Discovering the tranquility of embroidery has been a game changer...

It's a very quiet activity compared with jewellery making...

...there's no banging, grinding or sawing.

Just the sound of a thread being pulled through fabric.

A simple brief...the alphabet, led to an explosion of inspiration.

Bright colours, and simple motifs using basic embroidery stitching techniques, let to a varied mix of styles.

Soft, tonal shades of green, 

to contrasting brights...

and everything in between.

There should be a style to suit everyone's taste.

One of the biggest challenges when sewing is tangled threads.

I'm going to say it - it's annoying.

Tangled threads is probably the main reason people want to throw their sewing out the window.

But there are tips & tricks to help avoid this.

One of them is to store the thread on bobbins rather than leave them loose. These are old clothes pegs and work brilliantly to create order out of chaos.

The other big challenge is French knots.

French knots take a wee bit of practice, but once you've mastered it, you'll feel super proud of yourself.

But like so many of the projects on here, what we are aiming for is perfectly imperfect.

We are not machines, we are hand sewing, so each knot will be a tiny bit different, it's all part of the charm.

Fancy it?

Let's do this together, and you can create the most perfectly imperfect letter to keep or give away.

xx