Slow Sunday Stitching and a Word of the Year Goddess Doll

Yesterday evening I made a sweet little Goddess doll with my Word of the Year, Tend. I was inspired by the little dolls made by Mirjam Gielen. (Mirjam Textiles). I purchased the Stitch Goddesses  pattern from her Etsy shop to use as the base of my goddess doll. I watched her video tutorial to see how she went about making hers and then proceeding to craft mine my way. Photo shows front and back.

I printed the pattern onto card stock, chose a piece of fabric for the body front and traced around the pattern pretty much how it was done in the video. Then I worked my own magic in the stitching of the goddess. I stitched the body from the backside of the fabric first using the running stitch, flipped it over and proceeded to wrap the running stitch to get a more defined line of stitching. I also chose one of the faces to use included in the pattern. I made a little tag with my word of the year: TEND, stitched it to the body and then put it aside to think about how I would finish her.

Initially I thought of attaching her to a light piece of cardboard to make a card, may be even adding a piece of fabric to the back to complete the card. (I’ll do this for another one)

In the end I made her into a doll after all it was the artist’s own dolls that inspired me to make one, I purchased the pattern to be supportive of other fiber artist and I love making goddess and spirit dolls.

I pulled out a piece of fabric for the dolls back trimmed it to measure the same size square. I stitched with the right sides together just outside my original stitch line for the front. I trimmed off all the excess fabric, turned it out which took a bit of time with such a small piece of fabric, stuffed her with cotton batting and rosemary.

She turned out exactly as I hoped, today I pulled out more fabric bits to make another. I was originally going to make a slow stitch fabric base but I wanted to see how it would turn out. I could have followed the original tutorial but I like to experiment, this time it worked out well. It’s a fairly quick project which I like to do between larger projects I’m working on.

I'm linking my post to Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching check out the link to see what other bloggers are slow stitching here https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2025/03/slow-sunday-stitching.html

 Here is the link to the Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/MirjamTextiles

The second baby blanket is completed for my daughter in laws cousin who recently had twins, a girl and a boy. I posted a photo of the 1st blanket in my post yesterday.

Now to pack them up and ship them off to Switzerland.  But first I need to start the vertical stitching on the winter goddess slow stitch piece.

Happy Stitching!

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.  

Slow Stitching Sunday: The Summer Goddess in Progress

 I can't believe we are halfway through the month of April, this month is just flying by.  We have had some crazy weather here in north central Florida, from hot sunny days that feel like the middle of summer to wicked rain storms and tornado warnings to cold mornings and glorious afternoons.

The Solar eclipse came and went without much fanfare here, though I will say the sun appeared extra bright and the birds were quiet for a while.  For the K3n.clothtales SAL our weekly prompt was the Sun which seemed right with the star and moon prompts the previous weeks.  The weekly prompt included the eclipse.  Here is my piece for week 15 along with the moon with wolf and friendship star pieces. I am coming to embrace the wonkiness of my pieces, I love the raw edges and the layering of fabrics. I have always admired the work of others yet never imagined I would love the process as much as I do.

I have been working on several goddess pieces in the slow stitch style, I am currently working on the Summer goddess.  First, I pulled out lots of yellow fabrics, many scraps from my stash. Then I cut or tore them into strips. I traced the template onto muslin then began to randomly stitch them on where you can see a vague figure.

Once each piece is stitched onto the fabric I stitch vertical lines of running stitch down the length of the entire piece, once that is done I stitch around the traced line of the template.  Once all the stitching is completed I cut out the goddess shape and then mount her onto a background fabric. 

Then I just build onto the piece with some fussy cut pieces, hand embroidery, other embellishments as I work. 

The fussy cut piece I added is from In the Beginning, Sun Moon and Stars by Jason Yenter.

I have also mounted the purple goddess onto the background fabric and will begin work soon, I have autumn and winter in the planning stages.

I finished the Kathy Schmitz Woven Wreath's SAL block piece for April and March which I didn't post. 

I changed a few of the stitches on both the bee and the bunny, preferring the back stitch over the stem stitch.

I began the stitching on the Stitchdoodles SAL last week, the SAL began on April 3 and post each Wednesday.

