Highlights of 2019

It's that odd time between Christmas and New Year when even if you're unlucky enough to have to work as I am, hopefully it's not too busy.  I know if you work in retail then this must be one of the busiest times of the year, but thankfully I'm an office worker and today I've had a grand total of 3 emails to answer!  It was quiet on Monday and Tuesday as well, so I feel like I'm actually catching up a little bit. 

And as I seem to have my day job a little bit under control (today at least!) I thought I'd do a quick blog post about the highlights of my year, sewing wise. 

This year started off pretty well with this blog after I made the decision to focus on free motion embroidery rather than dressmaking.  Unfortunately as has happened before my day job became ridiculously busy and stressful and I ran out of brain power for blogging and my posts became even more eratic than previously.  I can't quite make the decision to give it up completely though. 

Anyway, on to my top three sewing highlights of the year.

In third place is the class I taught at the Knitting and Stitching show back in March, which you can read about here.  

Just before the class started!

It was slightly nerve-wracking having to take a huge suitcase full of kits on the train to Olympia, and I'm sure my fellow commuters didn't thank me for that!  The set up was a bit rushed, but once I'd settled in to the class I really enjoyed it and I got some great feedback on the kits I provided. 

In second place, something I haven't blogged about before.  Back in April I had an email out of the blue from Enfield Embroiderers Guild asking if I would like to visit them and give a talk about free motion embroidery.  As the date suggested wasn't until November I agreed, thinking I'd have loads and loads of time to work out what I wanted to say!  In reality I left most of my preparation until about a week before hand.  I was quite nervous as I'd been told to expect an audience of between 30 and 40 people, and it's a long time since I've had to speak in public to a group that size.  

On the day the group were lovely and welcoming and once I'd got started I found I thought of more and more things to say.  I talked about my sewing journey as a whole to begin with, then focussed in on free motion embroidery and what I love about it.  I was told afterwards that one of the things that resonated most with my audience was the dilemma of pursuing a career that follows your passion v. doing the day job and keeping what you love as a hobby.

Public speaking isn't something that I would normally put myself forward for, but I really enjoyed the experience and would definitely do it again. 

And finally, in 1st place has to be this...

The Little Book of Sewing by Karen Ball
Seeing my illustration on the cover of Karen Ball's The Little Book of Sewing. Seeing my name on the back and the book on the shelves in my local Waterstone's was pretty cool too!



You can read the interview that Karen did with my for her blog shortly after the book was released here

Again, this was something I had never done before, and had never even considered a possibility, but would love to do again. 

I wonder what new experiences 2020 will bring?