Stitch Journal

I was really really hoping that I would be writing my first post of 2022 and it would be about my sky blanket progress. Sadly, that was not to be. Although I am making progress, it’s slow. I may still only be in mid July, but I have carefully kept a note of the sky each day. In mid January I realised that I was missing making that note, ready to document in stitch form. It was then that I decided that I needed another stitchy way to document my year.

In the last few months I have been exploring embroidery. During the first lockdown, I rediscovered cross stitch after about thirty years. The next logical step was to try some embroidery, something that has always intimidated me. I signed myself up to some online embroidery workshops last summer (Nicky from Little Light Stitchery is a brilliant teacher) and I was hooked.

Over the last few years I have seen people posting pictures of their stitch journal on instagram. I have often thought I would like to do one, but never thought my stitching was good enough. Well, the only way to get better is to try, right? So this year I will be keeping my very own stitch journal and hopefully learning new stitches along the way.

I fell in love with the Phenology wheel designed by Oh Sew Bootiful. I’m a sucker for anything rainbow, and I knew that this would be my stitch journal fabric.

Unlike my sky blanket, I do not intend to document each day. Instead, I will use my stitch journal to record key moments each month.

January’s stitches are:

• Music notes: wind quintet rehearsal
• Mircrophone: playing rock band over the new year with family
• Rock guitar: playing rock band with friends
• Car: we test drove some cars early in the month
• Task Master: we played over zoom with family. It was hilarious and I can definitely recommend it.
• Haggis: we celebrated Burns Night with friends
• Sewing Machine: I definitely got my sew-jo back in January
• Crochet hook: I think this is going to feature heavily throughout the year.

My stitching is far from perfect, but I am loving my stitch journal. So far I have learned how to do a French knot which a month ago seemed beyond baffling. I will definitely have to try and plan my spacing better in the coming months, especially if it’s a busy one with lots to fit in.

I haven’t quite decided what to do with the lines in between each segment, or the month names at the top. The cloud clearly needed to have a silver lining and I love how it looks in the middle. The silver thread was a nightmare to stitch with, but I really like the look. If I am feeling brave I may use the silver to do the lines, like rays of sunlight coming out from behind the cloud.

My stitch journal is giving me so much pleasure, and not just because my Zippy needle minder makes me smile. I don’t feel the pressure that I did (still do) feel to keep up with my sky blanket. It doesn’t have to be done every day, and even if I leave it for a while, it really doesn’t take long to stitch the small images. For me, the challenge is to get better at embroidery and to learn new stitches along the way.