats! It’s such a mess! Well, some of us are a mess underneath our calm exterior, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I have no qualms at all about the back of the work, and I don’t try to make the back tidy. I let it be what it is, and I love its honesty. There is nothing hidden, nothing covered up, and nothing to be afraid of. You can see it for what it is.
The kitchen still isn’t finished, but there’s just the painting and the flooring to do, and hooray for that.
There’s a December-shaped gap on the stitch journal, ready for a few more tomorrows.
If you’ve been thinking about starting something similar next year and want some tips on getting started, there is currently 25% off my online courses here. Use code BF2024 at the checkout; offer ends 5th December, so be quick. Courses are all prerecorded so you can start whenever you like and access the material as long as you want.
And here’s a little preview of next year’s templates, available from early December:
Looking forward to next year already.