Another month completed and only the last quarter of the year left.
As always, there’s no plan at all – just thread a needle and begin. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s how life is. I don’t judge the daily stitching; it is what it’s meant to be, however it turns out.
September, detail
As usual, it’s mostly straight stitch and running stitch in various guises. Life is complicated enough at the moment.
There were poppies for my mother’s birthday earlier this month.
September, detail
Today is a few back stitch squiggles. Two steps forward, one step back, a path that loops back on itself sometimes but still gets to where it’s headed eventually. Taking the scenic route, perhaps.
30th September
The other side is just another kind of perspective on where we’ve been.
September, the other side
And October tomorrow…
October ahead, or behind
Onward and maybe upward. Most paths lead somewhere.
I’ll be back later this week with what I hope might be good news for those of you in the USA. 😎
It’s the same technique demonstrated in my Stitch a Little Landscape course, very easy and very effective. Any fabric paints will work; acrylic inks will work too.
If you let the fabric partly dry while it’s scrunched up, you get these really attractive watermark effects where the colour settles into the creases:
paint-dyed chiffonpaint-dyed chiffonnice
An unexpected extra – I laid the fabric strips to dry on some packaging paper and now I have free collage paper too:
packaging paper accidentally paint-dyed
Some of the chiffon will end up in sheer fabric scrap packs next month. I’m pretty pleased with these, which is always a good way to end the working week.
I was a little disappointed to find that my new backpack doesn’t have a designated pen holder section. Lots of other very useful zipped pockets, but no pen pocket. And as someone who always has a pen about them, this was a bit of a problem.
Easy enough to fix, as it turned out.
DIY pen holder
A piece of mount board cut to fit the zipped section, covered with collage papers, a band of elastic stitched down across the middle and there it is. It fits into a zipped pocket perfectly and keeps pens and other drawing equipment nicely accessible.
I think we’re nearly about there with the threads update. First I’m taking a couple of days off, so the new batch of threads will be live from Wednesday, ish.
Here’s my dyer’s perks collection, just some of my favourites from the new batch – silk boucle, fine cotton boucle, silk perle 12, silk perle 8, fine silk and cotton perle 8:
a few new threads for me
I still can’t post anything to Europe or USA, I’m afraid. If you live in one of these areas and have family or friends in the UK, they can order for you as a gift using their UK address.
I have some very pretty silk thread collections, if anyone is thinking about (whisper it) Christmas yet. Just saying.
Silk thread collection: silk boucle, silk perle 3/8/12, fine silk
I’ve also got round to making some better labels for the thread tasters:
thread tasters
I increased the number of Randoms, since these are always the first thing to sell out.
Randoms – 10 mini-skeins, roughly colour-coordinated, various types of thread
You can preview the new threads here; when they’re live they’ll be available to purchase.
Having spent most of this week winding thread, I thought a behind-the-scenes glimpse might be interesting.
I dye thread in hanks, then wash and rinse it, letting it dry outside on a sunny day. When it’s all dry it comes in to be sorted into groups.
hand-dyed thread hanks, grouped by type
I then wind each hank into smaller skeins. Hanks will yield anything from four to ten skeins, depending on the thread type. Pictured below is a new fine cotton boucle yarn that I’m trying. I can no longer get the chunkier cotton boucle that I’ve had previously.
cotton boucle yarn, hanks into skeins
When each hank has been turned into skeins, each skein is twisted. This helps to prevent tangling and keeps them neat and easy to pack for shipping. I use a miniaturist’s drill with half a large paperclip glued where the drill bit should be.
twisted skeins
Then I label each skein with the thread type and yardage. I print, cut and hand write each label. Shown below is the new batch of silk perle 8.
labelling skeins
Once each batch has been labelled, the skeins are sorted by colour ready to be counted, numbered, named, photographed, described and listed in the shop.
skeins ready to be counted, numbered, and named
This entire process has to be repeated nine times, since I currently stock nine different types of thread (four silk and five cotton). I can only wind for half a day at a time, to avoid repetitive strain injury, so it does take a few weeks to get all of it into the shop.
