And that was March. We’ve already lost an hour today here in the UK for British summer time so time is flying a little faster this weekend.
March on the stitch journalMarch
As always, a little stitching every day. Just to catch the moments and tie them down somehow, so they don’t fly away unnoticed.
March detailMarch detail
91 days of 2024 and the top third of this vintage linen cloth is filling up nicely:
Looking back
April lies ahead. The blankness of the space for the future always startles me a little.
April
I like to keep the back of the work accessible so that I can see where I’ve been. Sometimes I like it better than the front.
the back
Next month I think it will be time to make the Janet Clare artisan apron. I got the pattern and planned to start on it late last year but the house move got in the way. I’ll have a look for some suitable fabrics in my collection and will share my progress once I get going.
Artisan apron by Janet Clare
In the meantime, today is a family day at home enjoying the rest of this bank holiday weekend.
There were many ups and downs, but February brought us the new home for which we’ve been waiting.
new home
Most of the month was spent fretting, phoning estate agents and solicitors, and preparing.
February daily stitchingFebruary (detail)
Moving day itself was something I never want to experience again. We ended up having to exchange contracts and complete on the same day, which didn’t exactly go according to plan but we did finally get our keys at just gone 4pm. And here we are at last – it could have been worse, and in a few days the stress and fatigue will be just a memory.
Want to see my new work room? Here it is:
second bedroom
We’ve been focusing on sorting the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom so that we can function while we attend to the rest of the unpacking, so neither of us has unpacked our work spaces yet. My room is about 11 feet square, slightly bigger than in our last house. It’s north facing so will be cooler in the summer with more consistent light, and the view is mostly the surrounding back gardens. Our garden is tiny, but relatively private.
My room also has fitted wardrobes on one wall:
work room cupboards
Easily adaptable for thread and fabric storage. My first job will be to paint the walls, and possibly the floor – there is a very dark red/pink carpet, which I don’t like. Dark flooring tends to absorb a lot of light, which means you can’t always see colours as they really are. I’d like to paint the floor white, if the floorboards are good enough. If they’re not then I’ll think about a pale laminate floor instead.
You can see it will be a while before I can return to work, so the shop will remain closed for now. I’ve been looking forward to this since October and I want to enjoy organising it so I’ll take the time to get it right. It will take as long as it takes.
The entire month has passed in a blur of thread winding, dyeing, sorting and labelling, a task that is still very much ongoing.
But daily stitching counts the days and maps the path, creating lines of progress and marking the days in which standing still for a time becomes restorative.
January days
I’m loving this year’s template. I like the way every day is a slightly different shape, as they are in real life. Some days are short and fill up quickly; some days have awkward angles and sharp corners; some days feel a bit longer than they should.
January, detail
Looking back, I notice a lot of running stitch trundling along, charting a path and counting steps.
January detail
I think it’s probably my favourite stitch. It’s so versatile and can be very expressive. I like the way it moves forward one step at a time, putting one foot in front of the other just to keep going. I also like its simplicity and its capacity for trust. It doesn’t always know where it’s going but somehow it finds its way and ends up where it’s supposed to be.
I like the quietness of January, where nothing much happens. I enjoy the pale, muted colours of winter and the gentle light. I know some people don’t like the grey days and the long nights and are glad to see the back of it.
the back of January
Tomorrow is Imbolc, which marks the start of spring in the pagan calendar. It’s still cold, and the nights are still long, but you can see the light starting to change and there are snowdrops gamely battling on through the cold. Spring is on the way; you can smell it in the air.
In the meantime, I am still sorting through thread and fearing that I may never get to the end of it. But myself says keep calm and carry on and it will be done soon. If you’re waiting for thread, please keep an eye on the shop; all being well, the update will happen in a couple of days or so.
It takes time, I find, to get to know a new cloth before you can do the right thing for it. The new stitch journal for 2024 feels very different from the previous two years, despite being exactly the same vintage French linen. The main difference is its shape. It’s exactly the same size and scale – i.e. twelve A4 pages – but setting the monthly pages in a 3 x 4 grid formation is making it feel ‘bigger’ somehow.
Four days in January
As always, I don’t plan any day’s design in advance; it just happens in the moment. Sometimes that means unintentionally stitching something I end up not liking much. I’m not keen on the raincloud, for instance. The advantage of intuitive stitching is that it really doesn’t matter whether you like what you’ve stitched or not, nor does it matter if the stitches are wonky or irregular sizes. Some days it just is what it is. The point of it is to record time mindfully, so there’s no need to worry about how it turns out. And definitely no need to unpick.
3rd and 4th January
If you’re following my 2024 template, you can of course stitch the blocks in whatever order you choose. Personally I prefer each day to share a border with the previous and next blocks, so that they form a continuous stream of time.
