Hello there! Bit late getting this out to you again – it’s been quite a week what with back to school shenanigans and a trip up to Glasgow for a University Open Day. But here we are, well into September now and with everyone in my household back at school or university. Back when I first started this Summer Craft Challenge in 2016, I was staring down the barrel of a 10-week-long school summer break with 3 young children. It was a bit of a marathon keeping everyone entertained back then, but times have changed. My boys only get 6 weeks off now we live back here in England AND they are a lot more independent these days, so the summer school holidays don’t feel quite the same for me.
It was still fun to deliberately seek out some time for creativity (almost) every day during that 6-and-a-bit weeks this year. It was also great fun to be joined in the challenge by even more people as well. Thank you to everyone who joined me this summer, it was so nice to hear that the challenge had inspired some of you to dig out some wips and get them finished or try something new. Thank you for sharing what you have been working on this year!
Here’s a little look back at what I got up to during the sixth and final week (and a bit) of the school summer holidays:
In Week 5 I started making another heart for the North West & North Wales Paediatric Transport Service but ran out of stuffing! I made a quick trip out to the shops and restocked on my stuffing stash and was able to finish this one off!
On Bank Holiday Monday, I had to make an early morning dash to Snowdonia with son number 2. He needed to gather some evidence for a geography A-Level piece of work. The trip had been scheduled for earlier in the holiday but Storm Floris blew in (not the best conditions for climbing hills) so it was put off, then ill health got in the way so we were left with only one option – to drive to Wales on Bank Holiday Monday – not ideal.
We were up with the lark and he got the work done while I sat on a rock and crocheted!
Not much time for creativity on Day 39 – busy day back at work for me and I was a bit tired in the evening, so only managed one cube on my Hello Hooray Blog embroidery kit.
This Orla Square was made while watching Manchester United get knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Grimsby Town. The dark colour of the flower in my Orla Square was rather appropriate!
Day 41 and I suddenly realised we were hurtling towards the end of August and I still hadn’t completely decided what I was going to do for my September Square for the Making Stiches 2025 CAL – nothing like leaving it until the last minute eh?
Throughout this Summer Craft Challenge, I have been making these really fun Orla Squares. My aim is to create a garment with them, and, as I often do, I have set myself a potentially unrealistic target for finishing it! On Day 42 (Friday 29th), I laid all these beauties out and was trying to decide whether to go random with their colour placement or have some sort of pattern – I simply couldn’t decide!
Fast forward to Tuesday 2nd September. Week Six officially ended on Day 42, and I had planned to keep going every day until both of my younger boys were back at school, but the weekend was exceptionally busy and didn’t allow for any creativity, so as I climbed aboard a train bound for Glasgow on Tuesday afternoon with Son number 2, I was thrilled to have a good chunk of uninterrupted train crochet time!
Sadly, on our return journey from Glasgow on Wednesday 3rd, things didn’t quite go to plan. A damaged power line meant no trains south of Carlisle, so we had a rather stressful journey home, which took about 4 hours longer than it should have done. We arrived home on Thursday morning ready for a full return to school, university and work. I didn’t get any crochet done on the return leg, so just posted this collection of 9 squares I managed on the journey north.
And that’s it for my 2025 Summer Craft Challenge! It has genuinely flown by for me, I cannot quite believe that we are back in the old routine again. School’s back, Eldest has gone back to University and we had our first football match of the season this morning with Youngest. It’s as if it was all a dream, but at least I have lovely memories and a lot more crochet done and it was so lovely to spent my summer with you all.
Huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this time – it has genuinely been so lovely to have company on this challenge. Included below are some of varied Instagram posts I’ve seen including crocheted rainbow fans by Sarah @Sarah.livelovecrochet, a lovely scrappy sock in the making by Kristina @crochet_at_holme, a beautiful festival cardigan modelled by Carol @nanaseamakes, fabulous mountain-top crochet with Zeli @yarnstorms, the final pocket of a cardigan being made by Sarah @sarahsheehangib, stunning felt fungi by Sandra @wilddaffodilwild, the cutest crocheted avocado made by Jothi @Jothiquestcrafts, a lovely crocheted rose brooch by Karen @seasidekaren & utterly stunning Persian Tiles by AnnMarie @crochetscot – Thank you all!
And that’s all for this week and this summer! Thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with the craft challenge to keep me company over the past six and a bit weeks! Anyone up for joining in next year? If so, watch this space!
Hello there! Bit late getting this out to you following the Bank Holiday Weekend. It’s thrown me out of routine and I’m only just getting back on track (and knowing what day it is!) today. We started Week Five of this year’s Summer Craft Challenge up in the Lake District visiting some lovely friends of ours. The view behind the pictures above is of Grasmere, where we enjoyed a lovely kayak around on Sunday. We have visited the Lakes many times over the years, and have never seen it in such warm and sunny conditions – we were really lucky.
Here’s what I got up to this week!
Last Saturday, we woke up in the Lakes again and packed a picnic ready for a big climb. We managed to get to top of a mountain! Cat Bells to be precise. When we made it to the top and found a quiet space to sit, those cheese rolls tasted like nectar from the Gods! Bliss! After our picnic lunch, I whipped my hook out and made another Orla Square at the top as a souvenir of our big climb.
Sunday morning was my last Lake District crochet session, we went to Grasmere and got our friends’ inflatable kayak pumped up so the boys could get out on the water. Once they had all had a go paddling around the island in the middle of the lake, my friend and I got in and had a go. While I was waiting for my turn, I sat in the shade and hooked up another Orla square. I wonder if I will remember where I made each one, when I finish the project later on? Maybe not, but they will certainly remind me of this summer.