The best bit about the whole process is that there is no waste. Any part-skeins go into Randoms, to be gathered into mini-collections, and anything shorter than a yard goes into the ends pot to be used as ties for tags or in daily stitching.
ends pot (left) and Randoms (right)
Did I say that was the best bit? I meant it’s the second-best bit. This is the best bit:
Mine! Dyers’ perks
I only take a few yards for myself, and only in the colours that really appeal to me. These threads are wrapped round paper tubes, made very simply by rolling a 3″ square piece of copy paper and cutting a little notch in one end.
So there it is – the process from start to end. Threads should be available from around mid-September, if all goes to plan. In the meantime there are still some very pretty threads in the shop here.
For me, back to the daily grind. I mean daily wind.
And here we are again, another month down. Time, in thread on linen.
August, daily stitching
In the old Celtic calendar, the beginning of Autumn is Lammas on 1st August, signifying first harvest (grain). Second harvest (fruit) is around the autumn equinox in mid-September, and third harvest (nuts and seeds) is the end of October, at the start of winter. There is always much exasperated hilarity in our house when the Met Office refers to ‘false autumn’ on its weather reports as the leaves are starting to fall. That’s because it’s real autumn, we cry in unison. It may be still warm and sunny, but weather is not season. You only have to look at the changes in the light, in the air, in nature itself, to see and feel the signs of early autumn. This is my usual northern hemisphere bias, of course, because this is where I live. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, you’ll be enjoying the beginning of spring.
Probably enough meteorological ranting.
August 2025, daily stitching (detail)
You can probably see the change in the colour palette. More muted golds/browns/reds/purples.
August 2025, daily stitching (detail)
The light isn’t great this morning in my north-facing work room. The morning sun is no longer quite reaching me – another clear sign of the turning season.
I’m enjoying the occasional ovals and cross-quarters on this year’s template.
August 2025, daily stitching (detail)
As always, it looks far more complex than it really is. It’s mostly variations on straight stitch and running stitch, with a bit of blanket stitch, chain stitch, fly stitch and herringbone stitch thrown in. The edges of each daily section are mostly couched, usually silk boucle yarn or other textured yarns. Nothing very difficult here at all.
August, looking back
So on we go into September. I’m currently working on a sample to road-test the new template for 2026 – so far so good, I think, and I’m already quite excited about stitching it for real next year. The template will be available (probably) from early November; more on that later. Stay tuned 🙂
2026 sample/preview
I hope you’ve enjoyed your own August daily stitching, if this is your thing. Have a lovely Sunday.
A successful week’s dyeing: over 150 hanks of cotton and silk thread ready for winding into skeins.
18″ square cube full of thread hanks
But I’m not starting any of that until next week. I’ve discussed it with the boss (that’s me) and she’s reluctantly letting me have the bank holiday weekend off.
In the meantime as a special bank holiday treat, there’s about 20% off selected hand-dyed cotton thread in my shopthis weekend only – offer ends around tea-time (UK time) on Monday. Pick yourself a bargain if you like hand-dyed DMC stranded floss, perle cotton (size 5 and 8) and finer cotton. I’ll aim to post weekend orders out on Tuesday next week. I’m so sorry but I can’t currently post items to Europe, Northern Ireland or USA.
Tea-drinking is a national sport here in the UK, but I like it best for dyeing fabric scraps and trimmings.
tea-dyed fabric scraps and threads
I thought while I was about it, I might as well dye some thread for the shop as well. I’m often asked for tea-dyed thread, and my usual answer is ‘dip some white thread in a pot of tea’ – it (almost) is that simple. But if you want the convenience of having it done for you, I now have a few tea-dyed threads in the shop. The silk threads have come out particularly nicely, a lovely golden dark cream. The cottons are much paler – in fact that’s how I like them, very subtly coloured – but if you want them darker, just let them steep in some black tea for a while until you get the colour you want.