I made a short video of yesterday’s stitch, weaving a new path between rows of herringbone stitch:
weaving between other stitches
And I’m also working on some other new beginnings, more of which later.
One day ends and a new one begins in the unbroken chain of time that makes up our life. It really doesn’t matter what day you begin this kind of practice; all the days join up regardless of the occasion.
1st January in progress
This year I’m using my 2024 template, which I’m imagining as a kind of map of the year. I sometimes think if life came with a map we’d probably all get to where we want to be a lot more efficiently. But I guess efficiency isn’t everything and I’m glad I ended up taking the long way round – the scenic route, I suppose we might call it.
As always, there is no plan apart from the template; each day will decide for itself what it wants to be. This practice, for me, has always been about witnessing the passage of time rather than marking events or occasions. I don’t often feel the need to remember what happened on a given day; it’s enough to know that I acknowledged the time passing.
I have no idea how this cloth will look by the end of December, but then I have no idea how my life will look by then either. It will be a voyage of discovery and an adventure as always.
a beginning
I’m using the same vintage metis (linen/cotton blend) as the last two years. You can often find this kind of fabric online by searching for vintage metis, or vintage French bed sheet. I’ve only just noticed that I’ve left it in its natural state, whereas last year I dipped it in tea to dull the whiteness a little. I’ve marked my outlines with plain old biro, because I know all the lines will be covered. If you’re stitching along and (for example) you want to leave gaps between the blocks, then you will want to use a less obtrusive method for marking out your daily sections.
To begin, I’ve done a very simple whipped running stitch in perle 12 cotton and silk, with a fine textured yarn couched around the edge, to suggest a ploughed field ready for sowing some seeds.
day one: running stitch in cotton, whipped with silk thread
I’m easing back into work-mode from tomorrow and will be thinking about all the seeds of ideas that might take root. I hope some wildflowers blow in as well.
And that’s that. I hadn’t anticipated when I started this in January that this year’s stitch journal might become a cloth book, but now I can’t see it as anything else.
2023: the year of the book
I’ve had a few messages recently asking if my PDFs or my online course include instructions for making the cloth book. They don’t, but there’s a blog post here that might help you to see how to make something similar.
New Year’s Eve inevitably encourages reflection on the days that have gone. There have been winter-into-spring days:
January/February
Spring days:
Early March
Long summer days:
June
Flowery summer days:
July
Early autumn days:
August
Autumn-into-winter days:
October
Actually let’s linger here for a moment as I think the leaves are my favourite:
Autumn leaves
Early winter days:
November
And ending at the beginning, in the winter:
December
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and read my blog throughout the year. An especially huge thank you if you have purchased my PDFs, threads, fabrics, and online courses in the last twelve months – you have made it possible for me to make a living doing what I love. I’m enormously grateful to each and every one of you.
Tomorrow I’ll be starting on 2024, using my new template. I have no idea how it will work, but I’m looking forward to finding out. (A brief description of how I made the cover for it is here.)
2024: land ahoy!
I hope 2024 brings peace, joy and fulfilment to you. And – of course – some happy stitching.
Thirty days, thirty boxes, one box a day. Counting the days, observing the minutes, watching time as it hurtles past.
November daily stitching
As always, I’ve only used very simple embroidery stitches – mostly variations on running stitch and straight stitch, with a little blanket stitch here and there. Life is complicated enough without trying to figure out double braided Hungarian dragon stitch, whatever that might be. I may have just made that up.
November stitch journal, detail
It looks more complex than it is probably because of the variations in colour and thread weight. Some threads are very fine; some are thicker. There is probably meaning in the colour and thread weight I choose for a given day, but if there is then it’s unconscious.
early November, detail
You can only see the patterns in your life when you’re far enough away to be able to look back on them. Close up, it’s hard to see a difference. But stand back and squint, and you can usually make sense of the threads.
There is still no date for our house move. Today’s square is the shadowy ghost of a house. I know (I hope) our new home is waiting for us, but without a date I can’t connect with it. And frustratingly, I can’t (daren’t) start any packing.
our new home doesn’t seem real yet
I will have to temporarily close the shop for a week or two when we do get a date because at some point I will have to pack everything away. In the meantime, if you’d like to help me have less to pack, there are quite a few threads left and some of the fabric scraps packs are reduced. I’ll post updates here when I know more about when the shop will close, but keep in mind that we may not get much notice. My last international posting date is 6th December.
Also, while we’re on housekeeping, my stitch journal PDF templates are now available in my Teachable school as well as in my online shop. They’re exactly the same templates, just in two places at once. This is in response to requests from those of you who signed up for my Intuitive Daily Stitching class (thank you) and wanted easier access to the templates. If you’ve already bought the templates from the shop (and thank you, if you have) then please don’t buy them again from Teachable. If you have problems downloading any templates, or if you’ve lost access to them, please let me know so that I can email them to you.
