Weekend Review: 365 Days of Stitches

 

365 Days of Stitches / Steph Arnold
NY: Abrams, c2023.
128 p.

February is also National Embroidery Month, and I'll share a few books on embroidery that I've been looking at lately! 

The first one is this clever little collection of motifs -- although it's probably a book best approached at the beginning of the year. Steph Arnold of OhSewBootiful has an online shop that sells embroidery patterns and kits, and is known for her embroidered journal process. This book explains how to keep a year long stitched diary, gives a few different examples of people's projects (showing daily or highlights or special event styles), and then most of the rest of the book is given over to small motifs that can be added to your own daily stitch journal.

These are sorted by theme - seasons, holidays, sports, etc - and are all notated with stitch and colour suggestions. She also suggests that you use one or two strands only, to keep the motifs small enough for a daily hoop. There are a few different kinds of hoop designs suggested there is also the preprinted colour blocked kit she sells in her shop, if you want to start with full colour and supplies. 

It's a fun idea, and would be a fun project to do, but like I mentioned, probably best to get this as a Christmas gift and be prepared to start on Day One. You could also just do a similar thing for a month, or a holiday, or something in particular, but the year-long model is what this is aimed at. The book is a little light on text or added content, it's mainly examples of finished projects for ideas and then a massive collection of motifs to inspire and use. If you are thinking of taking up embroidery, or want to do it in a group, this would be a fun way to do so. Just be aware that this is definitely a project book with not too much else to it.