On Monday, after work, I found myself back at home with the rather boring backdrop of our dining table for my Orla Squares today!
On Day 32, work was incredibly busy and the evening was too, but I managed to find a bit of time before bed to begin another heart for the North Wales and North West Paediatric Transport Service (full details of appeal is here). Unfortunately, once I was committed, I discovered I’d run out of filling to stuff it with, so had to leave it like this! Off to the shops soon…
Wednesday already and as I am planning on using my Orla Squares to make a garment (once I have enough made), I realised that I will probably need some ‘half’ squares to help with the shaping, so I did a bit of experinenting tonight.
Busy day on Day 34, including a really lovely funeral for a very good friend’s Dad, so not much inclination for making when I got home, some mindless sock-knitting rounds was just the ticket.
On Friday, I did a different bit of crafting – I crafted a podcast episode! The first episode of the new series of Making Stitches Podcast is ready to go live on Friday!
And that’s it for Week 5 of my Summer Craft Challenge from my part of the world.
Huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this week, it’s been so lovely to have company on this challenge. Included below are some of varied Instagram posts I’ve seen including a beautiful crocheted sea shell from Sandra @wilddaffodilwild, a beautiful Crochet Sanctuary Christmas blanket and a cardigan in the making from Kristina @crochet_at_holme, a Making Stitches 2025 CAL Bonus Birthday square from Sarah @sarahsheehangib and the cutest Snoopy and Woodstock from Jothi @jothiquestcraft – Thank you all!
And that’s all for this week, thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with the craft challenge to keep me company this week! If you want to join in, you can do at any time, just share what you’re making (any crafts welcome) over on Instagram using the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 and we can all enjoy each other’s creativity!
Week Four of this year’s Summer Craft Challenge was much like week three – a real mix of things going on. I made a point of trying to have something different each week. Back in the old days when this summer challenge first started, it was completely different – we were living in Gibraltar (where the beach was a 10 minute drive and the sun (almost) always shone, I was a stay at home mum and my kids were a lot smaller. I now work part time, have only 2 young men at home and they are teenagers, so things have needed to be a bit more strategic.
This week was chilled for the lads as I was working 3 days, then we packed up the car and headed north again (not as far as our last holiday to Scotland though) and went to visit our very good friends who live in the Lake District. It was quite hard trying to find time for crochet or anything else in between things on my working days, but after that, it was a different matter.
Here’s what I got up to this week!
Last Saturday was a busy one (every day seems to be busy at the minute) and the first time I had to sit down and get my hook out was in the evening as I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 3 with the boys. That’s another 2 hearts made for the North West and North Wales Paediatric Transport Service. For full details on why I’m making these, check out this post!
Sunday and I revisited my Orla squares. I’m really enjoying making these as they work up so quickly.
On Monday I managed to make a third yellow heart for the North West and North Wales Paediatric Transport Service. That’s a fourth trio of hearts done.
On Day 25 and I took my knitting into work with me in the hope of getting a few rounds done on my sock at lunch time. I was a crazy busy day at work with one thing and another, so no time for lunchtime knitting for me. I enjoyed a sit down late at night and managed a few rounds whilst watcing the finale of Series 3 of The Guilded Age.
Blimey it was really hot on Wednesday (Day 26), and I managed to spend a good chunk of the afternoon sweating it up under a nylon cape at the hairdresser while she made my ‘silver highlights’ a bit less silver. I managed to hook some more squares up while I was in the chair!
Day 27 found us in the Lake District visiting some very dear friends. First night there involved half a pint of local ale and a lovely pub meal. I managed a teeny bit of crochet while we waited for dinner to come.
On Friday, I found myself beside Loughrigg Tarn (after taking a dip on my first ever wild swimming experience). It was a bit cold, but very invigorating and I am so proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone. I also managed to get last night’s square finished by the side of the water too!
And that’s it for Week 4 of my Summer Craft Challenge from my part of the world. This is coming to you a little bit late on Monday rather than Saturday owing to us being away for a few days. Back home safely now and back to ‘normal’ again for the time being.
Huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this week, it’s been so lovely to have company on this challenge. Included below are some of varied Instagram posts I’ve seen including some crocheted sea anemones from Sandra @wilddaffodilwild, a beautiful Merton Abbey Flower Square designed by Janie Crow and made by Kristina @crochet_at_holme, a stunning black crocheted fan comission from Sarah @Sarah.livelovecrochet. A truly lovely cardigan in the making from Carol @nanaseamakes, some dressmaking for the first time this summer from @seaside_karen, a Making Stitches 2025 CAL August square from Sarah @sarahsheehangib, a stunning collection of Granny Squares from Jothi @jothiquestcraft and finally a beautiful photo from Zeli @yarnstorms of her crocheting at the top of Foel Offrym, the Hill of Sacrifice in Wales. Thank you all!
Some of the brilliant Summer Craft Challenge posts shared on Instagram
And that’s all for this week, thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with the craft challenge to keep me company this week! If you want to join in, you can do at any time, just share what you’re making (any crafts welcome) over on Instagram using the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 and we can all enjoy each other’s creativity!
Week Three of this year’s Summer Craft Challenge was for us a mix of being back at home and in work, traveling down to London to visit Eldest and entertaining friends back at our home in Manchester. Lots of fun times for us all and thankfully a few little windows of opportunity for me to get crafty!
Here’s what I got up to this week!
