Enjoying a sense of peace one stitch at a time
I’ve been invited to the Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) for a long time, but haven’t joined in because my stitching and sewing bugs were off having a holiday together. The time has finally come that I can actually join the group and put needle to fabric, woohoo!!!
I started this project last week, and it just needed to have the binding and button to be attached before it’s finished. Hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll be able to share the finished project!
Now my stitching mojo has returned a bit, I’m attempting to join the WIPGO Challenge again this year. So far so good, I’m managing to give some love to each of the projects called – both in my Stitching and Sewing WIPGO boards.
I’m also trying to keep track in a digital planner this year to help keep me motivated, and it’s great to be able to quickly jot down notes into the planner on my iPad … I just have to remember to go into the planner in the first place LOL.
#20 on my sewing board was to complete the Sewing Day Tote Bag that was a Tilda Lovers Group sew-along project in 2020 which I was unable to complete. I loved being able to tick this one off of the list of those backlog classes, and I look forward to doing some more as the months go on this year. Here’s my finished project – I changed it slightly by changing the fabric choices to cool tones (all Tilda fabrics), and I didn’t add the stitchery panel that’s supposed to go on the front of the bag, but added another two columns of squares instead.
The next project that was called is the “Be my valentine hanging scrappy heart” project from the same sew-along. Hopefully I’ll manage to get that one completed by the end of January as well – I’m loving getting my sewing machine out again after a 4-year hiatus!
I’m a 50-something crafter in Australia who’s been stitching for approximately 35 or so years and I’m never happy unless I’m learning something new and being challenged by my crafts. After a number of very stressful years due to the loss of my parents, I’m finally ready to get back to my stitching again on a regular basis, while trying to juggle other crafts as well (sewing/patchwork, crochet and cardmaking).
My goals are relatively simple for 2025. The aim is to finish a couple of projects, but also make ‘some progress’ on other existing WIPs as well.
Here are photos of most of my WIPs/UFOs as they stand now, just to keep track of any future progress I make.
My mojo didn’t last long at the start of the year, so there’s not a huge amount to recap from earlier, but I’m super happy that during November and December I got a big chunk of stitching done. I also loved getting a couple of finishes under my belt early in the year before my mojo disappeared again for a while. And considering I changed my goals to just have the single goal of “finish at least one needlework project by the end of the year“, I guess I can call 2024 a success 😀
I joined the WIP Warriors Facebook group this year – and got made redundant from my job in November, where I’d been employed for just over 24 years. The timing of the WIP Warriors group was perfect, because their challenges really helped me to get back into my stitching on a regular basis again over the last month or so – and that’s been really therapeutic for my emotions and my sense of belonging. It also meant some reasonable progress on a few WIPs these last few weeks to close out the year.
“Lahaina Breezes” by Laura J Perin
“Quaker Diamonds” by Rosewood Manor
Scarf from a 2020 Crochet Society subscription box (to be donated to charity)
I’m so thrilled to see some decent progress on Three Kings and Mini Sunflowers this month – they’ll be two of my focus projects for next year, with the aim to finish Three Kings so it can be on display next Christmas.
I joined an exchange for the first time – I hadn’t touched my sewing machine in almost 4 years, and I found it a struggle I’ll be honest. Then when I was made redundant in the last month of prepping for the exchange I just didn’t have the headspace available to finish the last couple of homemade gifts that I wanted to include. I’m still proud of what I managed to achieve, but it wasn’t the exchange gift I wanted to send. I may still complete the remaining two items in the new year and send on to my recipient, though.
These are photos of what I sent to my exchange partner – the criteria was to send something in each of the following 5 categories/themes:
I recently unpacked my cartonnage tools and completed a past kit project from Boxed and Bound – and it was probably my most challenging project to date, with lots of errors made on my part. The end result, though, is a really stunning and functional box, made in some of my favourite Tilda fabrics (Cotton Beach collection). As I love blues and teals of all shades, and I adore beachy decor, this was the perfect mix for me!
Oh my goodness, I’m not sure what’s happening, but I love it! I’ve managed to put a few stitches into another old WIP – this is one I really want to get finished in time for Christmas 2025 so it’ll be one of my primary focus projects for next year. Going by the progress this week, if I keep it up I think that’s completely doable. This is my current update for Three Kings by Mill Hill/Jim Shore.