I have some lovely space-dyed DMC threads still available, in most of the specified colourways:
Some of the other lines are becoming a little depleted, so I’m in the process of preparing more thread for another dye session, probably later this month. Good job I haven’t got time to sit on this chair, it’s piled high with thread.
thread winding in progress
Very sadly, shipping to the US is suspended for now – I hope temporarily, but we will have to wait and see what options become available. Royal Mail has issued some rules about collecting the necessary tariffs, but with no clear instructions on how to do that. They also make no mention of the $80 admin/customs/processing fee, which to me is much more of a worry than the 10% tariff. If you’re in the US (or anywhere else, for that matter) and you have friends or family here in the UK, there’s nothing stopping them ordering threads for you as a gift to be sent initially to their UK address. Something to bear in mind for birthdays and Christmas, perhaps.
In the meantime, more thread-winding for me. Have a lovely weekend.
Thank you so much to my wonderful US customers for your recent orders; parcels are winging their way to you and hopefully – keeping all fingers and toes crossed – they should arrive in the US before August 29th. The Royal Mail target for international tracked mail is 5-7 working days, so we should be ok unless there’s some kind of international air disaster, but let’s try not to think about that.
I had intended to suspend all further US orders from Wednesday, but I’ve decided to bring that forward to today. The dates are causing me too much anxiety, and all I can think about is what if international post gets delayed and you all get hit with an $80 charge. It’s unlikely, but I’d prefer to play this as safe as I can, so today is my last day for posting to you. I’m sorry if you’ve missed out; do contact me if you have any questions.
In the meantime, US customers can still support me by taking my online classes – the White House machine isn’t tariffing digital products (yet!)
On to happier things. When I can, I’m continuing to work on this long cloth, Tabula Rasa.
Tabula Rasa, in progress
It’s about 6″ wide and several feet long. Part autobiography, part therapy, part self portrait. Lots of sheer and semi-sheer layers, with stitching beneath and on top of the surface.
Tabula Rasa, in progress
It’s rare for me to make something I like, or something I feel proud of, but this is it, happening right here. It’s a joyous feeling.
Tabula Rasa, in progress
It’s also rare for me to use a limited colour palette in such a sustained way, but I’m finding that I like that too.
Tabula Rasa, in progress
Progress is slow, because there are Many Other Things I need to attend to right now (more on that later) (and it’s nowhere near as exciting or intriguing as I’m making it sound!) But a few quiet moments on this cloth in between the general busyness is proving to be very calming and grounding.
I’m so sad to be losing my lovely US community. I hope the day we can reconnect through tangible thread is not too far away.
Bad news for my US customers, I’m afraid, and bad news for me too.
The White House has issued an executive order that suspends the de minimis duty-free exemption for low-value items entering the US. Previously, any goods worth less than $800 were exempt from additional tariffs and charges, avoiding Customs altogether.
From 29th August, US customers will now pay a tariff on all international items, regardless of the value. Currently the tariff for goods from the UK is 10%, but the Executive Order (section 3) states that anything shipped through the international post system will be subject to a duty equal to the tariff rate applied to that country (10%) AND/OR a specific duty ranging from $80 to $200 per package.
I have no control over what happens to your package once it leaves me, but it sounds as if every US purchase from me will be subject to these new rules from 29th of this month.
I would suggest that if you’re in the US and you think you might want to order some of my threads and/or fabrics, then now would be a good time. The new rules apply to anything arrivingafter 29th August, so as long as your parcel arrives before then, everything should remain as it currently is and parcels with a value of under $800 should just go through the system without issue. I always send overseas orders via international tracked post, which normally takes a week or two to reach the US. Unfortunately I can’t guarantee that any order placed now will arrive before then, but in normal circumstances it probably would.
Of course all of the above only applies to physical goods; digital products like my PDF templatesand online courses (for now!) are unaffected.
I am sorry to be the bearer of such unhappy news, and I want to say an enormous thank you to my dear US customers (and many of you have become friends) for your valued support over the last few years. Let’s hope the current tariff/cost situation changes some time…
