When you walk into your studio or open the closet where you store your projects and supplies, can you hear all those unfinished projects calling to you, trying to get your attention so they can finally be finished?

​Of course, it’s not an audible sound, but not unlike the characters in a novel in progress, where the characters begin to communicate with the writer about what they want to do and who they want to be, our knitting, crochet, embroidery, and slow stitch projects, once begun, would love to be completed.

​But there you are, scrolling on Ravelry.com, Instagram, or Pinterest, and you saw a beautiful project that you absolutely must make. You forget about the half-dozed WIPs (works in progress) clamoring for your attention, and you buy the pattern and supplies for a new project. You’re feeling the inspiration from the little spike of dopamine that floods your system as you unwrap the supplies and delve into a new project.

​Let’s consider that WIP pile as evidence of your creative urges rather than as a failure.

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Does your WIP pile inspire guilt?

Let’s take a breath and feel what comes up when you look at your pile of uncompleted projects. Do you feel shame or a sense of avoidance because you have invested your time, energy, and money in a project that sits unfinished? Is some of the pressure you might be putting on yourself coming from cultural pressure to finish and show your results?

Isn’t it time to let those stories go? Of all the things you might feel guilt about, unfinished craft projects should not be one of them. Give yourself a break!

A reframe: The spiritual nature of incompleteness

When you think about it, isn’t almost everything in nature at some point unfinished? What about your garden, an ongoing renovation project, or even you as a human being? You’re always in a state of becoming.

​It brings to mind the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which is about finding beauty in impermanence, imperfection, and incompleteness. I’ve heard that the Amish purposefully make a mistake in a quilt to remind themselves and others that only God is perfect.

​So, let’s stop thinking of your unfinished projects as failures, because they are still full of your creative energy and limitless possibilities.

​My exercise in clearing out a basket of WIPs

I was reflecting on the days when I was doing a lot of knitting. I was teaching knitting classes, leading an in-person knitting group, and trying to keep up with a knitting-themed Instagram page. I was sorting through my stash and was confronted by the huge number of WIPs in my storage bins.

​I pulled them out and made three piles: the first pile was projects I’d keep and finish, the next pile I’d rip out and re-purpose the yarn, and the last pile I’d toss.

​Twenty-four projects made the “keep” pile. I used an online app to create a spinning wheel of fortune with each project’s name in a slot on the wheel. When I got ready to tackle the WIP pile, I’d spin the wheel and work on whatever project it landed on. It took me a little over six months, but I finished them all. It felt good, and it made for some fun Instagram content.

​Clearing out all those unfinished projects felt freeing. No longer were they weighing on my mind. It felt good to relieve myself of the self-imposed obligation to finish them all. That exercise also curbed my habit of starting projects willy-nilly without completing the ones I had going.

How will you make peace with your WIP pile?

I’m making several assumptions with this question. You may not even have a pile of unfinished projects, but if that’s true for you, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article.

​But just in case you have as complicated a relationship with your WIPs as I did, this part’s for you.

​Pull out as many of your unfinished projects as you’d like and arrange them in an area where you can see all of them.

​Grab one project and hold it for a moment. Ask yourself if it still holds the same attraction for you as when you first started it. Ask if this is something you’d be happy to invest the time and energy required to complete it.

​Move through your projects, taking your time with each one.

​Create three piles: Keep, Toss, and Recycle.

​You might find a donation center where you can donate the projects in the “toss” pile rather than throwing them into the local landfill. I recommend that you catalog the projects in the “keep” pile and store them in a place where you can see them to avoid them getting buried again. Commit to a schedule of making progress on each one until you’ve worked through them, or give yourself permission to release the ones that you later decide you’re not feeling anymore.

​Finally, the intention of this article was to offer you the chance to reframe the way you’re thinking about your WIPs. We’re letting go of guilt and giving ourselves permission to release some of the projects we started that we know we’ll never finish.

​

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I’m selfishly writing this post for myself because I keep hearing about stitchers getting repetitive stress injuries, and I desperately want to avoid that myself. I was sitting outside one morning doing some hand stitching, and my upper back began to ache. I realized that I’d been hunched over my work in an unhealthy way. The ache in my neck and back inspired me to write about the importance of proper posture when stitching to help you avoid the pain I was feeling.

If you’re someone who works at a keyboard all day and then does hand stitching to relax in the evenings, this is for you because you’re spending a good portion of the day doing repetitive tasks with your hands and fingers.

Poor ergonomics can cause fatigue, upper back, shoulder, wrist, and elbow problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, and more. We often take to hand-stitching, knitting, crochet, and the like because of their repetitive nature. Performing rhythmic hand movements is relaxing and grounding, and it’s good for the brain and nervous system. But holding yourself in an unhealthy position for long periods can cause cumulative injury to your body.

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Given that I am not a physical therapist, I decided to do a deep dive into the information available online to support improved posture while I’m stitching, to prevent injuries in the future.

How Do You Sew Without Hurting Your Back & Hands?

This article includes tips for getting into the correct body position for hand sewing to avoid repetitive stress injuries.

Stitch Without Strain: Ergonomics for Embroiderers

This article covers why proper ergonomics matters when you are doing hand embroidery, and it recommends products such as embroidery hoops, stands and frames, lighting and more. It also covers the importance of taking movement breaks to reset the body after sitting and doing intense work for long periods.

How to have a correct Hand Sewing Posture

Exercises for people who sit a lot

After my deep dive about ergonomics and posture, I’m going to buy myself a stand to support my embroidery hoop and bring it closer to eye level, so I won’t need to hunch over my work. I’m also going to be more mindful of taking breaks after I’ve been sitting and stitching for a while.

Including mindfulness practices into your stitching time

Adding a mindfulness element to your stitching routine can also help avoid repetitive stress injuries, once you’ve got your proper posture in place. You might do an occasional check-in with your body as you are working. Put your work down and do a quick, mental body scan from your toes to your head. Breathe into the places that feel uncomfortable and adjust your position to support your body better.

What changes might you make to ensure that you’re working in an ergonomic way to support your body while working on hand stitching.

