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.  

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 Day of December and Planning Projects for 2024

 It's New Year's Eve, the every last day of 2023 with a whole new year of possibility waiting in the wings.

I'm not sorry to see this year come to a close, it's been a year of ups and downs which I sure many of us have experienced.

My first stitching project for 2024 is taking part in Kathy Schmitz's Woven Wreath Stitch Along.  It begins on January 1st.  The project requires the purchase of the preprinted fabric from Spoonflower. There are 3 color choices: blue, red or green.  I chose the blue, though I had the green in my cart too but I work with green quite often so I decided on the blue.

My one change is I am using Valdani 6 stranded floss instead of perle cotton as a matter or personal choice. 

You can find info here on her instagram  https://www.instagram.com/kathyschmitzstitches/  or YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0goemkQd0S4

This is the link at Spoonflower, all you need is a fat quarter, I am not using the coordinating fabric 

https://www.spoonflower.com/en/shop?on=fabric&q=kathyschmitz&availability=ForSale&sort=bestSelling

I am also going to attempt the 2024 Slow Stitch with k3n clothtales

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_V7o7DpYeE&list=PLIvsY9XB9IaavqCrqeFaFvZBtQoJD-X4Q

So these are a few stitching projects to start off 2024, I haven't even decided what I plan to stitch this year.  I do need to finish my polar bears. Today I need to wash the stick and wash away product of the  polar bear and then trim around the edges.

Here is a look at both of the polar bears before I cut them out to finish them, I decided not to stuff them.

I actually completed the stitching on the bear on the left, I love these little polar bear ornaments, even though they didn't get finished yet. Today I will be working to get the other one done.  I had to stop stitching for a week because my fingers were so dried out from packing all the those out going orders from the web shops Christmas week my fingers were bleeding. 

 

I'm going to add my blog post over at Kathy's Quilts for the Slow Sunday Stitching, hop on over to see what other talented stitchers are working on. 

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2023/12/slow-sunday-stitching-new-years-eve.html

I'm taking part in the American Cancer Society's Walk 31 Miles in January, I'm walking in memory of my brother in law and my aunt. It's a way for me not only to raise money but a good way for me to get back into my walking routine.  Since I had the spine and legs problems since late spring my daily walking was stopped for several weeks and then when I was finally comfortable walking my walks were shortened.  I miss my daily 2 mile walks so with this charity walk I'm planning 1 mile each day so that by February I can be back to at least 2 miles again. Here is a link to the Facebook page if this is something you want to do and also my page where I will post my daily walking.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/6686097324772727

https://www.facebook.com/donate/811260747426352/6826339254082667/

This is the 1st book I will read in 2024 The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl 

I just finished reading Wintering by Katharine May 

I'm off for a walk at Silver Springs state park and then home to do some slow Sunday stitching.

 I will leave you with my Wishes For a Very Happy and Safe New Year and I hope to see you all here in 2024.