October 2025 – ann wood handmade

Let’s start with the embroidery template. It started as a drawing, become a daily painting and then my first embroidery pattern.

You can download the fleeing hen template here.

And a guide to some basic embroidery stitches here.

I used backstitch for the little hen scene. This would be so sweet on a tea towel – super gifty…

*this post contains an affiliate link – meaning I get a small commission if you purchase through the link – it’s marked with an asterisk

How can you transfer the template to your fabric? You can trace it- use a window or a light box – or- I have been using *transfer paper.

The paper comes with little ball headed styluses in a variety of sizes that work beautifully. My plan is to have templates available in the shop as pdf and iron transfers soon.

If you try it I’d love to see! You can tag me on instagram @annwood or email an image to ann at ann wood handmade dot com.

crow progress

My wings and tail are pinned and ready to stitch. You can hand or machine stitch the feathers, I’m going to machine stitch. I did use a vintage tie for some shiny black accents with my dark blue striped crow.

Check out a couple sew-along crows below – the winner (1 year of stitch club membership) will be announced right here on Friday!

UPDATE 10/31: The winner of the up cycled crow contest is – Ruth!

Counter clock wise from top – wings with hand written text by Ana, crow by Ruth and crow by Kelsey

on my work table

I’m just gonna go ahead and say it- I love the calendar. I love it hard. I love thinking about it, choosing the collection and seeing it come together. It’s a mysterious and intuitive feeling around process. I change my mind a thousand times but when it’s just right I know it for sure.

PRE-ORDER YOU 2026 CALENDAR HERE

I’ve already started the 2027 calendar. This year’s addition is in the shop now for pre-order. As of this moment it’s about to sell through the first printing. I will be doing a second (probably shipping 11/19-ish).

I’m also working on the stitch club autumn journal project. For me it’s an improvisational, yes and process. I cut some blank pages and play with a pile of scraps. You can check out last years here.

and ornaments

One of the things that attracted me to ceramics was the idea of forcing myself into more simple and gestural painting. Immediate and loose – these ornaments are headed for the kiln this week. Stoneware also involves a lot of letting go – fingers crossed for a good firing.

What’s on your worktable this October- are you making ornaments? Is there an embroidered hen in your future? Let us know in the comments.

happy cozy season!

ann

Happy October! We’ve got a lot to talk about : a crow sew-along, embroidery designs, and the French General retreat in Vermont.

I took this crow to Vermont with me for an autumnal portrait. If you look closely you can see how I’ve discreetly attached him to the tree with black ribbon wrapped around his ankle and then anchored to a branch behind.

Jump down to the bottom for the crow sew-along details (there’s a prize and everything). And let’s get into Vermont and embroidery.

For the past few weeks I’ve been turning imagery from my daily paintings into embroidery designs. In a couple weeks I’ll share some tips I’ve picked up along the way and a design for you to try. Serendipitously, French General offered me a last minute opportunity to teach at their Vermont retreat. I almost never rush for anything but the stars aligned and it was the perfect opportunity to teach my first embroidery focused project.

It’s a little stitch workbook and also has places for collecting textile treasures.

The students made beautiful, personal and imaginative stitched books with their own designs and the templates I brought. The stitch club community is also test driving designs with great results. It has left me feeling like this is going to be a thing.

Check out some more textile books from the retreat below

the crow sew along

What’s a sew-along? It could be many things, in this case it’s lots of people working on the same project at once and sharing their work.

The project is – a crow – with a focus on using thrifted materials. I’ve started a one made from a XL men’s shirt I got at goodwill. The striped shirt is darker on the inside and I’m using that side. I’ll mix in some of the lighter side too and play with the angle of the stripes for feathers. My crow might be made entirely of the shirt, or, I’m going to look around this weekend for ties to incorporate in the feathers. I’ll be posting progress in the facebook sew-along group, insta stories and in stitch club.

Where can you share? In the face book sew-along group, on instagram and the stitch club community. Or you can email an image of your finished crow to me at – ann @ ann wood handmade dot com

And to make it interesting there is a prize for best crow – a one year membership to the aforementioned stitch club community. Please post your finished crow by October 29th and the winner will be announced on Halloween.

When you share on instagram please tag @annwood and use the hashtag #annwoodpattern (The hashtag by itself is not enough – you gotta be sure to tag me please.)

For some extra crow sewing tips check out the 2022 crow sew-along – all posts are linked at the bottom.