intuitive daily stitching textile artist, stitching by hand, thread, embroidery, stitch journal

October 2026 daily stitching

I’m beginning with a reminder that today is the last day you can purchase my pre-printed daily stitching fabric, for UK customers here, and for the rest of the world here. There won’t be pre-printed 2027 fabric, but I will make a video next month showing how I transfer the paper templates to cloth.

That’s the business announcements done, and now onto the real business — it’s hard to believe, but here we are at the end of another month.

A few stitches every day, and this is what happens.

Time flies, and no amount of stitching will tie it down. All we can do is watch it pass and place a few marks on cloth to say we saw it go.

Today’s square is top right in the photo above. The wheel turns, from autumn to winter. Inexorably, inevitably, nothing stands still.

The whole thing is a portrait of time. The joy is in the moment, and when the moment passes it becomes a memory, the past, in the blink of an eye.

Every day a little framed oasis, a refuge, a sanctuary.

We can look back, and we can look ahead, but we can only live in the transient, ephemeral moment we know as ‘now’.

Tomorrow is an intangible concept that changes some lives forever, and yet we are brave enough to keep moving towards it into the empty space ahead.

Present future

The new 2027 daily stitching templates will be available soon-ish, I hope by mid-November, if all goes well. You’ll see it here first, when it’s ready.

I always make a real-life sample first, using the prototype template before I make the PDF, just to see how it might look.

I really enjoyed the variety in the shapes – squares, circles, rectangles – and in the sizes, and I’m looking forward to beginning on 1st January.

It looks like daily stitching, but technically it isn’t daily stitching because I worked several sections a day in addition to my (separate) daily stitching for this year. I thought I would turn it into something useful.

Some sort of cover for your daily stitching is a good idea, mainly to keep it clean and dust-free when you’re not working on it.

In the meantime, you can see brief instructions for making this simple cover on my YouTube channel.

See you soon for the October daily stitching round-up (maybe that should be square-up).

Re-visioning

I did try very hard to like the circles that I had planned for next year’s daily stitching.

And actually, I do like them – but just not for daily stitching.

So I had to go back to the drawing board and do a bit of cutting-and-pasting.

2027 daily stitching template in progress

It’s turned out – unintentionally – to be very similar to this year’s. It’s another grid, but with a variety of different shapes – short rectangles, long rectangles, and squares (or circles). I’ve enjoyed the framework of the grid this year, and, as I primarily design these things in line with my own preferences, I’m using a grid design again. I also like the way a grid lets me find a use for my textured yarns.

I’m working up a little sample to make a protective cover for the 2027 stitching, and so far I think it will be fun.

I hope to have the new template available by the end of next month, if anyone wants to use it.

As always, it’s not a stitch-along, there are no prompts, and there’s nothing to sign up for. It’s just me doing a bit of hand stitching every day. If you can find a little peace and contentment in doing something similar, then that’s a good and beautiful thing.

If you’re new to the idea of daily stitching, there’s a stitch journal FAQ page here.

Until then, I’m having a little rummage in some lovely autumn colours…

…and keeping calm and carrying on.

September 2026 daily stitching

The end of another month, and it’s been another busy one.

As usual, just threading a needle every day to see what happens next.

You can see some of these blocks in action, happening (more or less) in real time on my YouTube channel.

There were my mother’s favourite flowers for her birthday earlier this month, and a heart for her pacemaker check up.

There were some long days

I really like the long/thin format and may well design a whole year like that some time.

A few people asked about this one:

It’s just herringbone stitch, worked quite closely in fine silk thread. You can get a lot of variety from simple stitches by changing the thread type, stitch size, and stitch proximity. Widely-spaced herringbone stitch looks very different from this closely-worked example.

And – I can hardly believe it myself – October tomorrow.

In other news, the shop is open again for thread. I don’t know, at this point, when I will be able to dye more thread so what’s there is what there is.

Also in other news, I’m road-testing the template for next year – just to see. The jury is still out but I think we may get a favourable verdict. There are some challenges and limitations with circles, which could make things a bit more interesting.

Preview of the 2027 template, under construction

If you’re doing your own daily stitching, I hope you’re enjoying it and finding a little peace in a few quiet moments with needle and thread.

August 2026 daily stitching

You will see from my lack of blog posts this month that August has been exceptionally busy. Time has disappeared in a blur of house-clearing and charity shop runs. My mother’s dementia has reached the stage where she is now unable to live alone, even with daily care, and I have to sell her house to pay her care home fees. All of it is hard. I look mostly ok from the front, but the back is a mess; much messier than the back of the cloth.

