It's been an incredibly busy time here. My soap business has grown wings and taken flight off into the sky, and I'm flapping about underneath trying to keep up with it - measuring, making, cutting, wrapping. It used be something I did in the evenings after the children went to bed, now it's a full time job. It's an honour and a privilege to be making soap for families all over the world, and I've learnt a great deal about soapmaking and all of the amazing ingredients that I use every day. But still. Sometimes, we need to go slow.

My family have been to visit me this past week and it was magic. We had so many ups, so many happy moments, so many shared laughs and hugs. I feel so responsible for causing the distance by moving away to pursue other opportunities, but it makes the time we have together full of love. Parting is such deep sorrow though, and I think that's when the distance feels impossible.

And so - I've slowed right down. This week I'll be finishing off all of my outstanding projects and deadlines at work, and then I'll be taking stock and considering what needs to happen and how. I'm two modules away from completing my diploma in reflexology which has been a much-needed escape, and then my aromatherapy diploma starts not long after that. I've been reading everything I can find on folklore and herbalism, circling back to my degrees in fairy tales and the role of the women in communities. It's so funny to come back after ten years of living outside of books. It was inevitable, I think, that I would find solace and self-time in the pages of second hand journals discovered in charity shops and elsewhere.

Next week, I'll start my embroidery tutorials leading the some 20,000 downloads of my "life is beautiful" embroidery sampler through the different stitches and colours that I used to create this little sampler. I think that some scheduled down time, working with my hands away from soap, may be just what's needed.

Did you know that otters go to sleep holding hands so that they don't drift apart in the water?

While I realise that the otterly fabulous hand-holding is an essential survival tactic to ensure survival of the species, this speaks to my inner twee romantic, resplendent in pun-loving ridiculousness. Thank goodness we embrace a healthy level of the ridiculousness in this house.

Because, really, dear husband, you are my significant otter. I want to hold your hand every night when I go to sleep.

Have you stopped laughing yet?


You see? I'm not making it up. That's totally photographic evidence. Image Source Here

I stitched this up, partially for Valentine's Day, partially because I absolutely needed it on my wall to look at each and every day, to remind me how wonderful the world is.

I've drawn up the embroidery pattern so you can stitch it too, and join me in my giggling fit of sillyness in time for Valentine's Day (or any other occasion, really). All you need is a 6" embroidery hoop (if you want to frame it in the hoop), the pattern, embroidery thread and needle, and a good sense of humour.

It doesn't take long - an evening or two of stitching in front of the TV with a cup of tea is all you need. Or less, if you scale the design down and do a smaller embroidery.


Here's how I did mine:

I traced the design on to a piece of linen, and mounted it in a 6" embroidery hoop for stitching. I used a plastic wood-effect embroidery hoop because I like the way it looks (it will stay in its frame to be mounted on the wall), and because it has excellent tension for neat embroidery stitches.

Here are the colours I used for the design:

• Madeira 2214: Brown, used for the outline on both of the otters
• Madeira 1904: Dark Brown, used for the otters' faces and ears
• Madeira 2204: Light Brown, used for the paw details and chins
• Madeira Metallic 3: Gold, used for double stitched detail on the otters around the back, tail and head
• Maderia 2401: White, used for the whiskers, and the outline of the heart
• Madeira Silk 1112: Seafoam Green, used for the bottom line on the waves
• DMC 130: Blue, used for the top line on the waves
• DMC 817: Red, used for the inside line of the heart
• DMC 11: Coral, used for the text

Click here for a link to a thread conversion chart if you want to try and match colours in other brands.


More about stitches:

You can use any colours you want, and any stitches too! I did the almost the entire design in a simple backstitch, with double lines on the waves and the paws and gold outline added as a separate line too.

I stitched around the otter outline entirely in chocolate brown, and then added in extra details (paws in a light caramel brown, and texture on the tail, back and head in gold) afterwards as separate second line. The chin is a single line of caramel brown backstitch. I stitched the heart in bold red, and then outlined it in white.


I used three stands of embroidery thread everywhere except for where I've used gold (the metallic thread is thinner, and more difficult to strand so I used the full thread) and seafoam green (the silk thread is only 4 strands thick, so I used the full thread here too).

The main colour of the waves is the blue DMC 130, with a slightly shorter line of Maderia Silk 1112 filled in underneath each wave.

I also used french knots to dot each i in "significant."

If you're new to embroidery, click here for some lovely illustrations on a handful of basic stitch directions.

Ready to get stitching? Click here to download the pattern.

I'd love to see what you make with this pattern; leave a comment or get in touch!

Happy Stitching x

I took part in this year's VeryBerry Artist Trading Card swap. The theme was "Home Sweet Home", and the idea is to hand-make a textile trading card to send to a swap partner. We had about a month to get it all made up and posted out - thank goodness.