My work team cancelled my farewell lunch yesterday for my last official working day (I’m leaving due to redundancy after 24+ years), so I was feeling pretty emotional. Stitching to the rescue – I spent the afternoon putting in 1,000 more stitches into HAED’s Mini Sunflowers instead of being taken out to lunch. Every one of those stitches helped to ease my mind – stitching is amazing in that way, and I feel really blessed having my crafts as an outlet for these times. I’ve managed significant progress these last few days!
I can’t believe it, I have another stitching update – maybe the mojo really IS back again?! I joined a new-to-me Facebook group called WIP Warriors and I’ve joined in with one of the challenges, and that’s really helped me get back my love of stitching. Still working on getting a comfy stitching spot worked out in the lounge, but very day is one step closer to getting settled …
This week I’ve managed progress on two of my WIPs – I managed just over 200 stitches on Quaker Christmas II by ByGone Stitches, and 300 stitches on HAED’s Mini Sunflowers.
Here are photos of most of my WIPs/UFOs as they stand now, just to keep track of any future progress I make.
I have to say it feels really good to have a needle between my fingers once again – hopefully this is the start of continued progress. I’m especially loving working on the Mini Sunflowers, and that will remain one of my three focus pieces for next year.
Question of the Month: How do you begin planning for the next year with your stitching? Tell us your process.
I have to admit while my mojo has been absent each year I’ve planned and failed, and so each following year I whittle down my goals to what may be more achievable. This year is no different, so I had a closer look at my WIPs list and realised a lot of them don’t give me a lot of joy – because of that I decided it was time to freshen up my WIP list with some new starts, hoping that would help give me momentum to continue stitching regularly instead of being such a chore. I’ve decided to still have my WIPGO board, which will help me do a small amount of stitching on my oldest, and less loved, WIPs – but instead of lofty goals I’ve decided to just focus primarily on 3-4 projects to get them closer to a finish, and just chip away slowly at the remaining ones. Maybe next year will be the year I finally have something to show for all my planning … although I love the planning stage, even if I rarely tick of achievements – it’s fun to do all on its own.
Oh my goodness I can’t believe it’s been this long since I posted, after a good start to the year. As it turns out I decided to buy my first home – and a mammoth move 2 hours north of Sydney. A few moving issues, and still not fully unpacked six months later, and my stitching mojo disappeared again!
My stitching mojo wasn’t helped by the fact I adopted a beautiful wee kitty who, after settling in, decided that she likes to sprawl all over my lap making stitching more challenging … something I need to work on improving in the new year. Smudge was the old family pet of a dear stitching friend that had to be rehomed due to no fault of her own, and she was 11 years old when I took her in – we bonded really quickly and she’s been an amazing companion that likes to follow me around and sleeps where she can see/hear me and is almost always found on my desk or on the floor by me when I’m working etc. She’s a total sweetheart that has captured my heart 100% since the minute she arrived on my doorstep ❤ I’ll add more favourite photos at the end of the post 🙂
In the early days, though, before she was superglued to my lap every night, I did manage to sneak in one finish back in April when I first moved into my new home – Lahaina Breezes by Laura J Perin was such a delight to stitch, even with those pesky rayon ribbon threads haha. It look amazing in real life with all the various textures, and I’m so proud of this one!
Starting point:
Completed:
I just made redundant last week after 24+ years with my employer 😦 I’ve decided to take a break for 6-8 weeks over Christmas before job hunting again, and I’m hoping it’ll give me chance to finish a lot of the unpacking and to get my craft space more organised, along with trying to get my stitching mojo back more regularly. It’s a juggling act trying to give time to all my different crafts, but hopefully not having to work will give me the mental energy to work out a plan for the new year and set some routines in place. I’ll admit the first thought I had was that I’m so grateful I have a huge craft stash for my three main hobbies (stitching, sewing and cardmaking), and that this is the reason I’ve been stashing all these years, just waiting for this day to happen LOL – it definitely does help me keep a positive mindset right now anyway, and I’m excited to re-explore everything that I already have instead of burning through the cash every month haha.
2025, the year of less spending but more crafting … I say, bring it on!!! But before than, here’s some more Smudge (aka ‘old fluffy bum’) spam 😀
Feather Stitching 