Over on Needle ’n thread Mary Corbet has offered a free printable template of Embroidery Stitch Journal pages. A stitch journal is exactly that, a notebook where you track stitches. There are many versions of the idea but on Mary’s pages she has a space for the name of the stitch, information on fabrics and threads suitable for the stitch, tips and advice about the stitch and then an illustration of the stitch itself.
Pages are printed out punched with a hole punch, and stored in binders. The pages become a record of what stitches have been learnt – like a stitch dictionary.
Mary is giving away a free PDF file of the template page. I am sure many readers will find this very handy.
In Using a Needlepoint stitch journal Cheryl Fall of About.com Needlepoint covers the basic points of using stitching journals. You can see that in this case they have a space for the stitch family, type and size of canvas used, thread used and place for notes.
Another version of this is to use a notebook in which you record your projects. So instead of tracking stitches you track the start and end date of a project, what materials are used etc
Over on Stitching the Night Away you can find printable journal pages to recording information that relates to cross stitch projects. On the same page there is a file to print out, fill in and attach it to the back of a framed piece of work. It covers such information as who stitched the piece, what it was stitched on and when it was stitched
Actually looking at these files I have just had a very evil thought in association with my stitch dictionary and TAST stitches …Oh I had better get off this computer quickly before it develops into something.
Thank you so much Sharon, I am glad here to found such a great general page, Thanks again for such sharing a wonderful ideas
Thanks, Sharon – I'm glad you found the journal pages useful.
I just love it when you come up with "evil" ideas! 🙂
I have a blank journal that I used to keep track of my work but I haven't kept up with it. Plus II'm not consistent with what I do write in it (sometimes I make a note of the fabric and sometimes I don't). Thank you for linking to these printables. I'm sure at least one of them will be perfect for me to use.
Hi Carolyn – I am pleased these stitch journal pages are useful – good luck with your class
Thanks for this post Sharon. I am just putting together an embroidery class for next year and I wanted to use a stitch journal as the project. You have saved me so much research time. These ideas are so much better than my notebook.