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.
