December 2025

Introducing Carved Stone Oak leaf

Merry Christmas Everyone

Hey lovely stitchers!

A big “hello” to all my new subscribers! Honestly how did November become December already?

I need to add an apology, sorry, I had promised to share one of my new designs with you all first but time got away with me and I didn’t manage to get a newsletter out before the new classes launched. But I unexpectedly ended up working on another new design which has sat in my to do pile waiting for time or a reason to stitch so you will still have a exclusive look.

I would love this to be a collaborative community so do you have a general embroidery question you want answered in my next newsletter or maybe you have finished one of my kits, can I share it in my newsletter? I would love a regular student showcase section. Just hit reply or message on my socials. Feel free to share your ideas and events with me, my inbox is always open!

Help me with Summer Series ideas.

As you know RSN Education and Tutors have been reviewing our short course and Summer School formats to change or offerings going forward. While we haven’t worked everything out yet, we are changing the Summer School for next year at least and I am actually verry excited about the changes. So it will now take place though-out July and August rather than as a condensed two week schedule.

While I can’t speak for other tutors, I myself have embraced the new brief for proposals which includes no kit and non-embroidery classes. I have a good few ideas and samples I have been squirrelling away on, most of which will be no kit or very have minimal kits to encourage stash busting. Including, English paper piecing, hand quilting including whole cloth and big stitch, needle turn applique, Dorset feather stitchery, Sashiko, Ice dyeing (that’s is going to take some planning in the summer!), Lace making bookmark and digital fabric design (from sketch to fabric).

📢So here’s where I need your help…If you have any ideas of what you would to see me offering as a class in the summer, just respond to this message with the button below or EMAIL me directly, I would love to hear from you before the end of December.

fairywrenembroidery@gmail.com

What’s Been Happening at Fairy Wren

I was approached back in September by the Embroiderer’s Association of Canada to see if I was able to run my Ginko Leaf Class with them as a cyber project. As it is one of my new classes for the RSN next year I was unable to offer it. So I send another project design which I had been waiting to stitch and they loved it so I got to stitching and I am so happy with how it turned out. So here is the first look at my Cyber Project with the EAC which will be running in July. I’m really excited about this new partnership.

This design was inspired by a stone carving on an old local library building in Salisbury. Oak trees have a special meaning to me because my son planted an acorn when he was in preschool; never expecting it to grow it has now flourished into a small sapling in our garden. I’m not sure what we will do once it gets to big, maybe see if we can plant it in the local community garden but its a bit small to be let out in the wild yet.

Personal

Such a lot has been happening here over the last few months, I’ve been teaching and stitching away so that hasn’t left much room for many personal projects. As you may have seen on Instagram I set out to remake a Snake bookmark from lace. It wasn’t as challenging as I imagined and was a lot quicker to make than I expected. While I hadn’t planned to then make this a class the new brief has opened that up, I have 5 pillows and 4 more promised to me so I just need another 3 to make up enough for a full class (although I need to finish two pieces or somehow transfer them). If anyone in the UK has one they aren’t using then I would love to give it a new home to use for classes.

My husband started volunteering along with his Dad for an amazing local project two days a week. This has meant a little less work time for me but he’s enjoying it so much I’m glad he has been able to take up this opportunity. They are part of the core team building an new neolithic hall at Stonehenge Visitors centre. We went to see it last weekend with the kids and it is so much bigger than I imagined. They have been doing as much as possible by hand, with both metal and stone tools. Its led by an experimental archaeologist, Luke, so they have been doing some experiments alongside the project. If you want to follow along with the project or just learn more about it you can find Luke’s YouTube video’s here: Historic Concepts

Artistic Practice

As I’ve been working away on summer class ideas this has taken a back seat but I hope to have some time next week to finalise the design and scale of my next portrait. I’m close to finishing all the class samples, or at least finished enough that I can carry on with the final one over Christmas from the comfort of the sofa!

What’s Coming Up for 2026

Decided to up my tech/marketing game a bit and do a little video!