And so we come to the last week of 2024. It has been a year. I'm glad I spent a large portion of it embroidering something. Having a daily embroidery practice has changed my life. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't embroider every day. There's something so relaxing and challenging and infuriating and satisfying about embroidering every day. Since starting my daily practice and my yearly project, I've become a better artist and have learned a lot about embroidery and art and what interests me. I was excited to embark on this year's project and I'm happy to wrap it up with a whimsical design I've always wanted to try.
I used to collect snow globes. I had a bunch of them when I was in high school and in my early 20s. I'd usually buy them when I traveled somewhere or get them as a gift. Who doesn't love a whimsical representation of New York City or Los Angeles? Unfun people, that's who. My collection never turned into a hobby or anything massive, and eventually, I got rid of most of the ones I had. I guess I traded snow globes in so I could start collecting oddball art and ephemera. Such is the way of the collector.
Anyway, I've always loved seeing other embroiderers make embroidered snow globes this time of year, so I thought I'd end the 2024 stitch journal project with a little snow globe. I had a lot of fun making this last piece and absolutely needed the extra time that the last week of December gave me. All of the thread inside the globe is DMC Etoile and the globe is stitched with DMC Diamant. I wanted those elements to sparkle like a real snow globe would. The jaunty scarf and the fantastic hat are my two favorite parts of this piece.
Here's the final piece of 2024:
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| December 22 - I was originally going to use satin stitch, but didn't like what it looked like when I started, so I switched to back stitch and figured I'd use it as a filler stitch as well. Little did I know what would happen on December 23. |
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| December 23 - When I started on the back stitch on day two of this week, it looked horrible, so I went back to my original plan of using satin stitch. It's slightly raised since I didn't remove the back stitch. |
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| December 24 - look at how good the satin stitch looks! It needed the back stitch to look right. I knew all along. Probably. |
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| December 25 |
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| December 26 - look at that jaunty scarf! |
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| December 27 - And a fabulous hat! |
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| December 28 |
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| December 29 |
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| December 30 |
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| December 31 - featured both twinkle stitch (above) and applique (below). Using more of the upholstery books was a lot of fun. |
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| Week 52 |
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| The Stitch Book 2024 |
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| The 2024 project's home. |
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| All 52 weeks. |
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| The yellow fabric is a test piece I did at the beginning of the year. I had it available to try different techniques but only needed it to test the watercolor paint. The denim fabric was the original Week 52 fabric. You can see the snowman looks a little devil-like because I placed him incorrectly when I tried drawing the design again and the hat I started to draw looks like horns. |
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| The notebook only closes if I use the little elastic closure thing. |
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| The four stitch journal projects. |
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| This year's ort jar - not as full as past years. I guess I used less thread this year. |
And so the The Stitch Book project closes. But Erin, there's no actual book? Well, that's sort of true. My original design for this year's project did include trying to bind the fabric back into a sample book. However, as I was working on it, I decided I didn't want to punch holes in my work. I would have had to change designs or punch a hole through a design and I didn't want to do that. Instead, I decided to store the finished project in a storage box. Manuscripts are often sent to publishers in boxes and are unbound, so I used that practice as an inspiration. Designs and ideas change over the course of a year long project. That's one of the fun/challenging/exciting aspects of working on a 365 project. Is it really going to be exactly as I envisioned on day one? Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps. This is the biggest lesson I've learned from my four stitch journals - where I start is not always where I end and where I end is not always where I planned to be.
I hope you enjoyed following along with this year's stitch journal as much as I enjoyed making it. I loved creating each piece this year even the ones that made me angry or sad. I probably love those ones even more. Before I recap the rest of the year and talk about the 2025 project, here are my favorite pieces from 2024:
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| Week 19 |
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| Week 22 |
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| Week 27 - Keely showed up in four pieces this year. I think of this piece every time I hear this song on the radio. |
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| Week 44 |
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| Week 47 - this piece made me the saddest of any I made but I absolutely love it. Keely would have tolerated it. |
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| Weeks 5, 6, 11, and 12 - this little cluster at the top of the project is so much fun. |
I would love to hear from anyone who had a favorite piece this year. Drop it in the comments or let me know over on Instagram!
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| This picture popped up in my Facebook memories today. It's from December 31, 2020. I was prepping for the first stitch journal/365 project and Keely helped me sort through all my thread. He was such a good boy. |
The Rest of 2024 and the 2025 Stitch Journal Project
I had a pretty busy year in embroidery beyond the 52 pieces I made from this project. In addition to this series, I completed 39 additional embroidery pieces this year. This includes one series (Mushroom Farm Energy), 10 embroidered ornaments for my mom's friends, artist's cards, and several kits from designers I enjoy. I have one in progress project that I'll try to finish in 2025. Probably.
I also made Groundhog Day cards in February and am super excited to get started on this year's cards. I have a new stamp, new stamp pads, and some fun design ideas for this year's cards. I even got myself a Groundhog Day card storage toolbox. It's fantastic.
If you would like a 2025 Groundhog Day card, fill out this form and I'll add you to the list! The form will close on Saturday, January 18 so I have time to finalize the list and get everything mailed.
I'm slowly working my way through building The Nightmare Before Christmas LEGO set that was released this year. My brother, who is the best person in the world, actually found it and got it for me for Christmas. The set was sold out before it was released and he just happened upon one at Target. Wild. I've completed building three bags of the set so far. Only 13 more to go...
I recently found some unlabeled CDs I burned between 2014-2018 and have spent the last few days listening to them. I have three or four more to go today. This is such a great way to finish out 2024 and it reminded me of that time I listened to all four KISS solo albums so you don't have to.
I'm also starting to work on my submission for the Woodlawn Needlework Show. It's due February 2, and I decided this week to do what I originally wanted to do which is a version of the Mushroom Farm Energy series minus the watercolor paint. I'm still going to do the other project idea, but maybe for next year. I just couldn't get the design right and I want to feel confident in what I'm submitting to be judged. More on this project as I work on it in January.
I've been prepping for the 2025 stitch journal project since the end of November. As I shared in a previous post, I'm going to be stitching the 80 fortunes I saved since I moved into my house 5 years ago. There are a few themes I'll be focusing on in 2025: collecting, why we collect random things, ominous positivity, luck, and superstition. This will be a completely text focused piece and I'll be working in a small text scale on a large piece of fabric. I'm not sure how this is going to work but I'm excited to get started.
The first post for the 2025 project will be up on Saturday. I'm going to keep posting weekly again this year since it's more manageable for me than doing daily. It's also a good accountability practice.
Thank you for following along this year. I hope that 2025 brings you whatever it is you want it to bring you. If you're going out tonight, please be safe and make good life choices. If you're staying in, I hope you find something fun to watch, read, or listen to (or all three). Happy New Year!
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