A New Hobby For 2017: Learning How To Do Embroidery

I don't think you can have too many hobbies.  The only problem is trying to fit them all into what ever spare time you may have. That being said, I still decided to add to my hobby collection by learning how to do embroidery.  As you may have seen on my previous posts, I already do cross stitch but I've always wanted to learn how to embroider.

There are so many different types of stitches in embroidery which can create a brilliant array of textures and patterns. Above you can see that I've been gingerly practising a few of these.  At the moment, things are a bit wobbly but it was really fun to see the patterns a stitch can make.  I'm learning from a book I got for Christmas which is called 'How to Embroider: Techniques and Projects for the Complete Beginner', by Susie Johns. You can get a copy on Amazon here. I'd highly recommend it as the images and instructions are really easy to follow. 

I then decided to attempt a little freehand piece with my favourite stitch so far, the chain stitch. I chose a cactus because I was looking at my little baby cacti today, willing them to grow and one day flower like this one.
It was pretty fun to try to 'draw' with the thread and it was very freeing compared to when I work on my cross stitch.
I'm going to go back to practising the stitches again before attempting any more cacti...or other things. I'm also going to invest in a different type of material to work on as this cotton is a bit thin.

I'm still continuing with cross stitch too and this is my most recent project.  It's a victorian sampler kit which I got for Christmas and it's going pretty well so far. Cross stitch takes a lot longer than embroidery but it's worth seeing the image slowly appearing. I think this one will look particularly nice when it's finished as I've always loved victorian samplers so it's pretty enjoyable to create my own.

It's really fun to learn a new skill, especially when it can flow into your other work.  I'm really keen to embroider some of my own drawings in the future when I've become a bit more confident with the stitches. I'll be sure to post up my progress on here. Have you taken on any new hobbies for the new year?

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Goodbye 2016, hello 2017!

Hello 2017, you've come around rather quickly! As a year, 2016 for me was quite a turning point for a number of reasons.  The first was that I had the chance to see what is needed to produce and sell my own art work, something that I've been wanting to do for many years.  This insight has given me the confidence and the knowledge to do just that so in the coming months I'll be starting to produce work with the view to turn it into sellable products.

My other turning point was discovering the main reason why my knees have dislocated all my life. I haven't had the chance to pop up an update about my knees (flu + Christmas), but I'll get one up soon to explain all that fully. The solution to the problem comes in the form of operations which will take up a large amount of time this year but I'm so relieved to have been given a solution to a problem that affects me on a daily basis.



I've also decided that I'm going to join the planner community this year! I didn't even realise such a community existed up until a few weeks ago.  Although we all have so many fancy apps on our phones that can sort out our diaries and to do lists, I've always preferred paper options for that sort of thing. I decided to invest in a Filofax and on looking them up online, I discovered there's a lot of love for planners out there at the moment, especially bullet journalling. There are blogs, YouTube videos, Pinterest boards and Instagram accounts full of peoples planner setups. My love of stationary and making lists took over and I got hooked quite quickly looking at these, so I have decided to officially join the community! It's also a fantastic way to start the year and will help to keep me organised. I'll be posting about my own planner setup soon as well as the new stationary I bought to start the year.

I'm also looking forward to doing a lot more crafty things this year including felting, embroidery and cross stitch. I got another fantastic cross stitch kit for Christmas, as well as felting and embroidery supplies so I'm keen to create some more pieces this year.  I often post the stages of my work on my Instagram account so if you fancy following what I do, you can find me at instagram.com/sannadyker.

I'll also be continuing to add to my old photograph collection which I'll update on here and I'll be popping up the odd book review too.  Hopefully my new organiser will help remind me to do blog posts more often!

I hope you all had a fantastic festive break whatever you were doing and I wish you all a very happy new year!

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