Having recently read a 2023 review, I got to thinking about what I’d put in a 2023 review for Elara Embroidery. At first, I didn’t think there’d be enough to write about. But as I mulled it over some more, I realised that I actually had a fair bit to say! Plus, since I’ve enjoyed reading a few 2023 reviews, I figured you may also find this interesting…
Embroidery patterns and kits
So firstly, how did 2023 look from the perspective of my embroidery kits and PDF patterns?
I released a new crewelwork kit and PDF pattern towards the end of 2023.
Say hello to this colourful turtle and coral reef design that forms the second piece of my Costa Rica collection.
I love creating embroidery designs that feature animals. And since I had an amazing wildlife focused trip to Costa Rica a few years back, it felt like an obvious source of inspiration for a collection!
Did you know that with over 500,000 species of wild animals, Costa Rica has some of the most diverse wildlife in the world?!
This is one of my favourite embroidery designs that I’ve created so far. I had a lot of fun playing with the shading in this piece. My hope was to create a design with depth and impact that’s also accessible to stitch.
As usual, I spent a lot of time on the instructions for this design.
In fact, it took me a lot longer than planned to release this pattern! There were at least a couple of times while I was reviewing it that I realised an extra diagram would make things clearer. So back to the drawing board I went!
I put in this time because I really want to make my designs as straightforward to stitch as possible. So that you can get maximum enjoyment and relaxation benefits from them.
That effort always feels so worthwhile when I get reviews like this:
“I’ve always wanted to try crewelwork and am excited about this project as an entry point. The instructions are wonderful”
Etsy customer
In other kit and pattern news…
My crewelwork fox kit and PDF pattern is still proving very popular and was the best seller of 2023!
Magazine projects
It’s always a treat to see my work in print. So I was delighted to have two more embroidery projects included in Stitch magazine during 2023.
At the beginning of the year, there was this pair of crewel embroidery gift bags in issue 140.
Then at the end of the summer, this reverse blackwork design of the solar system in 144.
Issue 140 also featured a ‘meet the artist’ interview with me. Which was especially thrilling as it was my first interview!
Speaking at a craft summit
One of my scariest and proudest achievements of 2023 was taking part in the HobbyScool Art of Handmade summit as a speaker.
Ever since I started Elara Embroidery, I’ve know that I want to speak about embroidery’s various benefits and to teach embroidery to help more people discover its power. However, up until last year, I’d always let my fear of speaking and being on video stop me.
To help me get over that, I joined my local Toastmasters (a club for helping people with public speaking) at the end of 2022.
That in itself was pretty scary for me! But I was really getting fed up with always holding myself back! So I made the leap. I’m very glad that I did, as without that help and support, I doubt I would have said yes to the summit.
I learnt loads from taking part in the summit. I also had to step up my game big time as it came at a really busy time for me. And I was on crutches for a few weeks. Talk about everything coming at once!!
It was all worth it though. I felt so proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and figuring it out. Plus I got some really lovely feedback from people who watched my session.
Having now gotten over the hurdle of recording my first teaching videos, I’m excited to dive more into that in 2024. I’ve got various online course ideas and plans percolating, so watch this space!
Free embroidery resources
You may already know that I’m keen to spread the joy and mental health benefits that embroidery provides as far and wide as possible. And one way I plan to do that more is to provide more free resources.
In 2023, I published two more in depth stitch tutorials to add to the tutorials already available on this website:
I also released a penguin chick embroidery pattern that’s available as a free PDF pattern for my newsletter subscribers.
I’d always intended for my quick and easy polar animal designs to be a trio. However when I released the polar bear and walrus, something still felt off with my design for the penguin chick. To be honest, he looked like he was wearing a motorcycle helmet and while it was a cute design, that wasn’t quite the look I was going for!
So it feels really good that last year I was able to make a few tweaks to this cute penguin chick. He now feels like a good fit with his polar bear and walrus companions!
RSN certificate
In 2023 I continued my studies for the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) Certificate. Albeit, making less progress than I’d hoped.
That’s partly because the year ended up being a lot busier than expected in various (good!) ways. But if I’m honest with myself, it’s also because I’ve let myself get a bit overwhelmed by my silk shading project.
I find it very easy to find reasons not to work on it right now:
“The light could be better.”
“I don’t have enough time to get into the swing of it.”
“I should do some more sampling first.”
However, since this kind of thinking is leading to zero or very little progress, I really need to find a way to just get on with it!
Especially as I know I’ll most likely enjoy it when I do!
A couple of tactics I’ll be using are to block out time for working on this (and being strict with myself about sticking to them!). Plus I’ll be setting myself really small targets for getting started again. As I find that to be a good way to manage the feelings of overwhelm that might come up.
I’ll of course keep you posted on how I go. And please do share any tips that have helped you to get back on the wagon with a project that’s been lingering!
RAS quilt
Another project that I feel super privileged to be a part of is the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) bicentenary quilt project. This started pre-pandemic and was initially planned to be completed for the Society’s bicentenary celebrations at the end of 2020.
Covid obviously caused the plans to change so the project evolved and it’s still ongoing.
There are now two quilts being created – a patchwork quilt and a solar system quilt.
The patchwork quilt was completed in 2023 and is made up of 100 squares stitched by volunteers. I stitched my square to celebrate my involvement in the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan many moons ago. (Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, so I couldn’t resist a geeky little pun there!)
The solar system quilt is still being worked on. I already stitched Saturn (organiser Annie kindly let me make dibs on that planet after learning of my connection to it) and I’m now in the process of stitching Jupiter. This is another project that I really hope to do better at progressing this year!
One of the things I love about this project is that it’s always been about community stitching. I felt super privileged to take part in a community stitching evening at the Royal Society as part of their Summer Science exhibition.
The hours flew by as I helped people take part in the drop in stitching while chatting about stitching or space science or both. A rare but delightful combination!
Looking ahead
So what’s in store for 2024?
On the personal stitching front, carrying on with my RSN certificate studies and the RAS quilt project for sure.
I had been hoping that I’d be able to get the RSN certificate completed this year, but I’m already feeling less confident about that as things have been ramping up quite a bit in my day job.
So I’m now thinking less about a timeline for finishing the certificate and instead I want to narrow my focus to just the next little bit that I can do. And we’ll see where that gets me. Progress over perfection after all!!
Elara Embroidery in 2024
On the Elara Embroidery front, I’ve been thinking about the kind of content I want to share with you on the blog this year.
My aim is to teach, support, inspire and entertain. Hopefully while generally singing the praises of this wonderful craft!
So I’ll continue to share tutorials, progress on my projects, exhibitions etc that delight me and embroidery stories that inspire me.
If there’s anything that you’d love to see more of or you have any other suggestions of how I can help you, please do let me know!
And then finally, I’m determined that 2024 is the year that I start creating courses!
I’ve got a few ideas, but I’d also love to hear from you – what would you like help with? Leave a comment below or feel free to get in touch at hello [at] elaraembroidery [dot] com (formatting the email in the usual way).
I’d also love to hear about your embroidery plans for 2024! And how did 2023 go for you?