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.  

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.

A new Stich Along Harvest Hues with Mary Corbet

 I have gathered my supplies for the newest Stitch Along I am taking part in hosted by Mary Corbet.

You can read about it here and join along if you like, we don't begin stitching the leaves until next week so there is time.  Here is the link to Mary's Website for the SAL

https://www.needlenthread.com/2024/09/harvest-hues-1-design-materials-set-up.html

As soon as I saw the photos posted on her blog I knew I would join in.  I love Autumn colors and I'm always looking for something new and colorful to use to decorate my home here in Florida.

I have some wool blend felt I purchased about a year or so ago from Benzie Design for a project I did with quite a bit left over. Here is there website https://www.benziedesign.com They also have an Etsy store by the same name.  I love their wool palette selections most of the time you can purchase the DMC floss to coordinate with the felt which saves time trying to get that perfect match depending on what you make.

Also for autumn I am stitching another Mary Corbet design Autumn Leaf Lines the pattern is free for members of Mary's Patreon. 

I first came to know of Mary Corbet when I renewed my interest in Hand Embroidery way back in October 2014.  I enrolled in a hand embroidery class on October 7th we would make 2 projects from Gail Pan's Patchwork Loves Embroidery book. My finished needlebook and pincushion side by side with the photos from the book.  I can happily say my French knots have improved.

 The next project to follow was a Crab Apple Hill design which I am happy to say I am still crazy about those patterns. More about those another time.

After the New Year in 2015 we began to meet once a week for hand embroidery class learning new stitches and refreshing our skills.  Many of those classed included a video from Mary Corbet, it may have been either the website or YouTube. 

I have to say signing up for that first class 10 years ago was one of the best things I  have ever done.  I have grown as a hand stitcher following patterns to designing some of my own patterns and exploring the world of Slow Stitching in many of it's forms.

I will also be working on Kathy Schmitz Woven Wreaths block for October along with her Fright Night Table Mat which is available on Spoonflower, it includes the backing fabric when you purchase 1 yard.

I just love the vintage look of the motifs there are 12 in all and also available in Kathy's shop as a stand alone download to stitch the images.  I may use these as part of a bunting instead of the table mat.

The design images reminds me so much of the vintage Halloween cutouts from when my son was a little boy kind of like these vintage Beistle 

I just saw in the Spoonflower shop there is a Christmas Table Mat and a Wall hanging, I may grab one though I do have the Jolly And Bright ornament pattern to start on soon.

I am finally linking my post to Kathy's Quilts here:https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2024/09/slow-sunday-stitching_02122906470.html
It's been a while since I linked a post so it feels great to have something stitch related to talk about.

The Last Sunday in April, What I'm Slow Stitching

I have been working on and off on the Summer goddess piece adding bits and pieces here and there while working one other projects as well.

I added some of the bottom pieces last night and this morning shown below. 

For Week 17 of the K3n.clothtales SAL the prompt was Back Story, where the back of the work would be the showcase of the piece.  My Back Story piece is from a well worn favorite hankie of mine. A few days before the prompt while folding laundry I noticed a few places were worn through I thought to myself why wouldn't it be? this hankie served me well for over 40 years mostly in the last 15 when the season of my life changed once again, this hankie wiped away the daily sweat of my brow during my change of season, in earlier years it wiped the grimy sweat while gardening here in Florida, during daily walks and mopped up falling tears after several tragic events over all the seasons of my life so far. I have other hankies I use, some nearly as worn as this one but for now this special treasure will be honored as part of my year of stitching. The back of my piece, the Back Story, looks pretty much like all of my pieces. Though I didn't take out any of the missed tangles or knots

Walking the Wheel of the Year observations in my yard this week is more Lantana has sprung up in the back yard I think with the tree that was removed allowing it to grow or it's self sown thanks to the birds, either way the bees and butterflies love it and the Plumbago is beginning to bloom.

I am also stitching a Moon Gazing Hare piece, I used DMC Etoile for the Moon just to give it a little sparkle. I used a back stitch on the hare and a stem stitch for the foreground.

Than I whipped stitched the Hare and added a little spiral, I am still not sure if I like the use of the variegated floss for the hill but I'm leaving it.

Every few days my fingers need a rest from the stitching so I pick up and book, settle down with a cup of tea and some days when I'm not stitching I'm reading about stitching.

I was reading The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis, trying to read it quickly because I can't renew it at the library because someone has requested it. So I returned it because I hate to rush when I read a book. I will have to request it again because lately the urge to stitch has really come over me.

I am linking my post to Kathy's Quilts where Kathy and other talented bloggers share what they are slow stitching. https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2024/04/slow-sunday-stitching_01636077516.html