I’ve been enjoying a quiet week in the studio, organising my shelves and finding inspiration in my collection of books and materials. Focusing on small tasks is great for my mental health and it’s an opportunity to do those little jobs that are often overlooked.

In my post Tools of the Trade, I talked about the different type of embroidery hoops I use in my work. This included a link to a hoop binding tutorial and I’ve given my collection of wooden hoops a colouring makeover using all the bias binding I’ve collected over the years. I can’t wait to use them on some upcoming projects.

Last week I wrote about taking inspiration from Stitches: New Approaches, a book from my collection. I’ve decided to make a stitch experiments journal as a way of documenting ideas new and old. Each page have a sample and some notes which takes me back to my uni days and the technical files we created as part of our assessments.

I’ve really enjoyed the quiet days of hand stitching, working with simple straight stitches and a variety of threads. The different patterns and textures you can create by layering the stitches and using different colours for shading is fantastic.

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