Hello friends,

At the beginning of 2009 I was freshly unemployed because the place I was working (Woolworths) had gone bust in 2008. While I was looking for another job, I started making a few embroidery patterns and eventually that became my job. And I’m still doing it 12 years later. It is the best job I have ever had. Even when I work hard on a pattern I really love and then not a single person buys it (it happens) which kinda sucks. But I keep going. There is nothing I’d rather be doing. :-)

Seven or eight months I started slowly working my way through all the old patterns to update their files. For some of them it is a quick process, just copy-paste the designs into the new layout and it’s ready to go. For some of them it is a much bigger job.

Like this Tree of Life pattern. It is one of those first designs from 2009 (still one of my favourites) and it really needed some TLC. I have improved my pattern drawing skillz a lot in that time, as well as how to put a pattern together. Tree of Life needed an upgrade! I didn’t quite re-draw the pattern, but close!

(If you’re interested, you can find the Tree of Life pattern here, as well as some other “tree” patterns.)

This pattern updating process is time consuming and pretty tedious but it really needs to be done. And it is very satisfying every time I can move a pattern folder from the “Ready to update” to the “Updated patterns” folder! :-)

As well as the satisfaction of having nicely formatted patterns it is also interesting to wander down memory lane with each pattern. Some of them I remember stitching and some of them I completely forgot I had made!

It is also nice to see that my stitching has improved over the years. Although I don’t think that perfection is the goal for embroidery (atleast not for me), it is nice to see that there is consistency in the stitching. If you look at that picture of Tree of Life you can probably tell that I hadn’t quite mastered consistency in my French knots!

I suppose I could re-stitch the pattern so the embroidery in the pattern photo is “perfect” but I kinda like when embroidery has a personality. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, the update process is boring and tedious, sure, but I am also enjoying it a little bit. Although, I’ll admit I sometimes have to bribe myself with a treat to get started! :-D

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Happy stitching xx Carina

Some Things I Enjoyed This Week

I like the urban fantasy genre, and I am currently reading my way through two different series (yes, I do get the characters muddled together sometimes!) The King’s Watch series by Mark Hayden and the New Master of Magical London series by Benedict Jacka. I can recommend both of them if you like urban fantasy.

Poppies! It seems like this is a very good poppy year. Verges, edges of fields, in our garden. Everywhere there is an abundance of poppies. Little orange-red ones, large red or deep pink ones. Peony poppies in red or lilac. They are so beautiful and the bees love them. :-)

Yesterday I made a very simple pizza for dinner: pizza base, pesto and cheese. It was so simple and so good.