Last Saturday we headed off on the train down to London to visit Eldest. It gave me the perfect opportunity to get a good amount of crochet done, I couldn’t help but start a new project! I found the pattern for these ‘Orla Squares’ from @psicrochet on Instagram and fell in love with the multi coloured flowers. I only had a teeny amount of the off-white yarn for the centres so squeezed as many out of it as I could while on the train both ways.
Sunday and Day 16 offered me the chance to sit down and relax a bit after a very busy day of traveling and walking around London the day before. I was able to add to my collection of little Orla Square flowers before running out of the yarn for the middles.
Last day of leave for now and it was mainly spent cleaning, washing and ironing! I did manage to fit in a teeny bit of crochet time in the evening though to complete my third trio of hearts for the North West and North Wales Paediatric Transport Service. If you don’t know what this is, please find the full details here.
On Day 18 and my first day back at work after our holiday, I received some happy post to come home to – supplies of the yarn I need to turn my Orla Square flowers into squares – hurrah!
Yet another busy day in our household, once work was out of the way, we were joined by some lovely friends from our days in Gibraltar who traveled up today to visit us for a couple of days. Needless to say, there wasn’t much time for craft, but I did fit in a few moments of sock knitting in bed, before dropping off!
I’m so pleased with these little squares which are growing slowly but surely in number!
Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our lovely friends on Friday, we had a really lovely time with them. As I sat in front of the TV after taking them to the station, I indulged in a little bit more of this embroidery project which I started in Scotland. Will I get it finished before the end of this Summer Craft Challenge? Somehow, I think not, but it’s proving a really cheerful ongoing project.
And that’s it for Week 3 of my Summer Craft Challenge from my side of things.
Huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this week, it’s been so lovely to have company on this challenge. Included below are some of varied Instagram posts I’ve seen including some embroidery from Kristina @crochet_at_holme, an ever growing crochet coral reef from Sandra @wilddaffodilwild. Also included below are a Making Stitches 2025 CAL July Square from @sarahsheehangib, purple mandalas from Mo at @mojo_5_yng, a rainbow wind spinner from @sarah.livelovecrochet, a beautiful rose covered blanket from @jothiquestcraft, a temperature embroidery from @crochet_at_holme, a brand new project from Ann Marie aka @crochetscot and a beautiful granny square in the making from Carol @nanaseamakes. Thank you all!
Some of the other Summer Craft Challenge posts from Instagram
And that’s all for this week, thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with the craft challenge to keep me company this week! If you want to join in, you can do at any time, just share what you’re making (any crafts welcome) over on Instagram using the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 and we can all enjoy each other’s creativity!
Week Two of this year’s Summer Craft Challenge found us in Argyll on the West Coast of Scotland, such a beautiful place to visit and one which has strong family connections for us.
Here’s what I got up to this week!
I’m really enjoying this embroidery kit from Hello Hooray Blog, it’s been quite a while since I last did any embroidery so it’s been a lovely change.
Day 9 brought with it a new design, I have created a brand new bonus square design for my Making Stitches 2025 CAL, which I’ll be releasing very soon!
We had a busy day, meeting friends, having a woodland walk and then time for ice cream & a bit of sock knitting on the beach at Dunoon!
My last full day on holiday in Scotland, and my last early morning sitting in my favourite chair enjoying the peace and quiet before everyone else was up and being creative with a beautiful view.
Long trip home today – my only opportunity for craft was a spot of sock knitting while sitting on the car ferry!
First day back at home in Manchester after our lovely holiday and I felt restless and unable to settle on anything. I raided my pattern library to look for granny squares and made a few to satisfy my need to make, I think there may be a new WiP in the pipeline!
Huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this week, it’s been so lovely to have company on this challenge. Included below are some of varied posts I’ve seen including some incredible sculptural felting from Sandra at Wild Daffodil. Also included below are photos from @sarah.livelovecrochet @sarahsheehangib @crochet_at_holme @nanaseamakes @jothiquestscraft & @yarnstorms. Thank you all!
Some of the other Summer Craft Challenge posts from Instagram
And that’s all for this week, thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with the craft challenge to keep me company this week! If you want to join in, you can do at any time, just share what you’re making (any crafts welcome) over on Instagram using the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 and we can all enjoy each other’s creativity!
Blimey – that was a quick week. Week one if my Summer Craft Challenge 2025 is done!
I have to say I have been thrilled to be joined by so many other crafters so far this time – some are joining everyday, others just now and then. There is absolutely no pressure to post something everyday, but if you feel inspired to do something creative after reading this, please join in! Here’s a little look back at my creative week number 1!
I had enough time today to actually make a full trio of matching hearts for the appeal – the staff on the ambulances need three matching hearts for each family, so this is my first full set done!
Day 3 : Monday 21st July
Now this was fun, a new make for a very special collaboration I am working on with Eleonora from Coastal Crochet. I won’t say any more for now, but I am very much looking forward to sharing it with you very soon…
Day 4 : Tuesday 22nd July
Super busy day for me both at work and at home in the evening meant there was very little time for crochet, but I did plan ahead and take my hook into work with me and managed a quick five minutes during my lunch break!
Day 5 : Wednesday 23rd July
Another frantically busy day meant not much time for fun things after work, cutting the lawn, food shopping, washing, ironing and packing to go on holiday, but it was all worth it because….
Day 6 : Thursday 24th July
….after a very long drive and ride on a ferry, we arrived at our home for the next week, in Scotland! Hurrah! Check that view out for a backdrop to my sock knitting!
Day 7 : Friday 25th July
I’ve been saving up this embroidery project to bring with me on holiday. I bought it a few months back from Hello Hooray Blog with the intention of bringing it away on holiday with me. It’s perfect, it’s small, portable and has everything I need inside and I LOVE the colours! I can’t put it down… just one more diamond….
