Time flies. The first month of daily stitching for 2026 is complete, and the cloth fills up almost on its own while we’re looking the other way.
January 2026, daily stitching
There were early days
early January 2026
There were cold sparkly frosty days
early January 2026
And in-between days
late January 2026January days
New for this year are YouTube videos of daily stitching. Definitely not every day but maybe once or twice a week, when I can. I have some responsibilities at present, and much depends on how much of that needs my attention.
For now, we go onward into February
February ahead
And some snowdrops for Imbolc
1st February
If you’re having your own daily stitching adventure this year, I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am. This is my fifth year, and it’s still just as necessary and enjoyable as it ever was. I think of it as a little oasis of peace in an increasingly turbulent world.
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.
practice piece
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.
optional extras
Of course you can make up your own grid and/or shapes as well, whatever has meaning for you.
triangle tree in feather stitch
Here’s the back of the clutch-bag-case-carry thing, for an idea of how it might look:
sampler, back
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.
preparing the grid lines
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.
looking ahead
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.
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.
Probably a better descriptor than ‘monochromatic’, since the latter could feasibly be any single colour. You can probably see how much I’m still enjoying my achromatic sketchbook – basically all just black and white, exploring compositions through painting, drawing and collage.
murmuration, pen and watercolour on cotton paper
I’m using two shades of black (ivory black and mars black), white, and buff titanium. I’m also allowing myself a little Payne’s grey and Goethite (a subtle warm sandy colour) here and there – probably a little outside the black and white rule but then I make the rules so I can also break them.
watercolour on soft cotton papercolour palette and pebbles
I gathered together a wide range of substrates when I made this book, including canvas, cotton rag paper, cartridge paper, watercolour paper and handmade papers. Each one takes paint and ink slightly differently, making this sketchbook perfect for all kinds of exploration.
pebbles, painting (left) and collage (right)
I’ve also used plain black india ink here and there.
ink on canvas
And some collage:
collage from magazine papers with textlayered papers with text
There’s some figurative work (or play) too. I like birds. I think the ability to fly would be my superpower if I could choose one.
Raven, coloured pencil on watercolour background Magpie, coloured pencil on watercolour
Something a little looser:
crow, black ink over watercolour
I also created some printed/stamped papers that I’ve stuck in here and there.
watercolour (left) and hand-printed paper (right)
Today I’m looking through some fabrics to make some textile/stitched samples.
black and white fabrics and threads
I’m actually starting to run out of pages, and I can easily see the attraction of a second volume. I would never have expected black and white to be so interesting and engaging. Just proves the value of venturing outside your comfort zone and having a go. I do like a creative adventure.
I’ve been sorting through my fabrics and scraps, and I’ve put together a couple of options that are now available in the shop.
The first is a sheer and semi-sheer/textured fabrics scraps pack that looks a bit like this:
FSH – sheer fabrics scraps pack, example
You can see average contents here:
sheer fabrics collection
The second is a lightweight fabrics selection, mostly hand-dyed, and mostly cotton with some scraps of silk and/or linen:
lightweight fabric scraps, average contents
And one in the making:
lightweight fabrics
Both packs are good for layering, to create little landscapes or stitched samples. I used some of the scraps to create a very long cloth, which I’m starting to explore.
a long landscape
Not sure where this one is going, but it looks like a long road. It’s about 4″ wide by about eight feet.
May always feels like quite a long month to me, but not this year. The days continue to fly by and even though the days are getting longer here in the northern hemisphere, there never seem to be enough hours.
All of May
As always, a few stitches every day.
end of May
It’s been mostly winding/processing thread (and orders, thank you) and checking in with the various Making Zen groups and posts this month. Next month I hope to make a little time just for me.
May, stitch journal, detail
Of course we can’t ‘make’ time. It’s all the same time. The same twenty-four hours in every day, perpetual motion as the minutes pass and the world turns.
May, stitch journal, detail
It’s very easy to get caught up in the minutiae of daily life, and sitting with needle and thread for a few minutes every day is very calming.
May, stitch journal, detail
I calculated that it’s 1,247 days since I started this practice. I guess that’s a lot of stitching.
May, stitch journal, detail
I sometimes wonder where these annual stitch calendars will end up. I was half-joking when I said in my Making Zen chat with Kate that I might exhibit them when I’ve got ten years’ worth. Only another six and a half years to go, if that turns out to be a thing.
