A free project from Lois Blackburn
Map your local walks through stitch.
Every time you take a path — footpath, bridleway, or road — you stitch it. Walk the same route regularly and that thread builds up, layer on layer, until the fabric becomes dense with use. A path walked only once stays as a single fine line. The result is an honest record of how you move through your landscape.
This project isn’t about making something beautiful, though it may become that. It’s about process — the quiet pleasure of sitting with your stitching and retracing where you’ve been.
This is working for me
I should say — I’m doing this project myself, right now. My own stitched map is growing on my lap, and it is doing exactly what I hoped it would. I’m walking routes I’d forgotten about, noticing things I’d walked past a hundred times without seeing. The stitching itself has been a quiet pleasure — no pressure, no deadline, no sense that it has to look a particular way. Just thread, and time, and the gentle satisfaction of recording where I’ve been.
That matters more to me than I expected. I designed this project partly because I believed it could help people — and I still do — but I didn’t quite anticipate how much it would help me. If you’re looking for a reason to start, that’s mine. I’d love to know what yours turns out to be.
Why this matters
Walking and stitching feel like two quiet acts of recovery. Both ask you to slow down, pay attention, and be present in your body.
There is strong evidence that physical activity supports wellbeing during and after illness — Macmillan Cancer Support is clear that exercise helps maintain fitness, strength and mental health, and that staying active may reduce the risk of some cancers returning. And a major UK inquiry, Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing, found that engagement with creative activity supports wellbeing, reduces anxiety and depression, and fosters a sense of purpose and connection.
Stitch Your Walk brings these two things together. I’m not a doctor, and this isn’t a prescription. But it is an invitation — to move a little more, make a little more, and find your own reasons to keep going.
How to begin
Over the next few months I’m posting weekly ‘how to’ and general Stitch your Walk video’s on my Youtube channel.
Find a map of your area — from your local council, or enlarge an OS map to a workable size. Transfer the grid onto your fabric by stitching through paper the first time you do each walk, marking the footpaths, bridleways and roads. From then on, each walk adds another layer of stitch.
The choice of fabric, thread and scale is entirely yours. You might stitch at home afterwards, or take your work with you on the walk itself. The map can stay small, or grow as your walking does.
Join in
Share your work with me — I’d love to see what you make of it. You can find the project on Instagram at #StitchYourWalk, join the conversation on Facebook, take a look on Instagram, or drop me a line below.
This project was partly inspired by the truly beautiful Stitch Journal by Claire Wellesley-Smith — a record of days, not a daily record, ongoing since 2008. If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to take a look: clairewellesleysmith.co.uk
Lois Blackburn 