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Ever since I encountered Karen Turner’s daily stitching posts on Pinterest a few years ago, I wistfully thought about how cool it would be to have a daily stitching practice. I have ADHD, and I’ve abandoned as many different crafts as I’ve tried. But this year, I decided to set an intention to do a daily stitching project.

I created a grid like hers, traced it on my fabric, and gathered my floss, needles, and scissors, so I’d be ready to begin on the first morning of the year. I have kept a written journal since I was a young teen, so I had already established the habit of writing every morning before work. I nicked that time and used it for my daily stitching instead. Habit stacking is the best way to incorporate a new habit into your daily routine.

We are now in mid-June, and I have stitched a block in my stitching journal every morning of this year. As I mention in the video, I’m super proud of this because I haven’t been one to stick to a project and see it through. I guess I have to stop saying that about myself now!

Every time I unroll my stitching journal, I’m absolutely thrilled at what I’ve created. My next task is to find a large spool to wind it around when it’s finished on the last day of this year.

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Substack needs a hand crafts category

There has been a bit of a movement amongst us creative folk to encourage Substack to create a hand crafts category. Just this year, they added the home and garden category, which I’m using along with art & illustration, but neither category adequately covers hand stitching.

Whenever I remember to, I’m posting a note asking the to give us a category. Around the time I joined Substack in 2024, people were rallying for a memoir category, which still doesn’t exist. So, if you see a note in your feed about adding a hand crafts category, it would help the cause if you were to restack it or like it to give the algorithm a helpful nudge.

In closing, I’d like to thank all my subscribers. I’ve gotten a lovely new bunch of subbies lately, and it always makes me smile when I see new faces around here. I’m here to remind you to use your hand stitching to slow yourself down, take the time to breathe, and nurture yourself as you pursue your creative expression. Thanks for coming with me on this journey. ❤️

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The last days of endless May were chock full of activities, but finally here’s what went down.

I completed the 100 Day Project!

As a creative person whose been blessed with an ADHD brain, being able to report that I finished anything at all is a miracle. But, I am thrilled to say that I finished the 100 Day Project on time without missing a day.

I did change course at around day 24. I had been working on a stitch meditation scroll in addition to my daily intuitive stitching project. I found that I was unable to keep up with both at the time, so I shifted gears and made my daily intuitive stitching journal my 100 day project.

This koi fish is what I stitched for day 100. It felt really good to be finished. I had already been stitching in my journal every day since January 1, so I was fairly confident that I could complete the challenge.

Readers have been asking to see the whole journal cloth, so next week at mid-June I’ll shoot a video of my first six months of daily stitching.

May’s completed doodle cloth

I finally created a dedicated YouTube.com channel for Joyful Soul Stitching. The first video on that channel is my May doodle cloth. What I love when I look at this cloth is that I can see my style emerging. This one’s also got a lot of couching, but instead of miles of running stitch, I’ve done interlocking blanket stitch, a technique I picked up from watching K3N Cloth Tales on YouTube.

I have yet to begin a new doodle cloth for June, but that’s because I’m cooking up a secret project that I’ll announce as soon as all the details are buttoned up.

Black Textile & Fiber Artists on Substack

I got mentioned in Legacy in the Making’s compilation of Black textile & Fiber Artists on Substack. What a thrill. I followed almost all of them, and I’m hoping that a few of us might do some sort of collaboration project. Representation truly matters, and I hope that I can inspire more people to pick up a needle, thread, and cloth, to stitch their stress away and make something satisfying with their hands.

I’m looking for some beta testers

I’ve got a secret project underway and I need some help with it. I’m planning to do an official launch in September, but it would be great to have a few people take a look at it, kick the tires so to speak, and help me create the best result possible. It won’t cost you anything, but you will need to create an account with your name and email address. Please email me: ebb567 AT gmail.com, and I’ll reply with the link. I appreciate you in advance. 😊

Wrapping up with thanks

I’d like to end by expressing my gratitude for the incredible growth I’ve been seeing lately. I wasn’t sure if anyone else was as interested in the “woo woo” aspects of creativity in general and hand stitching specifically. My quiet stitching time is the best part of my day on most days. I’m thrilled to have been able to reach a bunch of folks who feel the same way. ❤️

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One of my favorite spiritual guides is Pema Chödrön. She doesn’t know it, but in my head, she’s a mentor of mine. One of her core teachings is learning to stay. We live in a world replete with distractions. Chödrön wants to remind us about the power of staying, of not looking away when things become difficult, painful, or challenging.

Having an established meditation practice is the beginning of learning to stay. With stitching in hand and a quiet place to sit undisturbed, it is a wonderful way to learn to stay, to use the practice of pulling a needle and thread through cloth as an anchor to the present moment.

Hand stitching as witness is not asking you to create a masterpiece suitable for framing. It’s taking some of the most essential tools that humankind has created for survival and using them to help ground and settle yourself when things are not as you would wish them to be.

If you are someone who tends to abandon yourself when faced with discomfort, you might take yourself in hand and use your stitching practice to help you stay, to face what needs facing, and let it move through us. In this way, we build self-trust, knowing that we are building a muscle that will get stronger and become more reliable.

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“The only way to ease our pain is to experience it fully. Learn to stay with uneasiness, learn to stay with the tightening, so that the habitual chain reaction doesn’t continue to rule your life.” -- Pema Chödrön

I’m someone who lives with an ADHD brain, which has a propensity for going in a dozen directions at once, often in a rush. I have found that when faced with a challenge, the instinct to squash it quickly arises. But then I learned that it’s better to take a breath, stay, and see what this challenge has come to teach me.

I hear you saying, “Not everything is that serious.” And if you are not on a spiritual journey in life, then that might be true for you. What I know is that “All things are lessons God would have me learn.” (ACIM Lesson 139) Whether I’m sitting in silent meditation, walking in nature, or sitting with my stitching and a cup of tea, I can practice being present, which is where all my agency lies.

