A Year of Looking Back
Quote: "The year begins the same way a piece of embroidery does... with one deliberate stitch." – Anonymous
A Year of Looking Back
This year, I’m celebrating 20 years of Tom & Lily Creations.
Rather than marking the occasion with a single post, I wanted to take the time to look back properly.
Over the coming months, I’ll be sharing one story each month, moments, memories, lessons, and reflections from the past twenty years.
Some will be about design, colour, and embroidery.
Others will be about family, choices, and the quieter decisions that shape a creative business over time.
January felt like the right place to begin: with why and how it all started.
January — Why and How I Started
Twenty years ago, Tom & Lily Creations didn’t begin as a business plan.
It began during a pause.
At the time, I was working as an English teacher in Salon-de-Provence, where we were living then. I had just taken leave after the birth of Lily, our second child, and suddenly life slowed down in a way it hadn’t before.
In that quieter space, I returned to designing.
During my leave, I finished creating a Catalan-themed sampler, inspired by the region my husband is from, and where we now live. It wasn’t designed with any particular outcome in mind. It was simply something I felt drawn to make.
To my surprise, the sampler was incredibly well received. The charts sold quickly, and they’ve continued to sell, even twenty years on.
That moment planted a seed.
I began to realise that it might be possible to combine being at home with my children while also earning an income through something creative. Not by rushing, scaling, or overcomplicating things, but by continuing to design thoughtfully and consistently.
So I carried on.
Little by little, more designs followed. What started as one sampler grew into a body of work, and eventually into a company, one built around embroidery, colour, intention, and time.
Looking back now, what strikes me most is that this business wasn’t created out of ambition.
It was created out of necessity, creativity, and care, and it grew at the same pace as my family.
Twenty years later, that original sampler still exists.
And so does the intention behind it.
Happy Stitching!