Not only did I manage to do some embroidery on Friday, I also managed a bit of crochet on the side of the shinty pitch while my boys had a kick around!
Thank you to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge 2025 so far – I have loved seeing your creations appearing online. Here are just a few of the brilliant snapshots of creativity which have been shared under the #SummerCraftChallenge2025 hashtag this week!
Thank you all for being good sports and joining in! Have a lovely weekend!
Hello there! In our household, school finished for the year yesterday (for one of my boys) and so that means, today is the first day of my Summer Craft Challenge for 2025!
In case you haven’t come across one of my Summer Craft Challenges before, it first started way back on 9th July 2016. At the time, I was living in Gibraltar with my family. I was a full-time stay-at-home Mum, I had 3 young men in my life (aged 12, 8 and 4 at that time) and I was staring down the barrel of a 10-week-long school summer break.
Having lived in Gibraltar for 7 years by then, I was well used to the chaos of the long summer break. I would often find myself at home, parenting alone for long stretches due to my former husband’s work schedule and frequent trips away. It was hard work.
Being creative is amazingly important to me for supporting my mood. If I go for too long without making something – I get grumpy!
So, back in 2016 I challenged myself to do something crafty every day of that 10-week-long holiday (even if it was only for 5 minutes), take a photo of myself doing it and post it to Instagram to keep me accountable and it worked! Not only did I feel better but I had a nice crafty photo diary of my summer!
(This was my first ever Summer Craft Challenge Photo – taken on 9th July 2016 in our back patio as we enjoyed a start of the summer holiday barbecue).
My Summer Craft Challenge wasn’t just for days when we were at home, my projects came away with us on family holidays including in 2016 when we visited the Norfolk Broads!
Always having a project with me wherever I was during the summer holidays meant that sometimes I just found myself in the perfect situation to take a photo of what I was working on including when I took my Little Box of Crochet project (designed by Eleonora Tully from Coastal Crochet) away with me to finish on holiday in Southwold in Suffolk in 2018.
It has come on planes with me – along with my mascot for the summer of 2017 – Europa the Unicorn, who accompanied the family to England, France, Italy & Portugal that year – much to the embarrassment of my boys! (I made Europa on the first day of my Summer Craft Challenge 2017 using a kit from Simply Crochet Magazine).
I continued working on that shawl while escaping the heat of the midday sun in Carcasonne in Southern France in 2017.
My crochet also joined me on the beach in Portugal! (2017)
Not all of my summer making has been in such exotic locations though, I’ve done sock knitting between rain showers at the top of a hill in the West of Scotland! (2022)
Oh the glamour of knitting on a wet and windy Scottish hillside… I enjoyed it so much the last time, I did it again last year!
I love my Summer Craft Challenge, even though life is so different now to how it was when I first started, we are now a family of 4, my boys are 21, 17 & 13 and I work now too, so my time is a lot more limited than it once was. However, doing this reminds me of lovely summer memories of days gone by and it still helps keep me on an even keel with the juggle of work, family and everything else.
The best thing about the Summer Craft Challenge though is when others join in. Each year, the number of people joining in has grown and grown and that’s so lovely. If you want to join, please do – you don’t need to commit to doing it every day (sometimes I can’t manage it these days) but you are very welcome to dip in and out at any time. If you share a photo of your current project online, please use the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 so everyone can see what you’ve been up to! Please do give it a go – the more the merrier!
I’ll be sharing my photos daily on Instagram and writing a weekly blog post looking back at what I’ve been up to as well. I can’t wait to see what you get up to yourself though!
Hello there, how are we at 14th July already? Almost at the midpoint of the month! I hope it’s been a good one for you – it’s been a decidedly warm one for us, with temperatures in the 30s (which for those of you in hotter climes probably doesn’t sound too hot but we felt it was!).
Last month was a rather special one for me in my blogging life, this little blog celebrated its 10th birthday. Never in all my imagination did I think, it would still be going after all this time when I first started out. I can vividly remember going out for a walk one evening (about a decade ago) along the winding streets and passages of Gibraltar taking photos of bougainvillea to illustrate one of my earlier blog posts and thinking, ‘is there anyone out there who will want to read this?’. I’m thrilled to say there was, and I’m still here knocking out posts (a little less frequently these days due to work commitments) and you’re still out there reading them! Thank you!
That bougainvillea from 10 years ago!
Anyway, here’s a quick look back at June in my world:
International Stitch Day
What a way to kick off the month, and what an amazingly on-brand event for Making Stitches! I was thrilled to be able to attend International Stitch Day on 1st June at the opening of Woven in Kirklees Festival in West Yorkshire. It was a brilliant day hosted at Oakwell Hall in Birstall. There were stalls, workshops (including one I had a play at), lots of interesting things to look at, and the most amazing thing I have experienced this year so far, the Red Dress was on display in the old hall itself.
I have been aware of the Red Dress for quite a while now through social media and blog posts I have read, but to be able to witness it myself in real life was quite something. As I arrived early at the start of the event, I was able to go and have a look once the initial flurry of visitors had been in and at one brief point, I was the only person in the room (apart from the staff standing discretely at the back). The atmosphere was amazing and I felt truly privileged to witness it for myself.
To see the intricate stitching and the countless hours of work by 380 different embroiderers, both professional and amateur, and to learn about some of the stories of the people who have stitched onto the dress was just amazing. After seeing it for myself, I was able to go and hear the ‘creator’ of the dress, Kirstie Macleod, give a talk about how the project had come about and a snapshot of some of her adventures as she has traveled around the world with it. It’s just mindblowing how big this project was and the complexity of the logistics involved.
