me + my boys: A beautiful piece remembering the Queen 👸👑

EMBROIDERY

PUNCH NEEDLE

WEAVING

Hey, it's Julie here,

I hope you are enjoying your week so far! Here's what's happening this week at Clever Poppy.

In today's email

A simple guide for learning Satin Stitch
Member's Personalised Baubles version
Uniquely textured fiber art by an inspiring artist
A helpful post by Dr Libby which resonated with me
Shop Spotlight: Soul Sisters
A beautiful embroidery piece in homage to the Queen
In my world: Some much needed me-time

On the Blog... Satin Stitch

Satin Stitch is one of my favourite techniques to use in my patterns, and one I would recommend having under your belt for embroidery projects!

It is a beautiful series of straight stitches, that are used to completely cover an area of the background fabric. It is called satin stitch because it has a lovely smooth look - like satin.

This stitch is in such a wide array in embroidery patterns and I know it can be a bit of a challenge for some people. So I have put together this blog article, giving you an easy tutorial on how to learn the Satin Stitch technique. Once you have the technique down, it just takes some practice to get the hang of - which you can do below with our Soul Sisters pattern!

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What have our makers been up to?

How cute is this version of our "Personalised Baubles" pattern, shared by Sheena?! She has personalised it with her family name to make it extra special for the festive season.

She said: "Loved this pattern so much 🥰".

I think this is going to be such a beautiful addition to her Christmas tree this year!

What's inspiring me on the creative front...

How incredible are these pieces by talented artist Ashlie of Happimood? I always love finding new artists for inspiration and her work is just too beautiful not to share! I love how she experiments with different mixed media in her fibre art, combining a wide range of organic textures with pops of colour to make some very unique, abstract pieces. If you would like to see more of her work, you can check out her instagram page here.

Something helpful...

I came across this post on Facebook the other day from Dr Libby (some of you may have heard of her - she's a NZ nutritional biochemist and author focused on hormone health). She gives advice about being 'The Rememberer' in your group of friends or family and it really resonated with me so I thought I would share! You can check out her post here.

Shop Spotlight... Soul Sisters

I have really enjoyed seeing all of the different versions of this pattern shared by our members and customers! The great thing is that this pattern can be personalised with different hairstyles and colours to make it resemble whomever you wish.

This pattern is recommended for Super Confident Makers. I would also recommended you complete our Stitching Hairstyles course beforehand, as this will give you a complete guide of all of the techniques used in this pattern, which you can then put to practice.

We have a pattern kit available in our shop, which includes the printed pattern guide, threads, piece of cotton fabric and wooden display hoop. This goes well with the digital course, which you can purchase here.

Soul Sisters Pattern Kit

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Stitching Hairstyles Embroidery Course

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Remembering the Queen...

Just like so many people around the world, I've been touched by the passing of the Queen. She really was a remarkable woman.

It's made me want to rewatch 'The Crown', which I started again last week. I'm sure it's not an entirely accurate portrayal of her life, but somehow it makes me feel like I know her better. I definitely recommend watching it if you haven't already – the episodes cover a lot of history and momentous events as they follow along with Queen Elizabeth's life. Her relationships with Prime Ministers like Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher are really interesting.

Meanwhile, one of our amazing members Jenny designed and stitched this piece and shared it in our group earlier this week. I thought it was so impressive, and wanted to share it with you too.

In my world...

We had a really busy start to last week, with Harvey's school production (he was an eel hehe) and all the usual household admin (how is there so much for a little household of 4?!).

It wasn't until I got to Thurs night, that I was able to sit down with my latest WIP and do some stitching in the evening. I know I say this all the time, but it was such a reminder of how much my overall mindset and mood improves, after slowing down for some stitching 'me time'. Honestly, by bedtime that night instead of feeling frazzled and huffing my way through the chores, I was relaxed, grounded and feeling excited about what was on for the rest of the week. So why am I sharing this? I just hope it's a little nudge for you to take some time out for yourself too. I'm sure you deserve it a hundred times over – and chances are that the positive feeling it gives you will spill over to so many other areas of your life.

I'll also share a couple of pics of a date night we had on Sat – Piper included! Harvey was off living the dream boating with his little bestie and their family, so we decided to treat Piper to a dinner out. To be honest it was probably more for me and Matt, but it was cool to take her into the city and do something a little different. Yes, she wanted to run amok and would have been tearing her way around the restaurant pretending to be a waitress if we'd let her…but we totally managed to have some special QT with her over dinner, and dessert of course!

This week is the last full week before the workshop starts, so it's busy busy getting ready and closing out other projects so that I can focus on the workshop while it's live. If you haven't joined up, there is still time to grab your spot and organise supplies. It's going to be fun and I'd love to see you there!

Have a wonderful week xx