Stitch Sanctuary

Chapter 6 — What goes on 25 little drawers?

Once I had the beginnings of the Sugar & Spice house on paper, there was another rather important question to answer... What was I going to put on all those doors and drawers?

I knew I didn't want a collection of unrelated Christmas motifs. I wanted there to be a thread running through them — another little story hidden within the bigger one.

And then came Christmas carols. 🎶✨

For the ground and first floors, I designed seven tiny embroidered motifs, each inspired by a familiar carol. The challenge was enormous fun: how do you take a song that conjures up an entire Christmas scene and distil it into one tiny piece of embroidery?

Some came almost immediately. Others involved plenty of doodling, changing my mind and going back to the drawing board. But eventually, I had my seven. And I'm not telling you what they are just yet... 😁

How many Christmas carols can you spot before I reveal them? Tell me your guesses in the comments — and come back for Chapter 7, when we'll take a closer look at one of them.

🏡 Sugar & Spice is now open for booking. Come and make your own...

Sometimes an idea arrives all at once. Sometimes it spends years quietly waiting for the missing piece.

For years I'd wanted to design a really substantial box-making course, inspired by the beautiful embroidered caskets of the seventeenth century and their hidden compartments. At the same time, I'd fallen in love with the idea of the new Advent calendars for grown-ups and kept thinking, I'd love to make one of my own. Then one day, while I was browsing Pinterest, I saw that gingerbread house.

Bang. Everything came together.

The sketches in this video are the very first pages that followed. Scribbles, questions, rough ideas and crossed-out thoughts as Sugar & Spice began to take shape. Looking back, I've realised something about the way I work. I never begin by asking, "What do I want to stitch?". I begin by asking, "What do I want to make?"

The embroidery comes afterwards. 🥰

🧵✨


Join me tomorrow as we turn another page in the story...

✨ Sugar & Spice – Part 4

People often ask me why Christmas has always held such a special place in my heart.

The answer isn't really about Christmas Day. It's about everything that comes before it. The familiar decorations wrapped carefully in tissue paper. The smell of cake baking. The first carol on the radio. Candlelight on dark afternoons. Those tiny rituals that quietly tell us we're home.

When I began designing Sugar & Spice, I realised I wasn't trying to recreate a gingerbread house. I was trying to stitch that feeling.

If these little traditions mean as much to you as they do to me, I'd love you to join the waiting list.

**Please see the link in my bio.**



🕯️ Tomorrow we'll peek through another tiny window...

✨ Sugar & Spice – Part 3

Every designer has one project that quietly steals their heart.

This became mine.

It wasn't born in one dazzling flash of inspiration. It arrived gently, through pages of sketches, tiny experiments and endless 'what if…?' moments. One idea led to another until, before I realised it, I wasn't simply designing a project anymore—I was creating a tiny world that I desperately wanted to share.

There have been moments of laughter, moments of frustration and plenty of redesigns along the way. Looking back now, I'm grateful for every one of them because each small change helped shape the house you see today.

If you'd like to follow the story from the very beginning, I'd love you to join the waiting list.

**Please see the link in my bio.**



✨ Tomorrow we'll discover another little piece of the story...

✨ Sugar & Spice – Part 2

Some things simply refuse to be rushed.

In a world that encourages us to finish quickly and move on to the next thing, embroidery quietly teaches the opposite. It reminds us that beautiful things are built one stitch at a time, and that there is joy in the journey itself.

That philosophy sits at the heart of Sugar & Spice. This isn't just an embroidery project; it's an invitation to spend eighteen months creating something that becomes part of your Christmas tradition for years to come.

My hope is that every tiny drawer, every little door and every carefully chosen stitch will remind you that slow doesn't mean falling behind. Sometimes slow is exactly where the magic lives.

If that sounds like your kind of adventure, I'd love you to join the waiting list.

**Please see the link in my bio.**



🏡 Tomorrow we'll wander into another corner of the house...

✨ Sugar & Spice – Chapter 1

What if Christmas didn't have to disappear as soon as the decorations were packed away?

For years I've carried around the dream of creating an embroidered gingerbread house that could be brought out every Christmas, just like a favourite family decoration. Not something hurried together in December, but a project to savour over many months, with cups of tea, quiet evenings and the gentle satisfaction of adding one more tiny stitch.

Sugar & Spice grew from that dream. Over the coming weeks I'd love to take you behind the scenes, sharing the stories, sketches, surprises and happy accidents that slowly transformed an idea into a little embroidered world.

If you enjoy making things slowly, I have a feeling you're going to feel very much at home here.

If you'd like to be among the first to hear when booking opens, I'd love you to join the waiting list.

**Please see the link in my bio.**



🎄 Tomorrow we'll open another little door...