“By learning to stay, we become very familiar with this place, and gradually, gradually, it loses its threat. Instead of scratching, we stay present.” -- Pema Chödrön

When we use our quiet stitching time to hone the skill of presence, there’s a sneaky benefit of developing self-discipline, which is the ability to resist the urge to escape and find distractions when challenges arise.

An easy practice is to intentionally sit with some simple stitching when you’re facing an issue you might otherwise ruminate about. Practice staying with discomfort. Practice allowing the turbulent emotions to move across the screen of your mind. Notice when the urge arises to stop and find a distraction. Stay for a few more moments and see how that feels.

Whether you consider yourself a spiritual or mindful person, you need a way to manage and relieve the stress of modern life. These little practices, by building self-trust and self-discipline, over time support you in developing emotional stamina.

Hand stitching, embroidery, knitting, quilting, and other hand crafts have the added benefit of producing a finished object. Whether beautiful or not, the completed item is a reminder that the process is just as important, if not more important than the finished product.

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I remember the days before the internet was a thing, and you had to buy embroidery books at the bookstore or borrow them from the library.

But now there is such a dizzying array of inspiration and resources online for learning new embroidery stitches and finding traditional motifs and designs to stitch by hand.

To get us started, my go-to place for all kinds of crafty inspiration is Pinterest.com. Pinterest is a visual search engine, so you’ve got to keep trying different search terms until you find what you’re looking for.

Some of my favorite searches include:

• Abstract embroidery

• Freeform embroidery

• Intuitive stitching

The more you use Pinterest, the better the algorithm gets to know what you like, and it adds similar things to your feed.

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Hand stitching books in the public domain

There are literally countless free, downloadable books on embroidery and hand stitching available online. What I’m sharing with you is just a little amuse bouche to whet your stitching appetite. Because these are vintage books that a human has physically scanned into a computer, the image quality in some of these volumes can be hit or miss.

The Antique Pattern Library is a massive compendium of public domain books in downloadable formats on several art forms including lacemaking, beading, bookbinding, embroidery, crochet, knitting, macrame, tatting, flower arranging and more.

I did a search at Project Gutenberg on embroidery titles, which returned nine pages of free, downloadable books.

Online stitch dictionaries

The Royal School of Needlework is on my bucket list of embroidery-related places to visit. However, in the meantime, their stitch bank has an amazing collection of illustrated embroidery techniques and stitches.

The Embroiderers’ Guild of America contains a generous compilation of embroidery resources including a glossary of embroidery terms.

Mary Corbett’s Needle’N Thread blog has lots of helpful resources for hand stitchers including videos of how to do several embroidery stitches, which would be helpful for those new to stitching. She also has pictures of various styles of embroidery, historical information, and a technique library.

I hope this little collection of stitching resources is helpful to you. I’m always searching for stitching inspiration, so I figured I’d share what’s been helpful to me. Please feel free to share your favorite free resource for hand stitchers in the comments.

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I have a confession.

I spend more time than I’d like to admit insposcrolling on Pinterest.

On social media platforms, it’s called doomscrolling, but I have curated a Pinterest feed that’s bursting with creativity, color, and inspiration, so I call it insposcrolling.

I was insposcrolling, which can also be a form of procraftination, which means using crafting time to procrastinate from doing what you should be doing, such as washing dishes or folding laundry or some other tasks.

But I digress.

I was insposcrolling, and a comment on a Pinterest pin caught my eye. The person wrote, “But what is it used for? Yes, it’s beautiful, but I don’t want to put that much time and energy into something unless it’s going to be useful.”

She doesn’t get it.

That commenter is caught in the capitalism trap that says every moment must be productive.

Back when I was a knitter, I used to knit a lot in public. Those cheeky enough to approach me would ask a few standard questions, such as:

Are you crocheting?

What are you making?

Is that for me? (my favorite)

But the most common one that turns out to be the most insidious is “How long did it take you to make that?”

On the face of it, you might think that’s a fairly harmless question, but you don’t have to dig very far to understand that they are asking how many hours you are spending to create a thing to quantify the approximate value of it.

Hand-knit socks are my favorite travel knitting project because you can shove a sock project bag into a purse easily and be on your way. I’d smirk when an onlooker would say, unironically, “You know you can buy a pair of socks for much less than the yarn and time costs to knit socks,” as if I didn’t already know this.

We don’t buy bespoke, indie-dyed yarn, knitting needles, and a pattern to knit socks because we want to save money.

We do it for the process.

Whether it’s knitting, crochet, hand-stitching, spinning, or weaving.

It’s the process.

The power of presence

Whether we know it or not, many of us are drawn to creative making with our hands because of the calming effect it has on our nervous system.

If you have the privilege and the luxury of time, and the ability to purchase the tools and materials for hand crafting, you’re likely using your crafting time as an opportunity to de-stress from your daily life. Yes, it is enjoyable to make something beautiful with our hands, but for many of us, it’s the process rather than the product that keeps us coming back.

Being in the present moment, focusing on the materials in your hands, following the instructions for the next step, the next row, or just proceeding intuitively, is a lovely way to be here now. Embracing the present moment.

The repetitive movements involved in hand stitching are meditative without the need to try to meditate.

“Useless” stitching as a mantra

Last year, I started making doodle cloths. Whenever someone saw me stitching on one, they’d ask, “What’s that going to be?” I’d respond with “I don’t know. I’m just stitching because I enjoy doing it.” Then the person might get a puzzled expression on their face, unsure of what to ask next. They might wonder why someone would put so much unpaid time and effort into making something. But I know the secret. The value for me is found in the making.

Those of us who are stitchers know the mantra of pulling the needle through cloth, dipping the hook into the next stitch, or throwing the yarn over the needle and drawing it through the loop. These endlessly repetitive movements become muscle memory. I have fallen asleep with knitting in my hands, and one of my girls would come and see my hands keep moving as I dozed off. They’d take the knitting from my hands and turn off the light.

My daily intuitive stitching journal is an essential part of my morning routine. I come away from a few minutes of stitching, sipping my tea, and mindful breathwork feeling grounded and prepared to face the day.

