It took a pandemic and an extremely long lockdown, but I’ve developed a new hobby: embroidery!
I like buying cute designs on Etsy to support small brands, but sometimes I design my own after hours of scrolling through Pinterest and drawing multiple hoops with my watercolours.
I’m not an expert on embroidering, I’m still learning a lot of new stitches, but I wanted to start this page on my blog to keep a record of all my hoops.
Craftpod’s Winter Box 2020/21
Another season, another Craftpod! Winter is my second favourite season, so I was very excited to receive this box. I had high expectations, assuming the project would be a traditional Christmas design or a snowy scene. So I was definitely surprised when the theme for the box were swans.
My first autumn embroidery
Autumn is my favourite season, in case it wasn’t obvious for all the autumn-related posts I have on this blog. I think is the change in the leaves and the start of cold weather that make autumn the best season.
Craftpod’s Autumn 2020 Box
Here it is! After months of waiting, I finally got my Craftpod’s autumn box! I was very excited to open it and see the projects that would accompany me this season. But I was a bit disappointed with the felt project.
Designing an autumn embroidery
I designed an autumn embroidery for the first time. I did a quick research on Pinterest and Etsy for autumn embroideries, and most of them had a few things in common: there were foxes, pumpkins and oak leaves, with the occasional red mushrooms and acorns. I wanted to do a traditional autumn embroidery, so I…
Reviewing Love Embroidery Magazine
Seven months ago, I got an ad on Instagram promoting a 6-month subscription for Love Embroidery, a monthly magazine for embroidery enthusiasts. For the first time ever, I subscribed to a magazine because lockdown and also having a magazine subscription sounds very grown-up.
Craftpod Spring 2021 – Cross-Stitching for the first time
The start of a new season doesn’t mean much for most people, but for me, it means there’s a new Craftpod to explore, and the Spring box was a good one. I’ve never been a fan of cross stitch, I’ve always considered it something older people do to pass the time. I’ve previously looked down…
Creating a keyring embroidery
This month’s Love Embroidery magazine, issue 14, came with a keyring embroidery project that I was very excited to try. The embroidery, though, a floral design with woven wheel roses, wasn’t my style. So I decided to get my watercolours out to design a simple embroidery that would look good inside a tiny hoop.
A Bumblebee Embroidery
Have you ever been in an embroiderer’s living room and looked at their hoop collection and noticed a bee embroidery hanging on the wall? Creating one bumblebee embroidery, usually surrounded by flowers with the bee in the centre, is like a rite of passage in an embroiderer’s life.
Craftpod’s Summer Box 2021
I’m not a summer person. I guess that’s obvious by the name of this blog, so I wasn’t excited it was already June, but I was excited that a new season meant a new Craftpod. I had zero expectations this time because their boxes this past year have been so varied I don’t know what…
Craftpod’s Autumn 2021 Box
Every season I look forward to getting my Craftpod box, it’s honestly a big highlight in my monotonous life. I love the surprise of not knowing what projects they’ve planned for the season, growing my collection of DMC threads and trying new things.
A tiny sloth embroidery
I found this design when I was reading the Love Embroidery magazine and I thought the sloth looked so funny and cute that I needed to stitch it right away.
A Valentine’s Day Embroidery
I’m not much of a Valentine’s day fan, but I like to use it as an excuse to do something with my partner. Pre-covid we’d have gone out for dinner, something we rarely do because we’re both indoor people. But having something to “celebrate” forces us out of the flat, I get to wear something…
My story with embroidery: A lockdown romance
After four and a half months of forced quarantine, the watercolours that I had started doing pre-lockdown started to get tiring. They were no longer a creative escape, painting beautiful flowery landscapes that I wasn’t able to visit was becoming depressing. So after one of those long days of scrolling through Etsy, I caved, I…
Halloween cross-stitch and pumpkin carving
Happy Halloween! Don’t you love this time of year? It’s been raining almost non-stop every day since October started. The streets are full of colourful fallen leaves, there are pumpkins everywhere, and I finally got to wear my winter coat.
A small winter cross-stitch
I’ve been in a kind of craft slump. After my failed first attempt at knitting a scarf, I was incapable of crafting anything at all until I bought this old Craftpod kit on Etsy. I thought an easy, fast project like this cute winter cross-stitch would help me get out of my crafter’s block. And…
Willow in Winter 