Looking Back At 2025

I got the idea that I would select a photo from each month of 2025, as a way of looking back. Taking stock? Maybe I’ll start a new tradition here on the blog? If I remember to do it next year. Anyway, let’s go with 12 photos from 2025.

The one above is from January, when I finally started sewing my hexagons together. That felt like a momentous occasion! The end is nowhere near in sight yet but I’m still stitching hexagons together. And still enjoying it!

In February I started the 100 Day Project which was stitching this quote by Toni Morrison. The first many photos of the project are not that interesting so here is the finished piece. :-)

In March my parents came to visit. We went on a day trip to Dover etc. But my mum and I also made a mess with watercolours and crayons which was fun. :-)

In April I got to meet Jen, my Flickr/blog friend, in person for the first time since we got to know each other in something like 2008! We had a lovely day wandering around the City of London and then seeing an exhibition at The Fashion & Textile Museum.

In April I also released a daffodil embroidery pattern and I worked on redoing a quilt top I had originally made in 2018.

In May Blake had an operation on his second eye. We spent quite a lot of time on giving him eye drops and making sure he didn’t walk into/rubbed his eye on things.

I kept working on the quilt top I redid in April and I also put in some work on the rage quilt.

In June I made a dress! And I finished both the redone quilt and the rage quilt.

One early morning I also witnessed a magpie chasing a fox into hiding in a hedge. Basically one of the most incredible animal experiences of my life! :-D

In July I sent these two quilts to the Festival of Quilts. With some trepidation!

I released two new patterns: Star Stitch Mandala and Chain Stitch Mandala.

I also went to a class taught by the Argentinian embroider Adriana Torres. Which brought me to Brixton for the first time. I also finally finished stitching a pattern by Adriana which I started way way back in 2020!

In early August I was off to the Festival of Quilts and then I spent most of the rest of the month making the orange quilt for my sister. :-)

In September I finally made a video tutorial for the granny square joining method I use.

Then it was October and I wrote a post about this coverlet, which I had finished in August.

And then we said goodbye to Blake and the rest of the year kinda sucked after that…

To my surprise, I did actually write a fair few blog posts in December. Like the one about finishing the F*ck This Shit embroidery. Baking saffron buns. Finishing my first cable knit project and the finished Wheel of The Year project.

Well, that was only 11 photos so I think we’ll need one more. Blake, of course. I miss him so much. Even now, two months since he’s been gone, I still sometimes wake up in the morning and for a split second forget that he’s no longer here…

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I decided on a whim to write this post and I’m glad that I did because it has highlighted something I kinda knew but sort of ignored: I don’t write enough on this here blog. I make more things (not necessarily finished) than I share here. I guess because it’s so quick and easy to just share a post on Instagram. Although to be honest, I don’t post much on there either. It is mainly in my Tuesday or Friday newsletter…

I think if I am going to have a resolution for 2026 it is to write more on the blog. I hope that when I write a post like this one in a year’s time that there will be lots more posts to share. I kinda miss the old days of blogging, where you’d just share a quick photo post or a couple of lines about something you made. A blog post can be anything, it doesn’t have to be a thousand words.

Anyway. Happy New Year! I hope 2026 will be kind to you and yours. :-)