I was delighted to be able to sit down briefly with Kirstie after her talk to record a short chat for a future episode of Making Stitches Podcast and I’m thrilled to say that she agreed to a longer chat with me for a special ‘Red Dress’ episode which will be out in autumn.
A weekend away
Unfortunately one of us had to take the picture – but there were 5 of us!
I was so lucky in June to experience not one, but two brilliant weekends – first came Woven and next came a weekend away with four very special ladies who I have known since University days (one even since primary school!)
One of them lives in the Lake District and we have been trying to arrange for us all to spend a weekend together at her house for years. Each time we thought we had a date in the diary, something would come up and we were determined to do it with us all there. Persistence paid off and we had the most amazing couple of days reconnecting, walking, eating and drinking.
True old friends are just the best. They hold you up in the worst of times, share the best of times and, no matter how long passes between your meetings, when you are back together it’s as if you were never apart.
I feel truly blessed to have them in my life.
10 years of this blog
Back in June 2015, after years of reading other people’s blogs, I decided to have a go myself. I thought the chances of anyone reading it were slim, but I thought I could use it as a kind of diary to record our life as a family living in Gibraltar. In its first iteration as Postcard from Gibraltar, it really surprised me – I found people around the world all reading it and sending me lovely messages.
In the intervening years, our family has changed, has moved back to the UK, I’ve gone from being a full-time stay at home Mum to a working Mum Postcard from Gibraltar morphed into Making Stitches and the Making Stitches Podcast was born too! If you missed my post about the anniversary, you can find it here.
First strawb of the year!
I don’t know what happened to my strawberry plants over the winter – but I went from having about six containers full last year to just having three weedy looking specimens. My parents felt sorry for me and sent me over a new container filled with healthy plants and this was my first strawb. I am giving the new pot a lot of attention – especially during this very hot and dry weather so that it survives beyond the first month in my possession!
Soccer Aid
Honestly, trips to Old Trafford are like buses, you wait for years to go and then get two trips straight after each other! After going to the last match of the season for Manchester United in May, I went back with my Dad and Youngest to watch Soccer Aid on Father’s Day.
It was a great evening’s entertainment and really quite funny at times. There was even a musical interlude at half time which included a grand piano on the centre circle!
Making Stitches 2025 CAL : June
Summer Solstice SquareBonus Birthday Square
June saw not one, but two new squares for the Making Stitches 2025 CAL. The main reason for me doing this CAL this year is because of the special anniversary, so it seemed appropriate to mark the occasion with a bonus square in addition to this month’s main square. The Summer Solstice square was launched on 1st June and the Bonus Birthday square pattern was released on my blogiversary.
There was just one episode of Making Stitches Podcast released in June as series 9 drew to a close ahead of the summer break. My guest this time was Micah Clasper-Torch a punch needle designer who has taught thousands of people the craft through her online platform. She has a new book out and is hoping to reach an even wider audience through her wearable punch needle designs. You can listen to the episode with Micah here.
Before I go…
This Postcard is almost at an end but before I head off, just a couple more things…. I have been so busy with crochet designs and recording new episodes for the next series of Making Stitches Podcast that I am well and truly ready to have a bit of a breather as life shifts down a gear and we hit the soon-to-be-upon-us school summer holidays.
Before the holidays hit though, I am looking forward to sharing a bit of lovely news with you very soon. Keep your eyes pealed for that please – because I am going to need your help with something very special and worthwhile.
Also, when my boys break up for their school summer holidays I will be launching my Summer Craft Challenge 2025 when I do something creative every day during the school summer holidays. I would love it if you would join in too! I love doing it each year and carving out a little bit of time each day to do something creative (it’s a real sanity saver amongst the chaos). As one of my boys finished for the summer on Friday this week, so I am going to be starting day one on Saturday (19th July) and posting a social media post each day to share what I have done, which will keep me focused on maintaining the challenge.
The thing about a Summer Craft Challenges is that it’s always better when you’re not the only one doing it. So… please do join in and share your makes this summer on social media with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 so I can see what other creativity is going on – just like the Making Stitches 2025 CAL – it’s better with friends and it would be great to build a Summer Craft Challenge community!
Today marks a very special day for my blog – it is 10 years old!!
Back in June of 2015, I would never have imagined that I would still be blogging a decade on. It kind of blows my mind that my blogging adventure has lasted so long. I had no idea what an impact it would have on my life, the people I would meet and the doors it would open for me. It has brought me friends – both online and in person, it has given me skills that brought me paid work, I have gone from being simply a hobby crafter to a published crochet designer and podcast award finalist and it’s been a whole lot of fun.
I am taking the liberty of using today to have a look back at the past ten years, for some of you who’ve been in my little corner of the internet for a long time, much of this won’t be ‘news’ but I think it’s worth revisiting (if only to remind me of how much fun I’ve had along the way). Back in the early days, I thought this blog would be a kind of diary, to record our life as a family and it has very much been that for me. Back at the beginning I wrote the blog anonymously, I was living in a very small community at the time and I didn’t want to stick my head above the parapet and ‘show off’ I preferred to be an observer. Since those days I’ve got a bit less self-conscious about my blogging (maybe it’s an age thing and I worry a teeny bit less about what people think of me!).
For those of you who have only found me in the past few years, you may not be aware that this blog first started life when my family lived in Gibraltar. I had long been a fan of crafting blogs and I had, for quite a while, fancied having a go at blogging myself. Whilst I have been a crafter all my life, I would never have thought of myself as accomplished enough back then to share too much about what I was making, but living in the Med, I had lots of photos of blue skies, the sea and pretty flora to share instead.
