Happy New Year, my friends!

2016 promises to be a big one here on Needle ‘n Thread – new adventures in embroidery and writing, a new look on the website, and lots of new projects, inspiration, and stitching ideas.

And I’m excited that I get to share it with you! We’re going to have so much fun together!

When I sat down to ponder 2015, at first glance, it didn’t seem like a monumental stitching year. I racked my brain, trying to remember if I actually did accomplish anything in the realm of embroidery.

Maybe it’s because I haven’t been stitching on anything Big lately. I really couldn’t remember whether I had finished anything in 2015. So you know what I did? I went to my blog archives for 2015 and started meandering through last year’s articles.

And then I remembered!

The Big Embroidery Projects we completed on Needle ‘n Thread in 2015 were the Secret Garden Hummingbirds and the Hungarian redwork runner.

On the business front of things, I managed to eke out one e-book – Stitch Sampler Alphabet – which has proved to be quite popular (thank you so much to all who have purchased it!).

There were many little projects throughout the year. My favorites: this three-stitch blooming tree. And this First Communion book cover.

We worked our way through some embroidery with beads tutorials, which I thought were a lot of fun!

And I added a few tutorials to the Stitch Fun series, which will continue through 2016 as well.

Besides that, we enjoyed all the typical Needle ‘n Thread content, including needlework book reviews, chats about thread and fabric, product reviews and tool talk.

I’d say it was a pretty good year overall! Did I meet all my yearly goals? Uh…….. no. But that’s ok! I always figure as long as you’re moving forward, all is well.

What’s Up for 2016?

I have a few plans up my sleeve – in fact, up both sleeves – for 2016. The biggest one is the website overhaul, which should happen in the first part of this year. The work’s been going on behind the scenes for a long time – about nine months – so something should happen soon. It’s a lot like gestation. Something’s bound to happen after nine months!

Project-wise, there are a few in the works already, hanging over from last year. One is Late Harvest, which I’ve been dabbling with recently. It’s super fun – I’ll show you an update soon. This project will take us into a little bit of stumpwork, so tutorials on stumpwork will figure in to the line-up during the year, too.

I’ve also got two “small” ecclesiastical embroidery commissions for this year, and I’ll be sharing the process on those. (“Small” is a relative term… think: small in size, large in scope!)

There’s a whole list of tutorials in my planner that we’ll work through together, too – not just stitching tutorials, but finishing tutorials and some fun techniques, too.

And of course, we’ll indulge in chatting about the things we love best – like needlework techniques, threads, tools, books, and new stuff on the needlework market.

I’m really looking forward to 2016, and I hope you are, too. Thanks heaps for hanging out with me here on Needle ‘n Thread – may the new year bring you much joy and contentment with your needle and thread!