Lookee! My "Life is Beautiful" stitchery is on the cover of Hoop-La! Issue 3. It's also looking fab on their Facebook page all stitched up on simple white cotton. Cover feature, yay.

... and an interview with me too. Yeah, that's my name in capital letters. *Almost* as good as lights.

Today, my heart is soaring with appreciation and thanks to Arden, who brought back the most exquisite silk embroidery threads from her holiday in Morocco ... and then shared them with me! Skeins of silk sea greens, sky blues, soft coffee creams and natural bark browns adorn my craft table.

They will likely be stitched into embroidered flowers - my favourite - but they have the potential to become anything. The silk stitching on mattresses for the Princess and the Pea. The tips of a butterfly's wings. The pollen-tipped stamens in the middle of a spring flower.

Everybody should have a magic pen. It reminds me of when I was very little, drawing on things with (disappearing) ink in an alarming violet purple ... and then watching it fade from sight. Like spy messages sent in lemon juice. Although, this magic pen (by Madiera) is designed specifically for cross-stitchers and embroiderers, not code-breakers: you trace your design or free-hand draw on fabric, stitch over it, and voila! Perfectly stitched patterns without pencil or chalk markings. The markings start to fade within fifteen or so minutes, and they're completely gone within an hour.

Just a few more bits and pieces to stitch, then it's ready to be pressed and patch-worked.

I did a bit more stitching last night, slow but steady progress! My birdie now has a perch and is looking quite cheery. This whole design is done mostly in a combination of back stitch and long stitches, with some added detail in colonial knots (so much more reliable than french knots), running stitch, lazy daisies and feather stitch. Appropriately.

We were (unexpectedly) whisked away to Farringdon this weekend - it's a lovely little village just outside of Oxford. We were visiting my grandparents-in-law who were, earlier this week, down in London for a family event.

I managed to get some stitching done while we were there. No TV, no pubs - just plenty of tea, great company, lots of stories, and a bit of embroidery.

If you want to stitch along with me, you can download my free "home tweet home" embroidery pattern here. Just click on the link, and then right click to save it to a folder on your computer.

I've been adding in stitched details as I go along - a few pink running stitches for the bird's puffed out breast, simple long stitches for feather details, and some simple (aptly-named) feather stitches and colonial knots for the larger feathers.



So far so good! I think that these colours may be a tad too light for the textured linen, but we'll see. The pattern worked up really quickly. I think it took around two hours to stitch the bird and all the added details, and next up is the branch and leaves, the lettering, and the musical notes - then done!

Happy stitching! x

This week, I raided my fabric stash. It's a really funny thing, dipping into one's hoard of lovely fabrics. You feel like you really oughtn't - what if you can never find it again? what if you need it for something else? But what could be more fitting a use for fabric than a new embroidery? Phooey.

I went into the Stash Box specifically looking for some really soft Essex Linen that I bought about a year ago online from The Village Haberdashery. Ta da!

&Stitches is a fabulous quarterly e-zine and blog dedicated to the art of hand-sewing and hand-embroidering. Run by Carina and Nicole, two crafty bloggers extraordinaire, &Stitches is regularly updated with patterns, information and eye-candy related to stitchery inspiration and instructions.

And look who was featured this weekend:

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I'm happy with the linen background, and the soft colours used in the design. I like the lazy daisies best. I had to stop myself from stitching them in all the open spaces.


I've had a few emails asking for the template for stitching, so you can now download the stitching template here (flickr) or here (dropbox). Add your own colours and free-hand flowers or bugs. Bugs are very spring-y. I look forward to seeing how yours turn out too!

My Spring Sampler is coming along slowly, but it is oh so cheery! Just a few more lazy daisies, a final smattering of colonial knots and cross-stitches, and it'll be done. I designed it to fit in an 8" embroidery hoop - but of course, all of the 8" hoops are now out of stock at my LYS, and I can't find the specific one I want online either. Hurrumph.

It turns out, The Great British Sewing Bee is an excellent inspiration for picking up your stitching for an hour a week while you watch it. I do like how it seems to have galvanised a nation through only four episodes. Jolly good.

It's very nearly - almost - spring. The skies are a bit gloomy, but every now and then a beam of sunlight breaks through and you have to resist the urge to stretch out and nap in the yellow warmth.

I have never learnt how to do embroidery. Never. In primary school our classes were separated into girls and boys, and the girls would do needlework (I knitted a rat as my first project) and the boys would do woodwork. Then, after about four or five lessons into the school term, we were all thrown into the same class for 'design and technology' where we would sand down cast resin, or construct bookshelves out of wood. That was definitely more my style, which was convenient as 'needlework' was done away with completely as a subject.