Reading and Stitching this 15th day of January

 Wow the cold weather is back once again in Florida for a few days, this morning it was 25 degrees and ice covered my windshield, it was cold Christmas weekend too. It only last for a few days so it's not so bad, though yesterday I could not get my hands to warm up for hours.  

The 15th of the month is here and I am well into a few of my reading challenges, a stitching project that will last a few months and slowly looking at what I want to do with the garden.

For the Crusin through the Cozies reading challenge I finished Steeped in Secrets by Lauren Elliot.

The second book I'm reading is Twisted Threads by Lea Wait which I was surprised to find at my local library in large print. Actually finding it at all was a big surprise since I looked for her books for a few years. 

I am also in the Gaia/Nature reading challenge for 2023, there is information at this link here if it is of interest to you. 

https://gumtreesandgalaxies.com/2022/12/30/are-we-ready-for-the-2023-gaia-nature-challenge/

The only requirement of the Gaia/nature challenge is to read at least one book that features the natural world, that book can be fiction or non fiction.  The first book I am reading for this challenge is: 

As a through hiker I love reading what other through hikers write about their experience on the trail.

I am participating in the Roxy's Journal of Stitchery Vol.3 making a stitched scroll which will give me plenty of stitching for Slow Stitching Sundays.  

As you can see Simon has been very helpful while I choose my fabric, almost as much as he has been helpful with my crocheting. 

The theme for the project is Down the Garden Path, so far I have my base fabric chosen, my spool which the completed project will wrap around, unless I decide to make a wall hanging or a book.

The project runs from January to June, every 2 weeks there is a prompt posted along with a YouTube video. The first prompt is Wildflowers, as you can see I'm lagging a bit right now and have just the beginning of a tree which I am stitching without a drawing.  I am going to follow the seasons while I 

stitch this project, it's winter so the tree will have bare branches, though I could add leaves since very few trees here in Florida lose their leaves in the winter.  Or I may just scrap this idea and save it for something else.  I'm tossing about another idea which is why I am lagging behind.  The amazing projects created by sisters Sarah and Rachel have me in awe, I attempted the Christmas Journal but November and December is so busy with the businesses it leaves very little time for stitching or anything else.  The project began on January 4th with the intro videos, each week on Wednesday there is a new video posted and every 2 weeks a new prompt for what you will stitch.  I can't wait to see what the new prompt will be this Wednesday.

Anyway the link to the YouTube video if you just want to join along here is Rachel's intro to the project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiYYfbQbgPg

And here is Sarah's intro to the project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugwwrH69xSU

And here is the link to the Facebook Group if you want to join this SAL and see what everyone is creating and perhaps post your own.  I am always in awe of the pieces of art posted. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/roxysjournalofstitchery

I am linking my post to Kathy's Quilts here https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2023/01/slow-sunday-stitching_01257888777.html

Drop in and see what Kathy is working on this week and check out the other talented bloggers posting for this week.

UPDATE ON MY JOURNAL SCROLL

I have once again made a change to a project and decided to put the tree piece aside for now. It just wasn't going as I had planned in my head.   So I  moved onto my actual first idea of using some old crazy quilt blocks I made a while back and build onto them with embroidery and embellishments.

 This is the first block I am  using, and here are some of the wildflowers I stitched in the late afternoon. I have more wildflowers to add.

I stitched them free hand instead of drawing them onto the fabric.  I added two fabric yoyo's and will add a button or bead on top of the yoyo's to give them a more polished look.

I have a stack of about 100 circles I cut years ago left over in my stash from other yoyo projects, I have been a scraps saver for about 40 years ever since I began gathering pieces for the postage stamp quilt I wanted to make.

These are some of the circles I plan to use in the scroll project.  I'm also using the Anchor spooled embroidery floss I purchased a year or so ago. It's a 6 stranded floss unwinds easily from the spool.

Hopefully this will be my last change my scroll project.