Useless stitching is a radical activity because it frees one to tend to their needs by doing something as simple and unassuming as pulling thread through a cloth with a needle, or knitting yarn into a sock or a sweater.

The next time you pick up your hand stitching project, I hope you take a moment to appreciate all the benefits it provides you with. Think of your time stitching on that cross-stitch project as an investment in self-love and your overall mental health.

When they ask, “What is it going to be used for,” you can truthfully say, “absolutely nothing.” Because you know that you are free from the pressure to monetize an activity that brings you peace and joy, therefore turning it into labor. You are free from needing it to be perfect or even the need to finish it.

So, go ahead and pour your time, energy, and love into your “useless” stitching projects because you know that you are doing the work of being a creative human and that’s enough.

Have you unlearned the need to be productive with your creative work?

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Have you ever saved a gorgeous image on Pinterest with the intention of later making that thing yourself? It’s one of my toxic traits. I have a bulging Pinterest board that’s overflowing with inspirational, creative project ideas that I have pinned with the intention of giving them a try.

​In January of this year, I actually tried to create a project I’d pinned–a daily intuitive stitching journal. Whenever I’d search for stitching inspiration on Pinterest, Karen Turner’s work often showed up in the results. For the past few years, she has been creating a daily intuitive stitching journal. I’ve been intrigued by her work, but always in an aspirational way. I never thought I could stick to doing something every single day for a year.

​Taking on a year-long project requires careful consideration. But I counted the cost and decided to commit to doing daily stitching for one month at a time. So far, I haven’t missed a day of stitching on it. Now, as we prepare to begin the fifth month of the year, I’m checking in on my daily intuitive stitching journal progress.

I can keep my commitments to myself

In my first check-in after completing the first 30 days of my intuitive daily stitching journal, I wrote about my experience with completing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, and how I proved to myself that I can see a challenge through to the end. With every day I pick up this project and stitch a square, I remind myself that I can keep the promises I make to myself even with ADHD. Perseverance pays off, and building that skill in one area of life gives you access to it in all the others.

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Be prepared

Because I have limited time to finish my stitching in the morning, I’m relentless about preparation. Some days, I can spend more time looking for something to inspire me about what to stitch that day than it takes to actually stitch. So, sometimes I peruse Pinterest to gather ideas for what to stitch so I can get going right away.

​I have a small box, which holds all the supplies I need, including:

​My stitch journal

• Embroidery floss

• Scissors (fancy, fine-tipped embroidery scissors)

• Heat-erasable pen

• Pincushion full of different-sized needles

• Thimbles

• Embroidery hoop

I have created a little ritual around pulling out my box, unfurling my stitch journal, and stitching the space for that day. I pour myself a cup of tea, which might be green tea and ginger, peppermint, or my old standby, Earl Grey. I add a bit of Stevia and fresh lemon if we happen to have some.

​Now, with almost five months of stitching, it feels wonderful to open up the cloth and look back on the previous months, day by day. I started stitching the full moon and new moon each month, but somehow the new moons have been neglected. I noticed that in May, there is a full moon on the first and last day of the month.

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Find the joy in it

Finally, nobody wants to drudge their way through a boring project just so they can say they did it. Stitching brings me joy. It’s a meditative practice for me. It helps ground me and calm my nervous system before the day gets out of control.

​I have not established many rules about my daily intuitive stitching because I want to keep it a joyful exercise. I thought I’d make every space different, but I’ve found myself repeating the patterns I really enjoy, and some days flow into the next.

I’ve seen some people, including Karen, choose a color scheme for each month, but I haven’t. Mine is completely random and intuitive: I stitch whatever I fancy that morning as I sit with my journal in my lap, waiting for my tea to cool enough to drink.

​The big joy that I’m looking forward to is unfurling the almost 8 feet of stitching I’ll have on the last day of this year. I certainly intend to film that process.

​As I stitch through the last few days of April, I’m grateful to have begun this project. Despite what’s going on in the world, I can hold the space for peace, love, and compassion as I work on my few stitches before I begin my day. I hope you’ve got a project that’s inspiring you as we move through these tumultuous days.

What’s something you’ve stuck with that you’re proud of?

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I just finished watching this week’s Textile Talk, “Quilts That Speak,” by the Surface Design Association on their YouTube channel. The presenter was Phyllis Biffle-Elmore, who spoke about her grandmother, Lula Young Horn (1183-1988), a Master Quilter in rural Alabama. Phyllis showed images of her grandmother’s quilts and others. She shared the stories and songs she heard sitting at the feet of these rural, Black women who made quilts of necessity, not as a fun, creative hobby.

​Listening to Phyllis talk about her grandmother and her aunties made me think about my grandmother and a special red quilt. My paternal grandmother was not a quilter, but she had managed to hold on to a quilt made by her grandmother. My grandma, Johnnie Lee, was born in 1918, so her grandmother was likely alive during enslavement.

​I don’t have a picture of the quilt I’m speaking about. It was quite raggedy, worn threadbare in places, had holes, and there were places where you could see the clumps of cotton that served as batting. Grandma kept this quilt draped over a chair in her bedroom. Once when I was visiting her, I asked her if she would like me to mend it for her. She said yes, but that I was to be careful with it because her grandmother had made it using old clothes from her family members. My grandma, Johnnie Lee, was from South Carolina. She was one of ten siblings. She left South Carolina in the 1930s and moved to Massachusetts, where she met and married my grandfather.

​I was very careful with Grandma’s beloved quilt. It was small, about the size of a baby quilt. The pattern was basically a crazy quilt, but without all the embroidery embellishment. The maker did not follow any quilt pattern. She simply stitched pieces of cloth together, used cotton batting, and backed it with a red feedsack, which she also used for the borders. It was tied with bits of brown wool yarn. It was a primitive quilt made to keep a child warm in a house that likely didn’t have central heating.

​When I finished patching up the holes and mending the torn parts, I gave in back to my grandma, whose eyes were shiny with tears. She thanked me and gave me a squeeze. From then on, that quilt’s home was at the foot of her bed. Every time I’d visit her, there it would be.