I also have a hand embroidery started a moon gazing hare I just started it on Friday night using the DMC Etoile floss for the moon

The purple goddess is also on her background piece and I will start adding bits and pieces in the coming weeks ahead.

I'm adding my post over at Kathy's Quilts here https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2024/04/slow-sunday-stitching_0587940416.html

Here are the links for the 

Kathy Schmitz SAL https://www.youtube.com/c/TothePointwithKathySchmitz/videos

K3n.clothtales:https://www.youtube.com/@k3n.clothtales/featured

Stitchdoodles:https://www.stitchdoodles.com/

Slow Sunday Stitching the Goddess

  So yesterday I made a thing, a little birds nest with some eggs I want to add to my Spring goddess piece.

Today I attached it to my goddess, along with a few other bits I've added this week.  I just knew I wanted to put the bird nest on her head.

I added a small dragonfly I cut from a piece of fabric I came upon when I was looking through my stash bins.  I made the little bunny by drawing an outline on a piece of fabric scrap and added a black French knot for an eye.

I stitched the spirals along the side last Sunday at the beach, it was a beautiful sunny day with dry air and a nice breeze. 

I didn't get to much stitching done on the beach a few minutes after I stitched the second spiral the wind picked up and my fabric was flopping all over the place, not to mention my needle kept unthreading.

Last weekend I order this nifty embroidery bag from Missouri Star Quilts I saw on one of the YouTube channels I stitch along with. Not only is it a bag it's also a kit and came with some wonderful items. The bag has 3 inside pockets and one outside zippered pocket. 

In addition to the pre-printed sampler fabric, there are 2 full size stick and stitch pages printed with designs to stitch and the guidebook for stitches and colors suggestions. 1 blank print, stitch and wash full size page (its a product I use quite often). 8 full skeins of DMC 6 stranded gloss, a water soluble pencil, embroidery hoop, scissors, needles and needle threaders, a needle minder and floss bobbins. Oh and a tea towel.

Here is the list 

There is quite a lot of room in the bag even with all the things it came with, there is room for several hoops of various sizes.  I have wanted a bag to take along my projects where I could actually fit the hoop.  I was using a small bag for supplies and a separate tote for the hoop which can take up space when packing for a trip or even for a day out stitching, now I can have everything in one place.

I have also pre-ordered the Ingrid's Wildflowers Hand embroidery kit which isn't due to ship out until the end of July.

It comes in a beautiful keepsake tin box and includes:

• 20 wildflower preprinted Peel and Stitch Washaway embroidery sheets
• Instruction cards including 20 stitch guides for the printed wildflower designs
• 10 balls of 10oz Perle Cotton embroidery floss
• Notions including: 2 needles, 1 needle minder, 1 needle threader and embroidery scissors
• a gorgeous 7″ Beechwood embroidery hoop

Here is the link to the unboxing of the kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB1G9NKna4s

They sold out of the kit so pre-orders are being taken for delivery in late July.  Here is the link if interested: https://www.missouriquiltco.com/

I am signed up for the April SAL with Stitch Doodles, this time it will be Round and Round the Woodlands, I opted for the pre-printed fabric.  Info can be found here:https://www.stitchdoodles.com/

I am currently working on week 11 of the K3n.clothtales SAL piece, it's a Kawandi style piece that I am just about finished with, and later this evening I need to start my Kathy Schmitz Woven Wreaths SAL I need to watch the video again  for March.  I am posting today at Kathy's Quilts here:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2024/03/slow-sunday-stitching_021451573.html 

My banner for St. Patrick's day has been up since March 1st.

A few weeks ago I was looking for some butterfly fabric and came across Deborah's Garden from Northcott fabrics,  Michel Design Works.  I loved the butterflies framed by the lavender and the coordinating florals are just stunning.  I have a project in mind and if you look closely at the Spring goddess piece you will see the bunch of lavender and the small butterfly was used.

It is also St. Gertrude's Day today, she is the patron saint of cats and gardener's, Simon waiting for me 

to toss about his favorite toy so I can walk up and down the hallway while he chases it but doesn't retrieve it, unless I stop playing.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!