Make room for creativity in 2024

Plus an invitation to stitch with me this coming year

Hello friends!

I hope you’ve had a relaxing festive period doing whatever makes you happy ❤️ We’ve had a really quiet one just the four of us, and it has been wonderful to actually take some time off and spend it together. Highlights have included long Lego sessions, playing football on the field down our street and our son’s reaction to opening his mini traffic cones on Christmas Day!

One of the hardest things I’ve found about having a creative job is that the thing that I do for work is also the thing that I do to relax. It has been like this through most of my working life, first as a musician and music teacher and now as an embroidery artist. I’ve recently realised that it’s probably one of the reasons that I don’t find it easy to switch off. So in 2024 I’m really keen to find little pockets of time each week for something creative that’s just for me.

New Year’s resolutions are difficult to stick to, so a few years ago I switched to making goals and intentions for the year. I looked back at my blog and it turns out that it was actually in 2018 when I made this switch! In this post, I talked about my goals and intentions for that year (which on reading them 6 years later still feels relevant, so make of that what you will 😂). It’s a habit I’ve stuck to, although I must admit that the goals for the past couple of years fell by the wayside a bit.

So in 2024, I’m still going to be dipping in and out of my mural banner project (which I reflected on in this post), but that’s a long-term project that is a long way from finishing! Whilst I love a long WIP, it’s nice to have something that’s a quicker finish sometimes isn’t it? You get that sense of satisfaction from finishing, and I think where I’ve been lacking in my creativity is working on and completing something completely for myself.

It’s also going to be the year that I take up dressmaking again, and this time I’m armed with a new overlocker (aka a serger if you’re in the US). She needed a name, so I settled on Orla! Together, me and Orla are going to crack this dressmaking thing. First up is some leggings, and then I want to make a quilted coat too. As I’m fairly tall, the Nerissa pattern from By Hand London looks like a great long length option but I’m still deciding. My friend Louise has a nifty pattern where you can draft a pattern for leggings to fit you exactly, so I’ll report back on that when I’ve had a go.

How can you make room for creativity in 2024? Are you going to work on a bigger project, or find more pockets of time to create something? I’d love to hear about them, so let me know in the comments.

I thought it would be good to document my goals and intentions here too, so here goes:

GOALS (for my business)

1. Launch my new embroidery subscription here on Substack

2. Work on more collaborative projects

3. Get into better monthly habits with accounting

INTENTIONS

1. Make space for more personal creative projects

2. Learn how to measure myself properly and create a handful of me-made garments

3. Remember to prioritise rest

What are your goals or intentions for the coming year? I’d love to know, so do let me know in the comments if you’re able to share.

An invitation to stitch with me this coming year

If you’re looking for something creative to get stuck into this year, I’d love to invite you to join my new embroidery membership on Substack! And here’s a first look at the first project too, the THRIVE hoop 😍

My paid membership will include a bi-monthly pattern, with full video tutorial and pdf pattern, plus a chance to get to know each other and ask any questions in our membership chat! The bi-monthly pattern alternates with a masterclass month, which is another video tutorial based on the same project, but it will give you the tools and confidence to explore techniques beyond the design.

Alongside this will be the Hello! Hooray! Pattern Archive, which will launch at the same time. This will be available to anyone who signs up to become a Founding Member, and includes best-selling patterns such as Keep Going, Trust the Process and the Sunbeams hoop.

The community element of the membership is really important to me, and it’s something that can grow here on Substack in a way that’s different on other platforms. I can’t wait to get to know you and stitch together!

The official launch will be 30th January, but pledge to join me now by clicking this button below.

If you pledge today, you won’t be charged until the membership goes live on 30th January 2024. It’s £10 a month, or £96 per year (£8 per month, billed annually). I’ll be breaking that down for transparency in the launch post next month. Membership costs do not include project materials.

I’ve had a couple of pledges already and I’m so grateful to you for them, especially as you’ve put your faith in me not really knowing much about it. Thank you!

Stitch of the month

This month I’m coming back to herringbone stitch! I found this really tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a really beautiful stitch. Try stitching with some perle thread if you don’t get on with it using standard embroidery thread, as this definitely helps! 

Find the YouTube tutorial here. Don’t forget to tag me if you use it, or drop me an email if you have any questions about this stitch too! There’s a link to this free project a bit later in this post too.

Currently reading

This month I ordered and finished the follow-up to last month’s recommendation 😂 and then I pre-ordered the third and final part which comes out next year! I absolutely loved The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson (affiliate link), I just couldn’t put it down. No spoilers but there is a huge unexpected twist at the end of the first book, and The Shadow Cabinet picks up right where it left off with even more twists and turns. Would highly recommend!

I’m also dipping in and out of Raising a Happier Mother by Anna Mathur (affiliate link). If you’re an exhausted and overwhelmed mum (like me!) then it’s a brilliant read. Mathur keeps coming back to the idea of the perfect mum that we have in our heads, and how we can challenge this - this really resonates with me and it’s a really helpful book. There are great prompts for journaling and discussion, and it’s worth having it on your shelf to refer to.

Home ed

We’ve been doing lots of drawing and painting this month, and I’m really excited about the release of Drawing People: 100 Prompts, Projects and Playful Exercises by Viktorija Semjonova (affiliate link). We got a copy of this for our daughter for Christmas and she loves it - although it’s not aimed at children it’s definitely suitable for 7+ and it’s so beautifully illustrated. I met Viktorija at Blogtacular a few years ago in one of her workshops, and she's such a talented illustrator and I just love her style. The book is easy to follow and is packed full of drawing exercises that you can do in the book or on paper if you prefer, and there’s loads of helpful info and tutorials too. We can’t wait to do more!

If you’re a fan of drawing tutorials then you should also check out Draw With Rob by Rob Biddulph if you haven’t already! They are so well-paced and easy to follow, we highly recommend them.

From the archives

This herringbone stitch ombre heart hoop is from The Happy Stitch Project and is my most watched tutorial on YouTube at over 13K views! I was not best friends with herringbone stitch at first, but I love it much more now 😂 Find written instructions and templates here on my website.

This sprinkles hoop would also be a lovely project to stitch in January too.

These simple roll up blinds are really easy to make, and they’re still going strong even though I made them back in 2015.

Hello! Hooray! Shop

I had hoped to include materials packs for the THRIVE hoop in this post, but to be quite honest I was so exhausted before Christmas that I ran out of time! They will be available very soon, and a full materials list will be included when the project is released on the 30th January. There’s plenty of time to source and stitch it if you wait until then, but I promise to get them listed when I return to work in January and I’ll let you know when they’re available.

Next month, this newsletter will be hitting your inboxes slightly earlier than usual and there will also be an additional posts in the run up to launching my paid membership.

Don’t forget that you can join us here - pledge now and you won’t pay anything until 30th January 👇🏻

See you again soon!

Thanks so much for reading, it’s wonderful to have you here 💖 I hope you find some time for creativity this month, and if you want to chat you can reply here on Substack or find me on socials too.

Clare 😊