​Many years later, Grandma decided she wanted her room painted pink. She’d become mostly bedridden, and my dad thought it would cheer her up to redecorate her room. She chose the shade of pink she wanted, and then my dad and my cousin got to work. They pushed her bed and other large pieces of furniture towards the middle of the room and got to work.

When I came by to see how it turned out, I was horrified. What I saw in a pile with the other paint-spattered drop cloths, empty paint cans, and used brushes took my breath away in shock and sadness. It was Grandma’s quilt! They had used it as a drop cloth! I was both enraged and saddened as I picked it up and saw that it was completely ruined. It had boot prints and paint splatters, and it was dirty from being on the floor.

​I’m certain that Grandma was disappointed to learn what had happened to her quilt, but she didn’t show it. I feel like I was far more outraged than she, and it wasn’t even my quilt! My stepmother persuaded me to let it go, saying the guys had no idea of the quilt’s sentimental value when they decided to use it as a drop cloth.

​So, I guess the moral of the story is to underscore the importance of documenting every handmade quilt, not just beloved antique family heirlooms. In her Textile Talk, Phyliss spoke about the importance of documenting your family quilts and the ones you make, whether you keep them or give them as gifts, so I’ll share a helpful resource on how to document your quilts.

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How to label your handmade quilts

When I say “document your quilts,” I mean adding a label. Some quilters add a label to the back of the quilt, while others may add identifying information to the front. It’s completely up to you. The important thing is that those who find your quilt after you’re gone can discover who made it, who it was made for, the date it was completed, and other optional information, such as the occasion (for example, was it a wedding gift, a baby shower gift, or an off to college gift?)

​*The American Quilters Society (AQS) offers this exhaustive guide, covering several ways to make a quilt label, what information to include, and where and how to attach it to your quilt.

​In closing, I’m not sure whether having a label on it would have saved my grandma’s quilt, but given the countless hours we put into making a quilt, it’s essential to document it so future generations might appreciate it.

​Do you have any heirloom quilts in your family?

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In addition to being a serial, compulsive crafter, I’m also a non-denominational Minister. I called this publication Joyful Soul Stitching because my work is centered on the soul. With this publication, I intend to infuse a bit of the spiritual into my creative offerings.

Working with your hands is not just creative expression or even busy work. It’s a powerful way to regulate the body.

The tactile pleasure of holding cloth, needle, and thread in my hands to create something is supremely satisfying, but it’s also salutary.

We live our lives in these amazing bodies that require care, feeding, and nurturing. What’s that saying? “We’re basically house plants with complicated emotions. The work of being human brings together body, mind, spirit, and soul.

Human beings have been stitching cloth together for thousands of years. Our Ancestors did it for survival. Today, we do it for recreation. While the world we live in would be unrecognizable to our ancient ancestors, our bodies have not changed since the days before the sewing machine was invented, when we sewed every garment, bedcovering, curtain, and sail by hand.

Now we do it to de-stress from a hectic day at work, raising children, managing businesses, and households. It’s a lot. We also live in a culture that glorifies busyness. Stitching is not another thing to do. It’s a task that offers a respite from all the other things clawing at you for attention.

The repetitive hand movements involved in hand stitching benefit the nervous system. For me, stitching is a refuge from the busyness, as are many other analog hobbies.

How is hand stitching a somatic practice?

Somatic means of the body, so somatic practice is something that involves the body. We can use hand stitching as grounding and centering practice to help move the nervous system from the sympathetic mode of fight, flight, freeze, fawn, to the parasympathetic mode of rest and digest. The breath and the eyes are two autonomic nervous system processes we can consciously direct. You breathe all day long without needing to remind yourself. But you can also direct your breath with intention. Breathwork is one of the most effective ways to guide the nervous system towards rest and digest.

Now, there’s nothing to say that you can’t just grab your stitching and a cup of tea, sit in your favorite spot with good lighting, and stitch away to your heart’s content. What I’m offering is that you create a small ritual around your stitching time to make it more intentional and derive the most benefit from it.

Choose your stitching spot

Always returning to the same spot helps you establish a habit, and your nervous system gets a chance to become familiar with the idea that every time you sit in this spot, you work on your stitching.

Settle in

After you’ve gathered all the materials you’ll need for today’s stitching session, take a moment to be still. If it’s safe, you might light a candle, and then just rest your hands in your lap for a moment. Next, we’ll do some intentional breathwork. A simple practice is box breathing, or the four-part breath:

Inhale to the count of four

Hold for the count of four

Exhale for four

Hold for four

Repeat this breathwork exercise for as many rounds as you want. I find that I can feel the change slip in after about four rounds.

Begin with intention

Set an intention for what you would like to do in the time you have set aside. If you’re a praying person, you might whisper a quick prayer of gratitude as you begin.

Notice and attend to the body

As you stitch, quickly scan your body every few minutes. Become aware of where you might be gripping or holding tension in the body. Release it with a few breaths.

Completion

As you wrap up your work and put it away, take the time to be present to what you created. Check in to see how your body feels. Might you benefit from a good stretch? Take care of yourself.

When I finish my stitching stint for the day, I like to reflect on how incredibly fortunate I am to be living safely in a house, with plenty of food to eat, a quiet spot to do some stitching, and the fact that I’m doing the stitching for the simple pleasure of it rather than for survival. In this, I live an abundant life and I am grateful.

With all the stress we’re facing in our lives these days, it can be helpful to have a simple practice to manage and alleviate it and take care of our frazzled nervous systems. Hand stitching is a treasure for me in this regard. If you’ve read this far, I imagine it is for you, too.

Have you ever created any rituals around your hand stitching work?

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The tip of my grandmother’s index finger was missing.

She lost it while working on a machine in a Massachusetts textile mill as a child. But missing the tip of her finger did not keep her from creating beautiful textiles of her own. Nanny, as my sibs, cousins, and I called her, was a dressmaker, but she also knew how to knit, crochet, and make tatted lace. She was also a doll maker. I remember watching her embroider the doll’s faces, thinking she was magical as every stitch she made brought the faces to life.

