Hello

My dears, I am so sorry.  It has been over a year and I have no excuses, I just lost my mojo there for a while and life got in the way.

But now I’m back.  Isn’t our world a strange place to be?  I knew what was expected of me during lockdown but each week now, even each day, things change and I have to completely reframe my world and expectations.  Is anyone else finding it exhausting?

I am fortunate.  My boys are all well and gainfully employed and we have a gorgeous new puppy who we adopted in February and who joined us at the beginning of March.  But more about her another time.

Over the last 3 months I have been doing some knitting and crochet but the craft that has been inspiring me is embroidery.  Yes, I know, right?

I’m not known for being the neatest person in the world and always though satin stitch was for real crafters but not for me.  Last year I subscribed to a wonderful box club called Craft Pod.  The cute boxes had languished on my shelves waiting for the right moment.  I enjoyed looking at them but wasn’t quite brave enough.  Until now.

The instructions from Craft Pod are so clear and beautifully photograph so even a complete beginner like me can get to grips with embroidery. I have just re-subscribed for another year of stitching fun.

I am now completely addicted – I even bought one of those daylight lamps with a magnifier!  My favourite trousers had some unfortunate paint marks on them that wouldn’t come out so I reached for my Zakka Embroidery book and, whoops, a load of paisley motifs covered the worst of it.

I traced the designs on to a water soluble fabric, which made the whole process much easier

I have even made myself a Biscornu pin cushion, using this tutorial, from two scraps of denim embroidered with a Sashiko pattern.  I used my sewing machine to sew a square round the design with a long stitch length. And yes I am geeky enough to colour code my pins.

I am about to start a lovely vintage design that I bought at Linladan – you simply have to check out their website – which doesn’t actually tell you which stitch to put where, but gives you examples of what you could do. So now I’m about to freestyle.

I do still have things to learn about knitting and crochet, but starting a new craft from scratch has given me an incredible sense of achievement and has definitely soothed my soul.