Happy Winter Solstice!

 

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Oh my goddess it's the 8th of December!  I've been so busy with the shops I have barely had time to lift my head to take a breath.  We have had a cold snap this week with temperatures dropping to the low 30's, its been warming up a little but for some reason I feel cold all day.  

This year I'm finding dealing with the  A-Fib while pulling and packing items to be a bit of a challenge. I have had to get a little creative with my time and energy.  Taking short catch your breath moments and stop and wait for the heart rate to slow down seems to be working. Mondays are the hardest days because I am packing stuff from Friday evening through the 8:00 am Monday cut off time.  

This weekend I am working throughout the weekend taking a small amount of time for myself.  I am so glad there is only 2 weeks lefts before Christmas. 

The one good thing about all this is I am determined to find a doctor that specializes in Atrial Fibrillation so that  maybe something can be done to improve the condition.  I have done a bit of research and there are procedures and medications used for some people, I just don't know if there is anything for someone that is considered 100% in A-FIB.  I need to know more.  While I have a medication to prevent me from having a stroke, and a very over priced med at that.  I need a way to function in my day to day life.  I want to make my bed without feeling like I should take a nap.  I want to take a nice long walk with out feeling exhausted for days.  I want to do more than sit and read a book or stitch some embroidery, while I love those things I want to be more active again without needing days to recover. Because as I see it lately this is not living, I feel myself getting depressed and I'm not having that right now.

On an up note I finished the last block of the Woven Wreaths Stitch Along,  I enjoyed stitching these little motifs through the year.  Here is December:

I did a little more on the autumn goddess slow stitched piece, adding and oak leaves and acorns headpiece, some drifting leaves and an owl.

I stitched an oak and acorns piece and added it to the top corner, later today I plan to add a few more drifting leaves and a few other bits.  I will link my post to Kathy's Quilts for the Sunday slow stitching here is the link: https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2024/12/slow-sunday-stitching_01163368706.html 

I am currently reading The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan.  I am enjoying this book so much.

Here is a little peek inside the covers:

I love the hand written pages and sketches of the birds so much I am inspired to start a nature journal for 2025.  

I have come to a major decision for me, this year is the last year I will keep a personal written journal.  I'm 69 years old and my first diary/journal I began when I was 9. Sixty years of keeping a personal journal is long enough. 

Anyway time to post so I can have some lunch and then start packing stuff for Monday's shipping.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

November, What I'm stitching on this Slow Stitching Sunday.

 

Here we are in a whole new month with endless possibilities. The weather here in north central Florida begins to change to cooler days dropping from the 90's to the low to mid 80's.  It may not seem like a big change but believe me when you have mid to upper 90's for nearly 7 months it's a welcome change, at least it is for me.  After 30 years living here you would think this northern transplant would be used to the weather and nearly non existent seasonal changes. 

I have stitched the November block of the Kathy Schmitz Woven Wreaths piece. The cornucopia, next month is the last block.  I love stitching up these little motifs, I have loved Kathy Schmitz designs for years and have enjoyed the Stitch Along, though I have changed the stitches for many of the motifs.

Progress on my autumn goddess piece is coming along, I have finished stitching everything down vertically and horizontally so I could cut her out, later today I will add her to some background fabric and begin to add embellishments with hand embroidery and some fussy cut bits and pieces I have.

She does look so much better once you can see her form after she is cut from all those bits of scrap fabrics.

I still have to stitch the pieces to the 2nd prompt of the Roxy's Journal of Stitchery. I finally had the

energy to iron the pieces flat getting out the fold lines of the fabrics. later I will work on this as part of Slow Sunday Stitching.  The last prompt for Autumn is autumn birds, I have no idea what bird or birds I will choose and I still have to layout my mossy forest prompt.  Time does have a way of flying by. For today I have my stitching lined up and I'll link to Kathy's Quilts here   https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2024/11/october-flosstube.html

I put in the last pieces of my slow stitched background block and plan to work on this first today for

Slow Sunday Stitching.  

The hibiscus plant I purchased back in February has been blooming on a near daily basis with no signs of stopping.  

I have always had great success with hibiscus plants but this one is by far the best.  I purchased this at Bob Wine's Camellia Gardens nursery along with several other plants.  The azalea and the jasmine bloom spring and summer. The milkweed keeps coming back after the caterpillars munch them down and one of the azalea plants I believe is a early winter bloomer.  These need to be transplanted in the next few weeks once I decide if I should plant them in ground or just larger pots.  

Happy Halloween!

 

My daughter in law dress Simon, he lasted about 15 seconds.

The last Slow Sunday Stitching for October

 Wow we are nearly at the end of October, time flies doesn't it.  The older I get the faster the days seem to pass.

The A-Fib is kicking my butt all over the place so I am trying to pay close attention to what I am doing that makes me extra tired but so far it varies too much.  Like yesterday I did some shopping and browsing around Walmart, I needed a few things tape and new tape dispenser copy paper and a few items in the grocery section.  I looked at the books for a short time but for the most part just did what I needed to do. I checked out and planned to drop off the things I bought at home and then go for a walk.  

Well that didn't happen because an hour browsing around the store very early on a Saturday morning was all this body could stand. I was done with any physical activity for the rest of the day.  I need to find a specialist that deals with Atrial Fibrillation because this is not living, its barely existing.  

On the up side of things I can stitch without too much trouble and have completed the stitching on the Kathy Schmitz Fright Night piece.

Here are the individual motifs

One of the motifs is the same pumpkin in the Woven Wreaths for October

I love the little oak leaves and rose hips in the pumpkin it just says autumn to me. 

I have stitched some of the leaves for the 1st autumn prompt for the Roxy's Journal of Stitchery Vol. 6 slow stitch piece and have laid out some leaves to add. The other bits are for the 2nd prompt Mossy Forest which I am working on at the moment which will be moved onto a separate cloth I was just selecting some bits when I snapped the photo.

I am also working on another Goddess slow stitch piece, this one for autumn, so far I have the fabric scraps sewn down.

I have begun slowly stitching vertical and horizontally to be sure everything stays in place before I cut her out and put her onto the main background fabric.

Once I cut out the goddess she will be similar to the summer goddess I made.

Speaking of Summer, the Roxys Journal of Stitchery Spring the last spring prompt was Blooms or Blossom for The blossoms I used a block from a Darlene Zimmerman panel which I will add to the slow stitched background.

The Summer prompts was Wildflowers and the 2nd was insect which I added to the wildflowers piece. 

The 3rd prompt for Summer was lazy summer days which is still in progress.  I won't be putting all my pages together until they are all complete.  I still have bits I want to add to the wildflowers

Today in my Facebook feed this photo showed up of my pin cushion with thread loaded needles on my stitching table. That photo was taken life before Simon my cat came to live with me.

Now, I keep Simon in mind whenever I am stitching, I still have the thread loaded needles at the ready, only now they are inside a box so Simon doesn't get a hold of them.

The 3 pincushions are loaded with different threads for different projects though currently only 2 are in use. I am linking my post at Kathy's Quilts https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2024/10/slow-sunday-stitching_0739717889.html

Take a look and see what other talented bloggers are slow stitching today.

I am currently reading The Gathering by Katherine Genet a friend sent me. From the first lines of the 1st chapter: 'This is where we all begin. Right where we are.' To the last line of the 1st chapter: 'And thus, I reach out across time to you.' I was pulled into this book.

I am also reading Restart Your Heart, it reads like a text book but I am learning about this condition and optimistic about finding a way to help myself thrive going forward.