My grandmother and her mother before her did needlework to keep a roof over their family’s heads. I would sometimes sit at her feet and just watch her crochet at what looked like 40 miles an hour, without looking, except occasionally, while carrying on a whole conversation. What I could not have known then is that she developed that speed because when she was a girl, she was paid by the piece. The faster she could complete an item, the faster she could start the next one.

So, I often think of her, and my other female ancestors, for whom needlework was a livelihood. It reminds me of how fortunate I am to be able to consider my needlework as a pastime or hobby. It’s something I do to relax and unwind in the evenings. It’s also an intentionally mindful, meditative practice for me. I’m grateful not to be in a position where, if I don’t finish this piece, I won’t get paid.

I was lying awake in the wee hours, basking in yet another bout of insomnia, when I started thinking about my textile art practice. While I learned to sew as a child, made my own clothes, done custom dressmaking for clients, and sewn more quilts and pillows than I can count on the sewing machine, I have gravitated lately to stitching by hand. While I’m away from home and don’t have access to my sewing machine, hand stitching is really all that’s left for me aside from knitting.

I was thinking about stitching vs. embroidery, and beginning to draw a distinction in my mind between the two. I imagine that in its Venn diagram, all embroidery is stitching, but not all stitching is embroidery. I love both, but for different reasons.

My daughter got some stains on her pants and asked me to embroider flowers over them to disguise the spots. Instead of flowers, I stitched mushrooms and a frog. It was fun, and she was delighted, but as I stitched, I remembered that satin stitch is not my favorite. I prefer freeform stitching as opposed to trying to be so precise and place each stitch in just the right spot to create a recognizable object.

For me, it’s kind of like the difference between abstract and representational art. When I used to paint with oil or acrylic paint on canvas, I much preferred the freedom of making an abstract painting. It felt so expressive. I could be inventive and follow my intuition to create something beautiful.

For my daily intuitive stitching journal, which has now become my 100-Day project, I approach it fresh each morning and stitch whatever I feel like stitching. There are some days when I do some fancy embroidery stitches, but most days, I keep it simple. I don’t have much time in the morning, so I like to make it count. I pull out my journal cloth and my stitching supplies, I’ve got my cup of tea handy and good lighting, and off I go. I may do breathwork, chant a mantra, or simply sit quietly and work on my stitching until it’s time to set it aside to begin my day.

The running stitch is my home base. Give me the right needle, let me push it in and out of the cloth, pull the thread through, and repeat that movement until my body has settled. I have engaged in creative expression. I am calm, poised, and centered.

Embroidery will always have its place. I love all the fancy stitches, making art on cloth with a needle and thread, or ribbons or whatever you’re stitching with. I enjoy learning new stitches, and seeing the piece come to life.

When I am using stitching as a meditative practice to anchor my energy and express my creativity freely, I choose freeform stitching. If I want to create something decorative and beautiful, I choose embroidery.

I’m sending love to my Nanny, who might find it a little ridiculous to know that I’ve been entertaining a mental debate between embroidery and just plain hand stitching. I’d give anything to be able to sit at her feet again and show her what I’ve made with the skills she passed down to me.

What do you think? Do you have a preference for embroidery or freeform stitching?

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My 100-Day Project is a stitch meditation scroll, so I’m going to define what that means for me and how my stitch meditation practice brings me peace.

In addition to being an embroidery and fiber artist, I’m also a writer and SBNR (spiritual but not religious) minister and a Prayer Practitioner. Ever since my days in seminary, I have been curious about and fascinated by creative expression as devotion. My hand stitching work is an integral part of my spiritual practice.

I was delighted when I came across the concept of stitch meditation. I found the work of fiber artists Liz Kettle and Emma Freeman, who both work with hand stitching on cloth as a meditative process rather than to create a beautiful object. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the thing you create can’t also be lovely, but that’s not the objective of the practice.

I’ve grown to love the feeling of holding cloth and needle in my hands, guiding the needle through, and making marks only I could make. Working with different types of embroidery floss, cotton and linen cloth to create for the sake of the process totally delights my soul.

Then, in early 2024, I found Katherine Chambers, who is known as K3N Cloth Tales on YouTube. She has a video on making stitch meditation scrolls, and when I saw the process, I was immediately attracted to it. I sew garments and quilt, so I’ve always got a ton of fabric scraps on hand.

I have included a picture and a video of my collection of stitch meditation scrolls that I made throughout 2025.

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The process typically begins with a strip of muslin, which is a 100% cotton, undyed cloth. I cut the muslin into long strips. Next, I pull out my basket of small fabric scraps and begin the process of creating a collage on top of the strips. I pin the scraps in place and then I use a dab of glue stick to hold them in place while I baste them down. Even the basting process is an essential step that I do in an intentional, meditative way.

Once the scraps are basted down, I gather my basket of floss and begin stitching. Sometimes, I just do a continuous running stitch down the length of the scroll. Other times, every square is adorned with “fancy stitching” as K3n refers to embroidery stitches such as blanket stitch, or chain stitch.

I am away from home, so I don’t have access to my massive stash of fabric and scraps. I did bring some floss, needles and fabric, so I am learning to create within the limitations of what I have on hand. I discovered that my daughter had some acrylic paints and brushes, so I diluted the colors all the way down with water and painted the cloth that I’m using for my 100-Day Project stitch meditation scroll. If you don’t thin the acrylic paints, you’ll end up with cloth covered in a slick layer of plastic that’s almost impossible to get a needle through. You can buy a liquid fabric medium that you can mix with acrylic paint, which allows you to get a needle through it, but I’ve never tried it. A simpler option might be to buy acrylic fabric paint.

While there will always be a place for fancy, decorative embroidery, for the moment, I am enjoying the process of making stitch meditation scrolls. Forming the simple stitches relaxes me and brings me peace and contentment, for which I am grateful.

Do you ever consider your hand stitching or other creative process to be meditative?

