'I embroider my life - it's not for the faint-hearted'

On 1 January 2020, Sophie O'Neill stitched an "icon" of a fountain from the hotel she worked in on to a piece of fabric.

When she arrived for an early morning shift, the fountain was still filled with confetti and streamers from the New Year's Eve party the night before and the image was one that stuck in her memory.

"It probably took me around 40 minutes but I love that I picked the fountain as my very first icon," Sophie said.

"I could have chosen so many different ones to represent New Year's Day like a firework or champagne bottle, instead it was something so memorable and specific to my day."

And so her first embroidery journal started to come to life.

Rather than a more traditional diary to document her memories, Sophie swapped out pen and paper for needle and thread.

"I embroider an icon every day," Sophie says. "So at the end of this year, I'll have 366 icons."

The 29-year-old has now embroidered more than 1,800 one-pence-coin-sized symbols to represent every stage of her life over the past five years.

A self-taught sewer, she picked up the craft in 2019 when looking for a new hobby.

But as for her embroidery journal, Sophie said: "I had just started a new job and I thought it would be a really cool way to track everything I learned throughout the year."

Little did she know, several years later, she would have embroidered icons to document moving from California to Glasgow, starting her business and buying a house, among others.

She says: "I met my boyfriend within a month of moving to the UK.

"I got to track on my embroidery journal our first date, giving him my phone number when we first met, our anniversaries – all of these cute little memories that otherwise would have just fallen to the side."

Sophie's embroidery journal is not so dissimilar to the popular 1 Second Everyday app, where people film a short video each day to look back on at the end of the year.

However, instead of picking up her phone, she traces a small symbol to represent her day on to the fabric and sews over the top of it.

The round 12-inch (30cm) piece of fabric is segmented like a clock, with each hour segment representing one month of the year.

Sophie meticulously designs each icon herself - even on the most boring of days - to avoid duplicates throughout the year.

"Each one takes around five to 10 minutes," she said. "It's not too bad but over the course of the year it adds up to more than 30 hours.

"In my first year of the journal, I was trying to do detailed icons and I was brand new to embroidery so it would take almost half an hour for each icon, but I'm pretty speedy at this point.

"I tend to do a batch update now so around three icons at a time. In the past I have done daily updates but that can be exhausting."

She also jots down a few words in her notebook – which complements her embroidery journal – to give context to the symbol for her to look back on in the future.

"I've almost got five completed embroidery journals and I love seeing them finished.

"It is so unique to be able to see – in just one embroidery hoop – every memorable thing that you've done throughout the year.

"Not many people can say that they have a full representation of their year somewhere."

With so many different and unique icons, Sophie said she always struggles to choose her favourite but a few have really stood out to her this year.

"The paddle boat in July is one of my highlights," she said.

"I was quite stressed with the upcoming house move so my boyfriend surprised me with an overnight trip to Loch Lomond."

She also described the stocking in December, where her and her boyfriend exchanged Christmas traditions, and the bridge from visiting family in London.

Sophie believes her embroidery journal has taught her to appreciate each day more and to always find something in the mundane.

As the year goes on, she said it becomes more and more difficult to find something to embroider that represents her day.

But she has a solution: "If it is a boring day and I have nothing planned, I'll try to do something different like go for a walk somewhere new or visit a new town or restaurant."

And her passion for embroidery does not end with her journal.

On her social media and through her blog, The Stir-Crazy Crafter, Sophie shares advice for beginners as well as the stories behind certain icons with her 43k followers.

However, as she said on her website: "An embroidery journal is not for the faint of heart."

Sophie admits there have been many moments where she has considered throwing in the towel, but has always managed to motivate herself to continue.

"It's a long and drawn out process, but it is one of the most rewarding things that I have ever worked on," she said.

Yet, after five day-by-day embroidery journals, she thinks next year she will take a different and smaller-scale approach.