Looking north from the Med Steps in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve
After much indecision over whether anyone would actually want to read anything I had to say about my little corner of the world, I decided to have a go anyway and Postcard from Gibraltar was born. The annual Gibraltar Convent Garden open day was the perfect content for me to share in the very early days, lots of beautiful flowers and well-kept borders as well as being able to share a little bit about what it was like living on the Rock.
The Governor of Gibraltar’s back garden at the Convent
So many people visit Gibraltar fleetingly, on a cruise ship stop-off or on a day trip from the Costa del Sol, but the longer we lived in Gibraltar, in spite of its size, I discovered there was so much to learn about it. When we first arrived there as a family through a work relocation, I knew precious little about it. Myself and ‘Mr Postcard’ had visited just twice in the preceding months to find somewhere to live and to get the eldest ‘Little Postcard’ into school (there were just 2 ‘Little Postcards’ in those days!).
The early days
My old Postcard from Gibraltar profile picture which I painted at watercolour class
When we first arrived in Gibraltar, I was a stay-at-home Mum full time, I had one young son in primary school and a toddler. I threw myself into life in Gib, in a bid to make friends and settle into the community and found that, unlike when we had moved towns in the UK, very quickly I made friends in Gibraltar. I think this was mainly down to the fact that within the ex-pat community, your friends very quickly become your family. Everyone of us was a long way from our actual family and when someone needed help, we would all rally round to support each other. That said though, the Gibraltarians I met outside the school gates were just as welcoming and we found ourself attending our first Gibraltar kids birthday party within a couple of weeks of arriving there.
Celebrating Gibraltar National Day
By throwing myself into the Gibraltar community I learned so much about the place and its people. It is famously a melting pot of cultures and traditions, populated by Genoese fishermen, Moroccan traders, families who straddle the land border between Gibraltar and Spain and lots of other nationalities too. There is a large south Asian population, lots of Jewish families of different denominations and from around the world, an Anglican Cathedral as well as a Catholic one (there was also a Church of Scotland when we lived there – although that has sadly now closed) and there are two mosques as well. Even the local dialect, Llanito (pronounced Yaneetoh), borrows words from Spanish, English, Genoese, Maltese, Moroccan and other languages!
In those early days of blogging, the advice was to read plenty of other blogs and get involved in the blogging community. During those days I came across another blogger who lived by the sea and had a penchant for crochet. Her name is Eleonora and you may know her! Little did I know at the time that Eleonora had just started her blog, Coastal Crochet, a couple of weeks before I launched mine, or that one day we would finally meet in person (more on that later)!
The first few rows of my Sandy Bay Seaside Stash Buster Blanket
It is safe to say that Eleonora’s blogging journey has been rather more stratospheric than mine, but despite her hitting the big time, we have stayed connected through the years. I can clearly remember the day she launched her first crochet along – the Seaside Stashbuster blanket. I loved crocheting along with many, many other crocheters around the world throughout the weeks as the patterns were released. For some reason, when I first began the blanket, I decided I would reflect Gibraltar in the colours I used. Our favourite beach on the Rock was Sandy Bay, so I thought it would be good to try to create a blanket inspired by that little corner of Gibraltar. It was such fun to make and amazingly some of the stitches Eleonora chose just worked perfectly with the stage of the pattern I wanted to reflect at that time! It was as if she knew what I needed to happen! You can read all about my Sandy Bay Blanket here.
Eventually we actually met in real life, the first time was at Yarndale in 2022, more recently we caught up at Yarndale last September.
Eleonora & I at Yarndale 2024
When we met up last year, we started talking about something special to mark our joint 10th blog anniversaries. You can find a sneak peak of that project in a little while….
Another blogger I had the privilege to meet is the person, is Lucy from Attic 24. Had it not been for me reading Lucy’s inspirational posts about her crochet, craft and beautiful home town of Skipton in North Yorkshire all those years ago, when I started my crochet adventure, I don’t think I would have started this blogging adventure myself. After several years of reading and absorbing posts all about Yarndale, I managed to get a ticket for the festival, a ticket for a plane journey back to the UK and a train ticket from Manchester to Skipton to visit Yarndale myself in 2016. It was the year they’d asked for people to crochet and knit little Yarndale sheep. I made Llanita, the Yarndale Sheep and she was posted off for the Yarndale appeal. I also took her twin sister with me and gave her to Lucy when I met her – it was a true fangirl moment!
Lucy with Llanita at Yarndale 2016
Sunday Sevens
Just 4 months into my blogging adventure I read about a blog series called Sunday Sevens, which involved writing a post about your week just gone and featuring seven photos from the past seven days. The idea was conceived by Natalie from the Threads & Bobbins blog and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to share a snapshot of my life in Gibraltar without writing a long blog post about some rather mundane day-to-day things. On 11th October 2015, I published my first Sundays Sevens. Very quickly, the Little Postcards would comment, when I stopped to take a photo of a nice sunset or a pretty flower or some other thing, “is that for Sunday Sevens?” Very often the answer would be “Yes!” On 26th July 2020, I published the 230th and final Sunday Sevens. That marked the point at which we moved back to the UK from Gibraltar and seemed like the right time to wrap the series up.
That didn’t mean my round ups would stop. At the start of August 2020 I started my Sunday Postcards, which later morphed into my monthly ‘Postcard from…’ updates.
A stroll around Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a very photogenic place – especially in the sunshine. I would often be stopped in my tracks as I wandered the streets of the town centre pushing a buggy on the way back home from the school run or wandering to the shops and appreciate just how lucky I was to be able to call it home for a while.
