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Sunday, March 17, 2024

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:

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!


Sunday, March 3, 2024

Marching Along With Some Slow Sunday Stitching

Here we are on the 1st Sunday in March so I'm going to post a few stitching projects I have in mind for the month and beyond.

I purchased this cute little wool applique kit from Through the Needle's Eye.  It includes everything

you need to complete the 3 Potstickers plus the bonus egg pattern below.  Also, a package of sunflower seeds which I will start this week.


Yesterday I began to craft a new Goddess piece this time using the slow stitch approach, much like the way I made the K3n.clothtales week 7 heart.
I chose the green template for my first piece, traced it onto a piece of muslin fabric, loaded my needles with random pieces of floss too long for my Orts jar.
I always save the longer threads from my stitches in a little bag so when I am making a little stitchery I can pull pieces from it.
I began stitching random bits of  mostly floral scrap fabrics onto the base of the goddess, moving them about until I liked the direction they were going.
Then midway through, I switched the direction of the scraps.
                                                         
I changed the way I placed the scraps again and then proceeded up her arms.  I just need to do the head.

Once all the fabric scraps are placed I will start some random stitching and add in some hand embroidery stitching as well.  Once all the stitching is completed I will place the original template on top, cut out the goddess and put her on a background fabric.  Here is the heart I mentioned above, when the heart began it was just a traced heart onto muslin than I added the scraps and did the stitching, added the heart and button, placed the original template on top and cut it out resulting in the heart below.
I will be working on the goddess piece today for my slow Sunday stitching and linking this post up at Kathy's Quilts here:https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2024/03/slow-sunday-stitching.html

Also this month I will work on the Kathy Schmitz Woven Wreaths SAL piece for March, it's a cute little bee.  Tomorrow is week 10 of the k3n.clothtales SAL and Week 4 of the Woolie Friends Dancing Tulips SAL.  If interested here are the links 


Friday, March 1, 2024

Welcome March with Some Slow Stitching and Tea Dyeing

 

March arrived this morning warm and cloudy with a chance of rain coming later in the day.  I have been stitching along with K3n.clothtales and this is week 9: wonky 9 patch applique.

Week 8 was Pojagi aka Bojagi style, prompt was Both Sides now.  In traditional Pojagi the piece is the same on both sides. This one was a bit of a struggle for me and a few others because we couldn't get the double stitched seams on the same side.

Week 7 was a stitched heart, I can't recall the prompt word but the heart turned out lovely.
Some time this week I will start the Woven Wreaths March block of the Kathy Schmitz SAL, I watched the video this morning while drinking a cup of coffee but my eyes were not ready to stitch.

I have been doing some tea dyeing using spent teabags and tea balls from the cups of tea I drink during the day.  
I drop the spent teabags into a jar with some hot water and add scraps of fabric. The results have been quite pleasing. The top of the photo is before I dropped into the jar and the bottom piece are after.
I placed the fabrics into the jar dry, the next time I went the cloth and tied off in two places.  I  love the results.


I haven't taken a photo of the piece dry yet but I do love the look of the piece.  Last night I decided to try red hibiscus tea.
This time I used 2 fresh hibiscus teabags and pulled out some vintage floss from 1973, a white and an ecru and a piece of old white cotton muslin about 20 years old.  I wet everything, tied the fabric in 2 places and bundled the floss.



I will leave it until Saturday or Sunday.  This is a small jar, just right for small scraps for slow stitching and other projects.  I don't use any mordant and the color holds well.

I want to try Solar Jar dyeing in a few weeks.