A repeated topic that comes up when I’ve spoken about my high school Needle Arts class is the students’ Embroidery Stitch Journals. Several readers have asked about the stitch journals, so I thought I’d show you what they are.

The Embroidery Stitch Journal is a book of sorts that my students will be filling up as they progress through the first semester of Needle Arts. The pages are laid out as the one in the picture above, and are printed front and back on a sturdy archival matte photo paper. (Why photo paper? Only because I have boxes and boxes of it from a project a year or so ago that will never get used, and I didn’t want it to go to waste! Otherwise, it would probably be card stock.)

Each page allows room for the stitch name, the date we cover it in class, information on fabrics and threads suitable for the stitch, an illustration of the stitch itself (which I provide by inserting an image in the “instructions” space before I print the pages), written instructions on the stitch, any pertinent tips, and then three samples of the stitch worked on fabric. The samples are affixed to the page, and there’s room next to them to write specific information about the samples.

The pages are punched with a three-hole punch, and are arranged in their class binders. Basically, they’re building their own “stitch dictionaries” to use as reference, with actual stitched samples on each page. Hopefully, they’ll keep these as reference tools for years to come!

After working the samples, they’ll work the stitch out on their spot samplers, in some ingenious and creative way (well… that’s the plan, anyway!). Next week, we start the week by fixing in their first samples, which they finished this past Monday. They had to work three different small charted elements – we’re doing counted work right now – over one and then over two threads of fabric, so in each sample space, they’ll have two samples.

They’re adding initials and dates to their spot samplers now – I can’t wait to see what progress they make over the long weekend!

I made up the stitch journal pages by using a table in Word. If you want to make your own and you like this layout, you’re certainly welcome to use it. But you can always adjust it to suit your needs and interests, too. If you want a PDF of the page just as it is, you’re welcome to it:

Embroidery Stitch Journal (PDF)

Hope you’re having a swell weekend!