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.
The end of April, and that means a few more stitches for 2025.
April, detail
It’s been a busy month, and next month might be even busier.
the end of April
Mostly, as always, a few stitches with no plan or design. Just choosing a colour, threading a needle and beginning. And isn’t that how most days begin too? We set out as usual, never knowing what will happen next.
April, detail
I’m enjoying the spring palette, in real life as much as here in stitches.
April, detail
It occurred to me recently that in four years of doing this I’ve never yet missed a day. If I did miss a day, I’d leave it blank. The point here isn’t to fill a cloth with stitches, it’s to sit and witness time as it passes out of my life. If I forgot to stitch, or didn’t have time (the irony!) then I feel ‘catching up’ the next day would be kind of missing the point. I would leave a blank space to remind me that on that occasion I didn’t slow down enough to watch those few minutes ebb away.
The other side of time is always worth a look. Knots, loose ends, a scramble of thread, but that’s how it is.
For transparency, if you use this link I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you), and you will be helping to support my work as an independent artist. Thank you.
Today is shaping up to be quite full. People are writing to me to tell me I haven’t got much thread in the shop. I know, thank you, I’m onto it. The shop will be closed for a couple of days while I attend to this:
threads for dyeing
Dyeing, washing, drying, sorting, winding, labelling, photographing and listing a batch of thread takes about a month, so thread update maybe towards the end of May, if all goes well.
Bright and early on a Monday morning, and here’s the first of my two Big Newses I’ve been waiting to share: I’m delighted to be hosting a workshop on the fabulous Making Zen online stitching retreat, happening from 26th May, and you can get your free ticket here:
Making Zenis much more than just another free event. It’s an opportunity to slow down, tune out the noise, and reconnect with your inner artist. If you’re looking for a quiet pocket of time to make something with those delicious scraps of fabric and threads, then here’s an invitation to somewhere special.
It’s called the Making Zen Online Retreat, and it’s five soul-soothing days (26–30 May 2025) hosted by Kate Ward of Zen Stitching, where 32 (!) makers, artists, and creators share an invitation to slow down, reconnect with your creativity, and rediscover the joy of making with your hands.
You’ll discover:
How to turn your scraps and remnants into stunning art (and peace of mind)
Cultural traditions in art to explore
Why listening to your gut might be the most creative move you make
And I’m delighted to be there too, sharing my session on zero waste stitching.
If you’ve already purchased the course, the Making Zen workshop will still be of value. In addition to the workshops there are free gifts and exclusive extras, plus you get to join over thirty other workshops from some incredible artists including Jody Alexander, Ann Smith, Mirjam Gielen, and many more.
And the best thing about all of this is that – yes! – it’s 100% free to attend. No strings, no catch. Just art, peace, and a community of makers who understand the value of quiet, mindful making.
I’ll look forward to seeing you there, with an open mind and hands full of thread.
For transparency, you will see that this email contains a few links to the Making Zen ticket. These are affiliate links, which means if you later decide to upgrade to the VIP Pass, I’ll receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) and you’ll be helping to support my work as an independent artist. Thank you so much for signing up – there’s so much to enjoy here.
And PS – for anyone looking for information on pricing (for the VIP pass) here are the prices:
