I threw up a poll on my instragram stories recently with some ideas for new blog posts and got people to vote on what they most wanted to see… by far and away the most popular choice was this one!

My stitching routine

Once I sat down to write this post I realised that in many ways, I don’t really have one! As with anything, of course, there are certain patterns to the way I work but I’m not actually sure if ‘routine’ best describes my habits

Ah well! I will do my best to enlighten you on a few things related to when/where and also how I stitch on a regular basis

Fitting stitching into a working week

Now obviously this one is slightly easier for me as I am lucky enough to call this my job but here’s a little insight on how my working week looks:

At the moment, because of the way the light hits my work room in the winter I tend to do any important stitching/filming in the mornings. By mid afternoon the sun streaming though my windows is so bright it makes it hard on the eyes or my camera to do close work. I could of course close the curtains and put on my daylight lamp but natural light is always better to stitch by if you can because it seriously reduces eye strain and tiredness!

Once I’ve got my nice creative morning out of the way I take a short break for my lunch and then in the afternoon i work through my list of non creative jobs for the day, admin, orders (this!) etc.

Of course my days don’t always look like this. Sometimes, depending on fixed appointments I have I end up having a full admin day and then a more creative day broken up by those appointments. It really depends but planning in the time I get to stitch effectively is really important.

As I said, it is much easier for me to fit creative time into my work week given that it is actually work for me. I imagine for you creatives that also hold down a separate part-time or full time job fitting in your oh so needed creative breaks can be much more difficult! Especially when it comes to daylight.

The little insight I have from the weeks when I barely have time in normal working hours to pick up a needle and thread is as follows…

Find inspiration for projects that you are genuinely excited about! That way you will really be motivated to find the time to be creative and it wont feel so much like work. Also try to have more mindless projects as well as intense ones. Now, by mindless I mean sometime you don’t have to think about too much. Maybe something repetitive like blackwork or something where you are simply filling a space and don’t need to be looking at instructions or reference photos every few minutes. Detailed projects can be great but I find a good mix to be essential to my stitching patterns!

Stitching in the evenings

This can be a really tricky one for me! As with the last one this applies less if you are forced to have your creative time in the evenings because of a job etc, but it does heavily apply to anyone who works at home.

It took me a lot longer than I would have liked to adjust to living and working in the same space. Its so easy to blur the boundaries of when and where home life or work takes place.

When I first set up Purple Rose Embroidery I was working out of our sitting room. At first there was really no problem with this but very soon it became really difficult for me to use a space meant for relaxing as a place meant for working. Others would come in and relax while I was trying to work and I would feel that I couldn’t work when I wanted/needed too because of the room being needed for other things.

Soon I moved my work space into the dining room and this is by no means perfect but it is worlds better! I am no longer regularly disturbed by people and there is a small sense of a physical boundary between my work life and my home life. But here’s the rub:

Having my work pace at home, only means that its one room away! If I have a project on my mind its so easy to just go grab it and take it somewhere else. Its also vey easy to be sat somewhere else in the house, even in bed, sorting out admin because it all appears on my iPad that I also use outside of work.

So my point here is that I do my very best not to stitch in the evenings if I can help it. I try to have a bit of separation from what counts as work and what used to be my favourite hobby. Let’s be honest though… I often cave and don’t get this part right!

The filming issue

I doubt many, if any, of you have this issue in your own stitching routines but I wanted to touch on it anyway because it sometimes causes real creative problems for me!

If you follow my Instagram you will know that I often post videos of part of my stitching process of whatever it is I’m working on. I love producing them, I really do! But…

Often I am in a situation where I really want to be working on a piece but need to film the next section and I am not in a place where I can. I might be somewhere else, or it might be the wrong time of day and the lighting is bad, or I might be waiting for a delivery knowing that I might have to hop up at any moment and my very temperamental film setup traps me in my chair so I wouldn’t be able to answer the door.

You may sometimes see very odd progress photos from me where a seemingly very significant part of the design is left out for no apparent reason. Well, now you know why! I’m simply waiting for a time where I can film it and I'm just filling in whatever else I can in the meantime

How many pieces at once!

Like with many aspects of life, its nice to change things up every once in a while to keep it fresh. It is just the same with stitching!

I am always working on several projects at once, With a good mix of counted and non counted embroidery in there too, so that I don’t get board. Obviously I get board of individual pieces often but the beauty of working on so many at once is that all I need to do is reach over to my WIPs (works in progress) drawer and pick up a different one for a bit before I go back to whatever I was already working on with fresh eyes.

Right now, as I’m writing this, I have 11 that I am currently working on. I also have dozens in my half dead projects drawer which is for pieces I am very board of/don’t like anymore/am never going to finish…but we wont talk about that!

Of those 11, each has a different sort of priority. Some are long term projects that I put a couple of hours into every so often but I don’t hope to finish anytime soon and expect to take several more months or every years to finish. I think I have about 4 of those at the moment.

Then there are the more important projects, the ones that I know will be future kits/patterns, the ones that have deadlines or the ones that I’m just excited about. I try to make sure that these are a good mix of both Blackwork and threadpainting. At the moment I think I have 2 or three of each.

And then there are the the no go projects which have the least priority. They are projects that I started but never picked up again. Often I am very happy with the idea but just wasn’t sure how to stitch it, or I got to a certain point and didn’t like it but am loathed to add it to the half dead projects drawer, which is where most of these eventually end up. A little fact for you: my kingfisher design spent around 6 months in this state before I forced myself to pick it up again and finish it. So sometimes there is a better way out for them! If only rarely.

Working on so many projects at a time really helps keep me be creative. It keeps by eyes and brain fresh to. Switching between projects regularly also means I never feel too much pressure to finish so I can move on.

Well I hope that was an interesting little insight into my world!

How and when you stitch, as well as the habits you have as you do so, is a very personal thing. There really is no right or wrong answer. As I keep saying, my situation is a very lucky one and most people have to struggle much more with work life and home life to be able to fit in their creativity.

Wanting to create is in my opinion the most important thing! Find something you are inspired by. Try that new technique. Or just create because of the therapeutic process. Whatever works for you!