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As we bid farewell to 2023, I want to take a moment to pause, reflect, and express my thanks for the incredible journey we've shared throughout this busy year. I'd also like to share with you a few hints at what you can expect for 2024!
To begin with, an enormous thank you to our remarkable Caterpillar Crew community. It's astonishing to realise that Caterpillar Cross Stitch celebrated its 8th birthday this year! Your unwavering support has been incredible, and we are so grateful.
Witnessing the growth of the Caterpillar family, observing new friendships, and seeing the supportive, inspirational atmosphere we've collectively cultivated are the highlights of our year!
Designing modern cross stitch patterns, channeling creativity, producing valuable content, and collaborating with an exceptional team - it's a joy to go to work every morning.
None of this would be possible without you. A massive thank you to the dedicated Caterpillar team – Tim, Hannah, Maria, Lucy, Olivia, Louise, Sophie D, Molly, Samm, Sophie G and Katherine. Your hard work, ideas and resilience have been instrumental in the success of our small business. I'm so fortunate to have a team that shares the same passion for cross stitch and such high standard of customer care and quality.
Thank you to our amazing YouTubers, Ford and Jacquie, for their unique content that benefits countless stitchers. Your contributions are invaluable, and I'm so excited about the upcoming content and collaborations throughout 2024!
Our Facebook group Admins - Carla, Charlie, Claire and Nicky, for maintaining the positive, kind, inclusive environment of our group. Thanks to our lovely Stitching Social hosts, Carla, Annie, Charlie, Lizzie and Mandi, for organising events that provide much-needed relaxation and a creative outlet for those who attend.
And lastly, a big thank you to the designers and brands I have collaborated with this year for the Caterpillar Club Box. Your beautiful designs have been loved and stitched worldwide.
Looking ahead to 2024, we're gearing up for our most significant year yet!
Exciting plans include the in-person Caterpillar Stitch Retreat, Birmingham in June, the 2024 All-Star Stitchers membership, a Taylor Swift lyrics eBook 'Stitching Swiftly', 6 new Caterpillar Club Box designer collaborations, new stitch-a-longs and much more from our collections. Stay tuned!
In 2023, we introduced our membership, 'All-Star Stitchers,' offering exclusive benefits like members-only PDF patterns, dedicated online events, and early access to tickets and launches.
The 2024 membership, offering even greater value (including the Lucky Dip surprise), closes on January 12th 2024.
Molly and I dedicated the initial months of 2023 to designing the 'Complete Cross Stitch Planner,' released in April. Extensive research went into ensuring its usefulness, featuring project tracking, stitch-a-long details, supply lists, a DMC conversion chart, free alphabet samples, design pages, and more.
Responding to our community's requests, we launched the wedding design 'Wedding Wishes' in 2023, recognising the heartfelt sentiment behind handmade gifts.
The 'Season's Life' series, introduced this year, showcases four season-inspired typography designs. A standout pattern of 2023 was the Royal Coronation design, commemorating the Coronation of King Charles III. We also released a bunch of NEW needle minders this year - a London bus, a Ladybird, a Corgi, a Sun, a Highland Cow, a Fox, Santa's face, a glittery Snowflake, a Gingerbread House, a mug of Hot Chocolate, and most recently, a Dragon!
We sent out 6 Caterpillar Club Box designs this year - subscribers stitched Tropical Friends, Purrfect Posy, Ocean Wonder, Playful Pets, Season's Greetings, and Oh Sew Crafty, and found joy in a variety of curated, crafty items!
Boxes this year included some fabulous little treats, including ribbon, backing fabric, acrylic thread holders, colourful needle threaders, decorative washi tape, and more.
Three mystery stitch-a-longs marked the year, each with its unique theme – British Isles Adventure, Positivity Lifts, and the frosty village Christmas Wonderland. Welcoming 2024, our upcoming stitch-a-long is 'Enchanted Realms,' featuring a folklore-inspired landscape with mythical creatures.
Throughout 2023, we hosted 43 virtual Stitching Social events (that's 645 stitchers!), creating a space for new faces, friendships, and collaborative stitching experiences.
The 'Kids Cross Stitch Summer Camp' was a highlight, teaching the basics of cross stitch and stitching a junior pattern, Sophia the Sloth to hundreds of children worldwide. We even invited Prince George and Princess Charlotte! While they couldn't attend the camp this time around, we did receive a lovely letter from Kensington Palace in return.
Our dedicated Facebook group has grown to nearly 19,000 members, with an amazing community of over 47,000 on Instagram and 45,000 on YouTube. The engagement and support across all platforms have been incredible so thank you!
Crafting the perfect cross stitch Advent calendar involves meticulous attention to detail, from the reusable packaging to the thoughtfully curated gifts inside. The 2023 Advent calendar was a delight, filled with patterns, needle minders, Zweigart fabrics, DMC thread skeins, bobbins, scissors, needles, and more. We designed, manufactured and shipped boxes to over 10 countries with hundreds of delighted customers. Check out some of the feedback here.
Sign up here to be notified by email when pre-orders open!
Pre-orders for the 2024 Advent calendar open in January – don't miss out!
"I’ve never had so much fun opening an Advent calendar - I will definitely be ordering next years! Thank you Sally and team."
- Louise
Sophie and the team have worked hard building www.loveitstitchit.com into the ultimate destination for cross stitch design and shopping this year. We've seen so many new cross stitch designers using the software and also uploading their digital patterns for sale on the marketplace. There's much more to come for 2024 so please go and check it out to be one of the first adopters!
Launching in May 2022, Love It Stitch It is an innovative design platform - a space to easily create the cross stitch patterns you dream about (you can upload an image, or just go crazy with the design tool!), or use the marketplace to purchase patterns from the world's best independent designers.
This year we've added new features to the design tool, shared easy-to-follow tutorials on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and collaborated with Love Embroidery magazine to offer readers a FREE Nutcracker pattern!
The number of shoppable patterns has grown and grown, and there are now hundreds of digital patterns from talented designers available on the marketplace.
Our highlight of the year, however, has been viewing all of the the incredible designs created using Love It Stitch It! We love seeing how creative our community are. Start a new hobby in 2024 and try your hand at designing your very own cross stitch pattern using Love It Stitch It!
Since October 2023 we've been keeping a big secret. Our products will be available in a large UK retailer from February onwards – a significant milestone for us and one we're super excited to reveal on 1st February! Who could it be?!
Once again, thank you so much for your kindness and support this year. I hope you had a merry Christmas full of joy, and I wish you a happy and healthy New Year.
