Close to The End of A Project
Looking forward to new ones...
Hejsa!
Happy new year! I hope the first three days of 2025 have treated you well?
Are you a resolutions kind of person? I am not. Except for my eternal “get better at knitting”. Which I never do much about, so I never actually get better at knitting… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In the last couple of days I have realised something… I feel like I haven’t got any embroidery ideas. Which is very odd. I usually have loads of ideas for patterns or personal projects. I guess it’s because I’ve not been able to do much embroidery for most of 2024 because my stitching hand has been out of commission for one reason or the other. So my whole system/process for finding and capturing ideas has been interrupted… or something.
I’m keen to get back to it! I want my embroidery mojo back! I think this weekend I’m going to sit down with my sketchbook and a pile of inspiring books to get the creative juices flowing.
But first I have a project for this afternoon: finish the Wheel of The Year 2024 book!
The other morning I spent a slightly ridiculous amount of time making this label for it. But it was also kind of satisfying? I am obviously no calligrapher or type designer, so the lettering is a bit uneven and wonky. But I like that. I think it fits the book.
It is really exciting being *this* close to the finish of this project that I have been working on for a whole year!
Speaking of long term projects…
This is what 2,500 hexagons look like! It looks less impressive in this photo because you don’t really get a sense of the height of some of the stacks. It was my goal to reach 2,500 by New Year’s Eve, and I did. That is the approximate number of hexagons I need for the quilt and now I am ready to start sewing them together. In fact, I already have. So exciting! Even if the end of this project is nowhere close. But it’s closer than it ever has been!
Don’t all these Denyse Schmidt fabrics look gorgeous together?!
And another long term project…
My 2024 temperature embroidery. It has been languishing in its project bag since the end of March! I’ve added a bit to it over the Christmas period and I will finish it. AND I am going to do one for 2025 as well.
Oh! Speaking of the temperature embroidery. If you are considering making some kind of embroidery project this year, a quilt or an embroidery or maybe a knitted scarf, I wrote an ebook all about that. It is jam packed with tips for how to organise the project, ideas for quilt blocks and etc. It is also useful for anyone thinking about doing the 100 Day Project this year.
You can check out the ebook here: Ebook Temperature Quilts, Embroideries and Other Slow Craft Projects.
And you can get 15% off the ebook by using the code 2025TEMPERATURES. The code is valid until January 10, 2025.
The code is also valid for the temperature pattern and the DMC temperature colour range. Note that the DMC range is included in both the ebook and the temperature pattern, so no need to buy it separately.
Did you buy a new diary/planner that will definitely make you 100% more organised this year? How long do you reckon it will be before you abandon it? ;-)
I didn’t. Not this year. :-D
I hope you have a lovely first weekend of 2025!
x Carina
Some Things I Am Enjoying
Book: Follow Me In* by Katriona Chapman. I have been wanting to read this graphic novel for a while so I was very happy to get it for Christmas. I have been reading it a little a time, to savour it, and I am really enjoying it.
Music: Spotify randomly played the song Amico and I thought “hey, is that Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day singing in Italian?!” And it was! Turns out it is part of an album (No Fun Mondays) of cover songs that Armstrong/Green Day originally released on YouTube during the pandemic. I really like this album! A particular favourite is the cover of the Bangles song Manic Monday.
*bookshop.org affiliate link.
Some Interesting Things on The Internet
I know Christmas is over etc but here’s an article about a lot of people’s favourite Christmas film: I Rewatched Love Actually and Am Here to Ruin It for All of You.
Tatreez Star Motifs: Reclaiming Indigenous Cultural Knowledge Online through Community Dialogue.
If you are a creator of any kind in the UK you may want to share your point of view on this UK gov consultation about AI’s usage of copyright protected works for FREE. Which should be a resounding HELL NO from everyone.
A Christmas Carol locations in London. Yes, I was obviously saving interesting links in December. ;-)
That patchwork looks challenging! Will it be random or do you have a pattern in mind?