I’m currently having a word with myself about my perfectionist tendencies. Yes, next time I will draw the smaller circles with a template, not free-hand, but the beauty of hand sewing is that’s human. It’s not machine accurate; hammered out at 1000 stitches a minute (1,000?) The charm is that it’s ever so slightly wibbly and wobbly.

When at school, and into my late teens, I did a lot of patchwork, embroidery and tapestry. Sewing was my thing, much more than knitting at which my Mum was expert. One day a friend and I went to an exhibition in London. It was a display of the work of an Embroidery Guild and the sheer perfection of the pieces had a detrimental effect on me. I felt at the time that there was no way I could reach that standard, so I didn’t do any for years. It’s a shame. Now I look at what I had sewn at the time and think what a silly girl! If only someone had pointed out to me that such a high standard is achieved by many, many hours (years?) of practice. This total shutdown was probably partly down to those horrible see-sawing hormones and a lack of confidence. That was a weird thing; a lack in some areas, while feeling wildly confident, with a can-do attitude in others. It’s a very strange age. So, now I’m …ahem…older I’m just getting on with it and enjoying the process, even if I’m not entirely 100% happy with the outcome.

I’m just so happy to be a tiny bit creative again. I’ve been doing a little stitching then I put my ice-pack on my wrist. Even if really I should be doing physio exercises with my tin of baby carrots, a little bit of embroidery a day equals creative satisfaction, plus the surge of endorphins is pretty cool too.

I award myself bonus points if my sewing session is paired with good music as well.

The kit from Corrine Lapierre comes with 2 embroidery needles, a tape measure, an unpicker, wool felt, cotton thread and stitch guide. It’s good quality.

No sponsorship or payment of any kind has been given for this post. This is just me chatting to you, with no agenda other than to share something good which I’m enjoying.