The cloth, and daily stitching, has helped with maintaining a sense of equilibrium and normality.

I find that each daily block isn’t intended to mean anything, or depict that particular day. It’s just a few stitches, in any colour. Part distraction, part escape, part immersion. Mostly restorative.

The exception this month was the solar eclipse on the 12th, which is loosely pictorial. A once-in-a-generation astronomical event kind of deserves its own spotlight, I thought.

You can see some of this month’s daily stitching in the August playlist on my YouTube channel

And the year so far:

Two-thirds of the year down, one to go. I had better start thinking about next year’s template.

July 2026 daily stitching

The last day of July today, and time seems to be flying even faster than usual. As always, I’ve been catching a few moments of each day and stitching them down. Time is life, and the most precious thing we have.

You can see some of the daily blocks for this month in the July playlist on my You Tube channel.

Summer is probably my least favourite season overall, but I’ve enjoyed using a brighter colour palette. I have a new collection of hand-dyed threads in summer/early autumn colours in my shop (sorry, UK-only shipping for now).

July has been very challenging, personally, but I am focusing on one day at a time and placing stitches like footsteps. Eventually the path will lead to a quieter calmer place.

And tomorrow, August begins. It’s intriguing to think that all those blank spaces will be full in just thirty-one days’ time.

I hope you’re enjoying your own daily stitching adventure, if you’ve embarked on such a thing. If nothing else, it provides a little quiet breathing space in a busy day.

Have a lovely weekend, and happy stitching.

June 2026 daily stitching

And here we are, halfway through the year already.

The month soon fills up.

Today was a simple leaf outline, and you can see it in action on my YouTube channel.

This month has presented difficulties and challenges, most of which are now ongoing. The best policy so far has been to keep calm and stitch.

July ahead:

And the year so far:

Amazing what a few minutes a day can do.

May 2026 daily stitching

We’ve already got one foot in June, but here’s how May shaped up:

Thirty-one handfuls of time, caught and stitched down before they could get away.

Some of the May stitching is in my YouTube May playlist, including the little wreath for May Day:

The little tree is also on YouTube and is quite easy to stitch.

The last week in May was too hot. I am a creature of the cold and dark, and I struggle with anything above 22 degrees. Thankfully it’s a little more normal this week and we have some very welcome rain in the forecast.

We like to see the other side, right? Always.

And June is carrying us along:

It’s unstoppable. The best option is to keep going, one day at a time.

New PDFs for daily stitching

After a few weeks of very enjoyable drawing and writing, the new PDFs are out. I *think* they’re ok but let me know if you find any glaring errors and I will fire the proofreader (that’s me).

These PDFs are meant to give a little help and direction with daily stitching on the days when you hit a wall and can’t get started.

There are currently four PDFs to choose from, sixty little design sketches in each volume: Lines, Circles, Nature, and Scatter patterns, with brief stitching directions for each sketch.

Volume 3, Nature (mostly flowers and leaves)

There’s also a blank page in each volume for you to jot down your own designs, and once you get started you will find yourself coming up with many more ideas of your own.

The PDFs assume that you are familiar with, and able to execute, some basic stitch types. My online class, Intuitive Daily Stitching, goes through these stitches in some detail and suggests various ways in which you can be creative with some simple stitches. Alternatively, you can consult one of the many embroidery reference books or free online tutorials for help learning some simple stitches.

Occasionally people have trouble accessing the download, so there’s now a ‘Help with PDFs’ page in the shop header with the following diagram and instructions:

The cover photos show samples of some of the designs so that you can see how they might look in real life. Be as creative as you like with colours and thread types.

I really enjoyed putting these together, and I hope you find them helpful. Have a fabulous week.

April 2026

And that was April.

As always, nowhere near long enough.

The colour palette is starting to warm up as the days get longer and sunnier. April has been very dry so far and the garden needs rain.

Today sees the top third of my cloth full: four months of this year vanished and yet still present.

Tomorrow, onwards.

Tag: intuitive daily stitching

October 2026 daily stitching

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Present future

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Re-visioning

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September 2026 daily stitching

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August 2026 daily stitching

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July 2026 daily stitching

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June 2026 daily stitching

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May 2026 daily stitching

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New PDFs for daily stitching

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April 2026

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