Whenever we were away from the Rock, I would often document our travels with a little ‘Postcard from…’ post. We were very lucky that at that time we were able to travel quite a bit, both back home to the UK to visit family and friends and to a few parts of mainland Europe too. The ‘A Postcard From…’ series was one I really enjoyed writing, and is one which I really must keep going with whenever I can. In fact I have a few ‘postcards’ in my pending drafts folder from years ago, which if I get the time to work on, I will finish and add to this collection.
Summer Craft Challenges
Each summer, since 2016 (excluding 2020 & 2023), I have set myself a Summer Craft Challenge. I found, in the early days when my blog first launched and I was a full time stay-at-home Mum with 3 young boys and a 10-week-long school summer holiday, I would easily find myself rushing around doing family things all the time and my crafting took a back seat, and my sanity along with it. By carving out just 5 or 10 minutes of craft everyday throughout the long summer break, and documenting it on my blog, it worked wonders for my mood.
I’m looking forward to starting my Summer Craft Challenge 2025 when my boys break up for summer this year too! If you fancy joining in, it would be lovely to have your company! Just tag any social media posts #SummerCraftChallenge2025 and if you want to see any of the previous years just search for #SummerCraftChallenge on Instagram and some should pop up for you to see.
Big Changes
Life doesn’t always work out quite the way we’d planned. In 2020, our family of 5 became a family of 4 and I brought my 3 boys back to live in England. In the 7 months running up to our impending big move, there was a lot of adjusting to do. Not only that, we were ‘enjoying’ a lot more time indoors during the early days of the Covid pandemic. In the preceding 18 months, I had launched a podcast in Gibraltar as a way of sharing more about the stories I had learned during my time living there and sharing chats I’d had with some of the fascinating people I’d met over the previous decade.
Unfortunately, with an impending move back to the UK, that podcast wasn’t sustainable but I had really enjoyed making it, so wanted to find an alternative podcast subject I could start work on during lockdown and take back with me to the UK. Something I’ve always loved is craft and creativity, and after almost 5 years of blogging about it, I’d made quite a few connections with other crafty people who said they would be interested in joining me as guests (Bingo!). One of the (few) benefits of that time was learning how to record audio off video calls, it was no longer necessary to be in-person to record interviews and meant I could chat to people anywhere in the world for this new podcast endeavour.
Just as in the early days of Postcard from Gibraltar, I doubted whether anyone would be interested in hearing what I had to say, but rather than making me and my crafting the focus of each episode, I decided to speak to another crafter about their creative life and journey. At the time I couldn’t find any other podcasts which did that for crafting. There were plenty of podcasts featuring crafters talking about what they were making but none that I could see who exclusively spoke to other crafters. I spotted a gap in the market and Making Stitches Podcast was born.
I have to admit that Making Stitches really helped me in those days. They were grim for many reasons and it gave me something to focus on that was fun rather the other stuff (moving countries, finding somewhere to live in England, finding schools etc from overseas, recovering from a rather nasty dose of early days Covid etc.).
The joy I still get from making it continues. It’s been a ride. From putting my first episode out just over 5 years ago and wondering whether anyone would ever listen to it, to becoming a finalist in the first ever Independent Podcast Awards in 2023, to hitting 100,000 worldwide downloads in the last few months, it’s been great. Thank you to everyone who’s listened, everyone who’s spoken to me for the podcast and all the support!
From Postcard from Gibraltar to Making Stitches
In 2022, two years after moving back to England to live, I decided it was time for a name change. I hadn’t been sending my blog postcards from Gibraltar for 2 years by then so decided to bring the blog under the same umbrella as the podcast. Nothing really changed other than the name. I still write monthly posts looking back at what’s been happening in my life and what I have been working on.
Crochet
Another thing which has changed has been my confidence in developing my own crochet patterns. My first (and for many years, my only one) was Mr Bumble, a bumblebee which I created for a yarn bomb I put up in the Gibraltar Botanical Gardens in 2016 -I can’t find the pattern now, but here he is along with the other bits I put up. I was so worried about getting something wrong, it took until 2021 until I tried again! Hope the Snowdrop was the first of my Up the Garden Path characters (you can see two others below). Later came some magazine commissions including some for Inside Crochet Magazine!
Oakley the Acorn Tree Sprite & Agatha the Fly Agaric Mushroom
Most recently I have been sharing my first ever crochet along: The Making Stitches 2025 CAL which, unlike most others CALS which release patterns on a weekly basis, comes out on a monthly basis instead (I simply couldn’t keep up with a weekly one these days – never mind design one!).
Each square has a design which is related to the month it’s released in. I have really enjoyed doing this so much and the thrill of seeing what someone else has made while using your pattern is real!
With this in mind, I would like to share a new pattern with you today to mark this tenth birthday of my Postcard from Gibraltar/Making Stitches blog – the Bonus Birthday Bunting Square! The pattern for this is here!
The Making Stitches 2025 CAL Bonus Birthday Bunting Square!
Talking of crochet patterns, I mentioned earlier about my collaboration with Eleonora from Coastal Crochet… Watch this space for more details on that in the coming weeks!
And that, my friends, brings me to the end of this round-up of a decade of blogging for me. Thank you for joining me for the ride, it’s been fun hasn’t it? Who knows where we will all be ten years from now? We’ll not think about that for the time being.
Thank you for being there, for reading these rambling posts and for keeping me company for the past 10 years!
Until next time, as I say at the end of my podcast episodes, take care of yourself and enjoy your crafting!