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If your life has been taking you on a roller-coaster ride as much as mine has lately, then maybe you can relate to how I rely on my hand stitching time to ground and relax me. Don’t get me wrong, I love creating beautiful images with my needle and thread, but in stressful times, I tend to be more of a process stitcher than focusing on the finished product.

I’ve got ADHD, so I typically have several plates spinning at once. But there always comes a point in the day when I must wind down, breathe, and let it all go. I’ve always been a crafty girl, but for the past couple of years, hand stitching, whether Sashiko, slow stitching, hand sewing or free-form embroidery has been my go-to form of creative expression.

Lately, since I’ve been on an extended visit to Arizona helping my daughter and her husband take care of my grand baby, hand stitching has been my main creative outlet. I have been knitting some, too. Winter in this part of the state lasts about six weeks, but that didn’t stop me from knitting him an enviable hat collection. I’ve now committed a baby bootie sock recipe to memory because I’ve knit so many of them. I swear they partly knit themselves because I can crank them out so quickly now.

But, for the moment, until I get back home to my cloth stash, embroidery is my current passion. I’m totally in love with intuitive stitching because I’m doing it mostly for the process. I sit with the cloth and a needle and stitch whatever I feel like stitching at the moment. I’m typically not embroidering representational images, rather just organic shapes using the colors of floss that appeal to me in the moment. I am grateful for my mental vocabulary of embroidery stitches that I can tap into in the moment, but I also draw great inspiration from the stitchers who publish their work on Pinterest, and from library books since I’m away from my personal book stash.

I’ve been learning about how repetitive motions like stitching can be grounding and help to soothe and balance the nervous system. I sometimes begin a stitching session with a bit of breathwork. I might be listening to Classical music, or a podcast, or I might sit on the back deck and listen to the birds.

Since I’ve been here I’ve completed three doodle cloths. I’m still not sure what I’ll do with them. I do believe that I will frame February’s cloth and offer it for sale after I return home. I’m learning to let things go more easily as I get older. I derived a lot of enjoyment from making it, now maybe someone will enjoy seeing it hang on their wall.

Whether for self-care or creative expression, intuitive hand stitching is my creative outlet of choice these days.

What’s your current favorite form of creative expression? If you don’t have one, what would you love to be able to work on in your down time to relax and unwind?

I’d love to hear about what you’re working on. 🧡

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I didn’t invent the term, “doodle cloth,” and I can’t remember where or when I first heard it mentioned, but what I do know is that it sparked inspiration in my creative brain. I chased that inspiration down and created my own doodle cloth.

My definition for a doodle cloth is a cloth where you can doodle, which, in this case, is freeform hand embroidery stitching without a pattern or plan.

My obsession passion for stitch doodling started when I was packing for a trip. Knitting has been my primary creative expression for most of my life, but at the time I was in a slump and didn’t have any projects on the needles (gasp!). I knew that I’d need some kind of hand work to keep my ADHD brain engaged and creative in my down time.

I had taken up slow stitching and Sashiko, so I had a bunch of embroidery supplies on hand. I shoved handfuls of embroidery floss, and Perle cottons into a zippered pouch, gathered a collection of needles, my heat-erasable pens, and my trusty embroidery scissors that almost got confiscated the last time I was departing from Charles de Gaulle airport, and a few pieces of cloth.

Examples of my first doodle cloths

My first doodle cloth was a study on the blanket stitch. I learned a technique of working the blanket stitch in a freeform, circular shape, inspired by textile artists, Mirjam Gielen, and Katherine Chambers. So, I stitched an undyed cotton muslin cloth with these organic forms. Then, to fill the blank, negative space, I used running stitch and seed stitch.

My next doodle cloth was inspired by a workshop I’d taken with Heidi Parkes, an art quilter, who creates diary quilts. While my project from that class is yet incomplete, her approach to documenting the events of our lives with needle, thread and cloth inspired some of my choice of motifs in my next cloth. I started at the top of the largest piece of fabric I’d brought with me, and began stitching without any plan. I let the needle and floss guide me. I have stitched a goat because that’s the animal for the year of my birth on the Chinese Zodiac calendar. You’ll see a frog because I love frogs, a fox and a hare because those are my spirit animals. There were times when I felt stumped about what to stitch next, so I consulted Pinterest for some inspiration. You can keep it random and abstract, or you can stitch representational images on your cloth. It took me about two months to cover that cloth with stitches. It also contains outlines of both of my hands, the most precious things to a hand stitcher.

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My latest doodle cloth is stitched on a square of Navy blue cotton cloth. It’s fascinating to see how the floss colors show up differently against the dark ground. Given that it’s February, I found the center and stitched a small heart. From there, I have added the motifs organically. I found a small ball of red, fingering weight wool yarn leftover from a pair of gloves I’d knit for my daughter. I had become fascinated by couching from my previous cloth, and the red looked striking against the dark blue. Using bits of floss from my ORTS collection, I began couching the red thread down without a plan, but a pattern of curves and loops began to emerge. I called myself following that red thread around with the needle and floss. Given that we’re just ten days into February, the cloth is yet unfinished, but I’ll share a picture of it so far.

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Why make a doodle cloth?

These cloths are a container for the process of freeform, intuitive embroidery. They provide an opportunity to stitch for the love of stitching. Almost everyone I’ve shown my doodle cloths wants to know what I plan to do with the finished object. “But what are you going to do with it?” Everybody wants to know that after putting all those hours into creating something, that it will be useful when it’s done. I did repurpose a doodle cloth to become a journal cover, but I can’t say what I’ll do with the others.

My reasons for making doodle cloths is to create something beautiful and unique with simple materials. I stitch because it grounds me, helps calm my anxiety, and supports my regulated nervous system. While I’m stitching, I might chant, pray, repeat affirmations, do breathwork exercises, or I might watch an episode of Schitt’s Creek. I’m rewatching from the beginning since I heard of Catherine O’Hara’s passing recently. I tend to get a big chunk of stitching done in the evenings, so there’s something nice about doubling over with laughter before I go to bed.

So, grab a piece of cloth, embroidery needles and floss and start stitching for the love of the process. When you’re winding down after a stressful day, pull out your cloth and stitch something that brings you joy.