I think that brings us all up to date – and here we are, poised on the doorstep of December, wondering what the last thirty-one days of the year will bring.
Next month, stars:
December (yes, it’s biro. All the outlines will be covered up)
Two orphan samples, both alike in dignity, but – unlike Shakespeare’s ill-fated star-crossed lovers – destined for a happy ending after all. I’d prepared my stitch journal for next year, tracing the templates:
stitch journal 2024 (yes, that’s blue biro)
It’s the same fabric as the last two years – vintage cotton/linen, from an old French bed sheet. Next year will be a large square rather than a long strip, just to see how that works. It’s ended up about 36″ inches (ish) square (allowing for a little border around the stitched area), and folds up quite nicely. Then I thought it’s going to need a cover of some sort, just as a little protection from dust and light.
Aha, I thought. You probably know what’s coming next:
joining two samples
A little extra work, and it looks as if that might be a nice way to combine both samples into a Useful Thing. Not that everything needs to have a purpose, but they turned out to be exactly the right size, and I always think that’s a Sign. I’ve made the cover slightly roomy to allow for some expansion because the cloth will become slightly thicker as it’s stitched. I’ve found it surprising to see how much bulk is added by thread as the months pass.
in progressa little more progress
A few hedges (textured yarn, couched with one strand of DMC) and a little extra stitch here and there:
fields sample
And there it is – it’s almost making itself. I’ve folded the lower half up, stitched the edges together, found a piece of fabric exactly the right size to make a lining, and then the other (embroidered) end will fold over, like a very simple clutch purse:
under construction
Still not finished, but you can see how this will work:
cosy home for a stitch journalsimple clutch purse construction
Another month; 31 daily leaves taking us to the beginning of winter.
October complete
I really enjoyed this one. My template just has plain leaf shapes but you can adjust and adapt the outlines as much as you want to. I made some of my shapes into oak leaves, for instance, and I added saw-tooth edges to some of the others.
early October
Mostly the stitches are very simple – running stitch, whipped running stitch, couched yarns, seed stitch, straight stitch. They can look really effective in hand-dyed thread, where the colours change subtly or unpredictably. There is nothing very difficult here. If you want to begin this practice yourself, you might find my online course helpful.
late October
There are just two pages left in my cloth book of the year, which seems unbelievable. Pages are each about 9″ x 12″ or thereabouts – September and October in their double page spread (or 61 days of my life):
September hagstones and October leaves
Between stitches I’ve been playing with Procreate again, taking the tumbling leaves vibe into digital form with some Procreate watercolour brushes. Surprisingly satisfying, though nowhere near as messy as the real thing:
digital watercolour leaves
This design is now in my Red Bubble shop and can be printed on all kinds of things.
Leaves
I don’t enjoy the whole self-promotion side, by the way, but the Marketing Manager post is still vacant and generally you have to do these things yourself.
Next month, boxes:
November tomorrow
I find it amazing how these things turn out sometimes. When I designed these templates ten months ago, moving house was absolutely not on our radar. And yet here we are: boxes ready to be stitched, and if all goes well there could be real-life boxes ready to pack. Art mirroring life, or the other way round?
It’s early to be thinking about next year, but I’m launching my 2024 daily stitching template now for a couple of reasons.
mapping 2024
Firstly, we have accepted an unexpectedly prompt offer on our house, so it looks like we will be moving at some point in the next few months. I will need to close the shop temporarily when that happens, possibly at short notice. If we end up moving during the weeks directly preceding the start of January then the templates may be unavailable for a time.
Secondly, there is some optional preparation for next year’s template. You can either work one month at a time and add on each following month’s template as you go, or you can do some cutting and sticking to make one large template for the whole year, as I have done. Full instructions for this, including diagrams, are in the PDF.
2024 templates
I stitched a little sample just to see how it might look. It’s intended to be a kind of aerial map, a landscape seen from above. The whole thing will be about 30-31″ square or so. It’s about mapping the days to create a visual record of time passing, and thinking about the seeds we sow, the harvests we reap, and the paths we travel through the year.
2024 template sample
You can stitch field boundaries in whipped running stitch, or you can couch textured yarns and threads around each block to create something that might represent hedgerows or stone walls.
fields
And of course you don’t need to use it for daily stitching at all; you could just make a stitched sampler if you’re feeling ambitious or in need of a challenge. You can add paths, lanes, rivers, mountains – whatever you like. (If you’re new to daily stitching, you might be interested in my online course here.)
stitch journal template
It’s exactly the same as life, really. It can look unmanageable when you imagine the bigger picture but somehow we get up every morning and work our way through each day, just to keep going. We always get somewhere in the end, even if it’s not where we initially intended.
So here’s to new beginnings just beyond the horizon.