May, stitch journal, detail
The other side is important too: the side we don’t see, the side that forms the foundation and stability for daily work. The side that shows where you went and how you got there. It doesn’t need to be tidy or neat. Beneath the surface I suspect we’re all a fairly chaotic jumble of thoughts and feelings. It’s a kind of map, I guess. I think of these things as maps of time.
The other side of May
Looking forward to meeting June tomorrow:
June ahead
A warm welcome to all of you who are new to the blog as a result of Making Zen. Nothing much happens here, but if you enjoy a few quiet moments now and again then you’re probably in the right place. If you’re thinking of beginning your own daily stitching journey, please do take a look at my online class Intuitive Daily Stitching. Learn at your own pace, and watch as many times as you like.
And if you enjoyed my Making Zen workshop, you can take those ideas and techniques a bit further with my Stitched Samples for Sketchbooks course.
Always a short month, but this year it seems shorter than usual. I’m ending this month with an anniversary, as today is a year since we moved in to our current home.
Home
It’s taken a while for it to feel like home, but it does now and I’m looking forward to seeing our new garden grow a bit more this year. The seeds and ideas that we plant can take a while to yield visible results, and what starts as a scrap or fragment becomes part of something much bigger once it starts to grow. It all happens in its own time.
I’ve enjoyed using up scraps and odd ends this month.
circular form made with a scrap of silk fibrecurled spiral scrap of silk fibre
Running stitch, whipped running stitch, and couching are probably still my favourites. I like lines. Time lines, perhaps.
mid-February
Mostly it’s mark-making with needle and thread.
early February
There is a lovely darn on the edge of this linen, presumably made many years ago. I’m guessing this linen was probably hand-woven on a home loom because the width is much narrower than a machine-made sheet would be, and the selvedge that you can see beside the darn had originally been in the centre of the sheet where two widths had been joined. Someone, long ago and in a different home, carefully mended this cloth for the future, and their future is my present. Time does stand still sometimes.
mended
Holding time in stitches, weaving between past and future.
The long view:
February
And the other side:
the side we don’t show the world
Onward to March. Marching onward. See what I did there.
I started this over two years ago, and finished it last week.
A Long Life, detail
30,000 straight stitches on vintage silk, taken from various handmade silk lingerie garments, backed with soft brushed cotton. The number of stitches is equal to the number of days in the life of someone who has lived to the age of (just over) 82, which is a reasonably optimistic estimate of average life expectancy in this country. It’s not a memorial of a particular individual; more a general reflection on (or of) human life.
A Long Life, detail
I’ve used hand-dyed silk and cotton threads, mostly equivalent to perle 8 or 12, and changed colour after completing each set of 365 stitches (every four sets I added an extra stitch to account for leap years). There are 532 (and a bit) rows. The whole work measures 6 inches (15cm) wide, and 22.5 feet (6.9m or 271 inches) long.
I counted the stitches and rows as I went along, to keep a running total and to keep track of the beginning and ending of each year block. I didn’t start a new row for each year.
A Long Life notebook – keeping the score
If there were seams, buttonholes, buttons, lace, or rust stains on the silk as I carefully deconstructed the garments, I left them in. That’s life.
buttons and lacehand-stitched seamrust stain
I didn’t expect to become so emotionally invested in it. There was a distinct moment of sadness and even a little shock as I placed the last stitch. While a life as long as this is to be celebrated as well as mourned, I couldn’t help but think of all the other, shorter, lives that end too soon.
A Long Life – the end
The briefest moment separates life and death. I can totally understand the Greeks’ idea of the three Fates, and Atropos cutting the thread of life.
I’m piecing together a new course on patchwork and accidentally found some pictures of past work. Patchwork past work, you might say, if you like tongue twisters.
patchwork suns and moons
I was a bit startled by this one, from around 2009-ish I think. Far too colourful to be me, surely:
Square Dance
I remember the patchwork cave art creature was fun.
silk patchwork animal inspired by cave art
Lots of very tiny squares in this one – about 3/4″ I think.
Today it’s all much quieter, but equally productive. It takes a few weeks to plan and produce an online course, so I hope to have this one ready some time next month.
patchwork in progress
In the meantime I’ll be closing the shop for a couple of weeks from 13th July while I take a short break. My Teachable school will remain accessible if you’re looking for PDF templates or current courses.