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I blew through the heels of a pair of my hand knit socks. Past me made a foolish mistake in using 100% wool yarn to knit the heels, when I was knitting these scrappy socks several years ago. The rest of the socks have held up well without any other holes, so I was not ready to toss these just yet. I knew I couldn’t darn the hole because the wool would continue to wear down. This would be a fun learning opportunity for me because I’ve never replaced a heel before despite having knit dozens and dozens of pairs of socks.

My first step was to consult YouTube to see if I could find a tutorial. I found this one:

Replacing the heel in a cuff-down sock with a heel flap and gusset construction.

I watched the tutorial all the way through, and then I gathered my socks and tools and prepared for sock surgery.

I was grateful to my past self for the contrasting heel because this made it easy to swap it out for the new heel. However, if you’ve got a sock that needs a new heel, you can still replace it even if it’s not knit in a contrasting colored yarn.

Here are some pictures to document my process:

Here are the blown out heels.

I’ve cut away the old heel, and picked up the stitches in preparation for knitting the new heel.

Here’s the new heel flap an gusset on the needles. The next step was to graft these heel stitches together with the sole stitches, and then sew the side gusset to the side stitches.

Et voila! The completed heel replacement.

As you can see, the process is simple. In the time it takes to re-knit the heel flap and gusset, and then graft and sew in the new heel, your socks will have an extended life span.

This process only works for cuff-down socks with a heel flap and gusset construction. If you knit your socks toe-up, or any other method, the process will be slightly different.

If this quick walkthrough has kept you from throwing away a pair of hand knit socks, then my work here is done!

Happy stitching. ❤️🧶

Have you ever replaced a sock heel before?

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My mother and grandmother were seamstresses and knitters. My maternal grandmother also did crochet and tatting. She was a doll maker. She made life-sized baby dolls with hand embroidered faces.

As a child, I was surrounded by creativity. My mom put knitting needles in my hands when I was about six, to keep me out of her hair. I also learned to crochet, but somehow that didn’t stick in the way knitting did.

I knit clothes for my Barbie dolls and then for myself.

My mom also taught my sister and me to sew.

I started making my own clothes and I got interested in fashion design. I sewed my own clothes, and earned spare cash doing clothing alterations.

Soon, all of that sewing experience would pay off in a big way.

Becoming a professional quilt maker

My mom knew a couple who were running a quilt making business out of their home. They were looking for someone to do production sewing. I got the job.

Throughout my teen years, I cut, sewed, quilted and packed quilts.

Later, my older sister and I started a custom dressmaking shop.

My sister went on to study at the Fashion Institute in Los Angeles. I attended the University of Oregon to study English and prepare for law school.

I never attended law school, and I never returned to fashion design.

But I never stopped my creative pursuits.

I sewed for myself and my home and my husband and children when they came along.

Knitting became my primary focus.

I became a Knitter with a capital “K.”

If I was sitting, I was knitting.

It was my hobby, and my go-to mental health support before I even knew what that meant.

At the end of the day, you could find me on my end of the couch knitting.

Then, after years of teaching knitting, doing test knitting for designers, attending fiber festivals, leading knitting groups, and collecting fine yarns, knitting lost its charm for me, and I drifted away from it.

When I sold my condo and moved last spring, I had several plastic storage bins full of sweaters, shawls, socks and knitting bags, which are now neatly tucked away in storage.

But, my hands still wanted to create.

Another form of stitching

I still love color, cloth, and learning new stitches.

Embroidery was another craft I indulged in over the years. I did counted cross stitch, and stitched several, beautiful kits, but as my eyes grew older and less capable of seeing those tiny squares, cross stitch also fell by the wayside.

A few years ago, I discovered intuitive embroidery and slow stitching. I had a nice stash of leftover fabrics from sewing projects, and I used those in to create beautiful textile art. When I learned about Kawandi, I made several of those hand stitched quilts and used up a good amount of my scraps and leftover fabrics.

For the moment, I am far from home and my craft supplies, so embroidery is my creative outlet now. In January of this year, I started a daily intuitive stitching project, where I’ll do freeform, organic stitches every day. I’m also working on what I call a “doodle cloth” where I do random stitches with no plan or final design in mind. I’m stitching for the enjoyment of the process. Stitching is a meditative process for me. I work with colors I love and cloth that feels good in my hands.

Now, I am a minister and a writer. This is my first foray into writing about my stitching, so we’ll see how it goes. I plan to share my progress on my daily stitching, and other projects in progress. I love using my hands to express my creativity. I have learned bout the power of making by hand, and I’d love to share it with others in the way of workshops and creative circles.

Thank you for reading. You are welcome to subscribe if you’d like to follow my journey of stitches and cloth.

“Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Almost every time I do a search that includes “embroidery” on Pinterest, Karen Turner’s images of her intuitive daily stitching projects flood the search results. I’d always tuck the idea of doing a daily stitching journal into the back of my mind, but at the end of December last year I decided that 2026 was going to be my year of daily(ish) stitching.

The cloth is a humble piece of muslin, pre-washed and ironed. I loosely followed Karen’s template and traced it on the cloth with a heat-soluble pen. I have pre-traced six months worth of templates, and I’m stitching the borders a month ahead.

It’s been fun to approach each day’s little square and allowing my intuition or inspiration to inspire me about what to stitch. The third day of the year brought a full moon, so I stitched that and then the new moon two weeks later. My only rule is that there are no rules. I can stitch whatever I feel moved or inspire to stitch.

Looking back on 31 days of stitching feels good to me. I’ve got ADHD, which means I’m a dopamine chaser. I often dive passionately into a new project only to abandon it in the messy middle. In November of 2025, I managed to complete Novel November, which involved writing 50,000 words in 30 days. That accomplishment reminded me that I can do challenging things, that I can stick to a creative project and be consistent.

I can’t wait to see what this cloth will look like when I unfurl it on December 31, 2026 and run my hands over the cloth that I stitched on every single day of the year.

Are you working on a stitch journal, or a year-long stitching project? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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