Knitting on the beach on the west coast of Scotland on the last day of our holiday
Well here we are, after the start of the new school year. That summer whizzed in the blink of an eye!
My summer craft challenge for 2024 officially came to an end last Tuesday evening as school bags were packed and the last minute checks were done. This year was my 8th Summer Craft Challenge, it started back in 2016 when I lived a completely different life over in Gibraltar….
I was a stay-at-home Mum of 3 young men and was staring down the barrel of a 10-week-long holiday and thought a craft challenge to do something crafty every day during the school holiday might just help me keep my sanity. It worked. It forced me actually do something for myself in the midst of beach days, household chores & attempting to entertain 3 young men in a non-air conditioned flat in the Mediterranean!
Each summer since then, apart from in 2020 when we moved back to the UK during the summer holiday and mid Covid lockdown, I have set myself the challenge. A few times a handful of people have joined in here and there but this year, I have a had a merry band of crafters who have risen to the challenge and taken part with me. It’s been an unexpected delight! Thank you to everyone who has joined in, with embroidery, crochet, knitting, baking, resin flower making, jewelry making and other crafts too.
A few of the lovely daily crafts shared during Week 6 of this summer’s challenge
In the final full week of the challenge there was slow stitching, crocheting for multiple grandsons, sock knitting and most exciting of all, a new grand daughter for Carol @nanaseamakes – huge congratulations to your family Carol on the most amazing make of the summer! 💕☀️
Thank you to this week’s featured makers : Carol @nanaseamakes Alison @alisonswoolnwalks Sandra @wilddaffodilwild Zeli @yarnstorms Marisa @mariwish & Kristina @catsy_crochet & to everyone else who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this year, it’s been the best one yet without a doubt! I’ve loved seeing all your makes & meeting new people through the challenge.
So here’s what I got up to in the final week and a bit of this summer’s challenge:
Day 36 : Saturday 24th August
Day 36 of my Summer Craft Challenge was mostly spent on the road & on a ferry to a lovely spot in the west coast of Scotland.
I took a huge bag of yarn with me so I was hoping to get loads of knitting & crochet done while I was away. I was a bit tired after the long drive so just did a spot of knitting before bed!
Day 37/38: Sunday 25th August
So, as you can see, my brain went into holiday mode and despite it only being day 37 of the challenge I decided to call it day 38! Whoops! From here on in, I lost a day in the challenge (I’ll stick with what I said it was to avoid confusion but it actually lasted 46 days in total not 47 – I was telling a fib!).
What bliss, crochet & a view – a perfect start to the day! This is how I started day 1 of my holiday – first one up and with the house to myself…
Gazing out at the Kyles of Bute with a coffee & a granny square or two.
Day 39: Monday 26th August
I managed a little bit of al fresco crochet overlooking the water after being out for a nice walk!
Day 40: Tuesday 27th August
A bit of granny square crochet & blue skies on day 40!
Day 41: Wednesday 28th August
So, I thought it would be pretty cool to climb up the hill to the Tighnabruaich Ark which lies above the little town of Tighnabruaich close to where we stayed in Argyll. The ark was built by a local artist using timber which had to be felled due to disease. It was created to make a statement about climate change.
I had a couple of young men with me on the trip and asked Eldest to record me knitting so I could make an arty post for social media. You will be able to hear the wind and beginning of the torrential downpour which ensued.
It was a bit windy!
By the time we got back down the hill, I was wet through to my underwear! So much for al fresco crafting that day!!
Day 42: Thursday 29th August
Thoroughly dried out, on Thursday we had a wonderful (dry) walk in a woodland – it was blissful compared to the day before! Before we left for the day, I found myself with yet another quiet early morning with the house to myself and nothing but my crochet & the view for company! What a joy!
Day 43: Friday 30th August
This was our last full day in Scotland and I have to admit I was feeling rather melancholy about saying goodbye to this view. It was so lovely, just sitting there joining my squares and wondering when I’d next have the opportunity for such long unadulterated crochet time!
I took my knitting out with me to a local beach (you can see it in the top photo). My Mum sent me the following photo of me knitting on the beach… I have no idea what went on in the background – it looks like I’m knitting in a galaxy far, far away!!
Day 44: Saturday 31st August
I couldn’t bear the thought of missing out on my last chance to have some early morning crochet in my Scottish crochet corner, so I set my alarm a little bit earlier on Saturday morning ahead of our trip back home just so I could hook for a teeny bit more.
It was worth it! The sun was out and the view was magnificent- the best day of the holiday weather wise by far (typical!). After a very tiring 8-hour-long journey home (terrible tailbacks on the motorway in Lancashire) we made it safely home.
After that drive, I was utterly zonked and incapable of adulting that evening beyond getting the car unpacked and cooking dinner for everyone so I just sat down and picked up where I left off that morning – same position but with a slightly different view – of my back garden this time!
Day 45: Sunday 1st September
Back at home on Sunday was a hectic day with shopping, unpacking, washing etc. but I did find a little window of opportunity to start sewing in some of my granny square ends.
Day 46: Monday 2nd September
Back to work for me, and there was just a little bit of time in the evening for some candy striped crochet.
Day 47 (actually Day 46): Tuesday 3rd September
My last day of the 2024 Summer Craft Challenge and my attention has turned already to Christmas. The striped crochet is a covering for a wreath idea I’ve been working on – I look forward to being able to share its progress with you in the coming weeks & months!
Thank you for joining along on my Summer Craft Challenge adventure and for stopping by to read my ramblings! Thank you again to everyone who joined me along the way too by finding a little (or not so little) moment of creativity during the summer!
