Marching Toward the Turn of the Wheel to Ostara and the Spring Equinox

 Time has a way of getting away from me this year, I don't know what it is that seems to make the days fly by so recently I ask myself am I too busy?  Am I making up for time lost while I was ill for nearly 2 years, and trying to fit in as much as I can?  

I don't have the answer to either question so I'll just take each passing day in stride, be glad I am regaining my health even though I am having surgery in early April, life is good.

First Happy St. Patrick's Day 

I am currently working on a hand embroidery kit I purchased from Cozy Blue, one of my favorite places to by kits and patterns for embroidery.  Moon Flow is the kit.

Everything you need to complete the hoop design is included in the kit, I am using my clover hoop for stitching and will use the included wood hoop to finish it to hang.  I also purchased a separate pattern for the design so I can make another with a different color background.  I made a similar moon phase Cozy Blue design from a kit Lunar Blossom in April 2017.

I am also preparing to start a new Greenman hand embroidery, once again I plan to use Weeks Dye Works floss, I love the over dyed flosses in colors named after herbs and other vegetation it just seems a perfect fit. I had to restock 4 of the colors I have used on my last few greenman/greenwoman pieces. I use between 6 and 10 colors for the leaves most from Weeks Dye Works and some from Gentle Arts. Once I start the project I will include which flosses I use in my updates.

I should be starting this in a few days, I wanted to get Moon Flow completed by Ostara but I don't think that will happen here is my progress to date.

Perhaps if I stitch all day every day I will finish it in time.  Another kit I purchased recently is this lovely Aegean Sunrise from Avlea, I thought it would make a love piece for Litha. I will leave links for both sites at the end of my post.

In addition to my hand embroidery I have a few other crafting projects in the works, I made a crocheted goddess doll from the Fiber Magick book by Opal Luna. The pattern is Goddess of Journeys on page 155, it worked up quite easily though I did notice the stuffing is showing through, I used the suggested hook size for the yarn so next time I will go down 2 hook sizes. I ordered some dark fiberfill for my next one.

I used Skein Tones Lion Brand yarn in Cedarwood.  I changed the arms for my goddess so they are in front of her instead of over her head.  I am going to make a small bag to place in her hands to hold a crystal and or herbs.

This week I am reading through a few magazines from my pile of to be read when I have time pile in between stitching.

Here are the links to find the embroidery kits I posted today

https://cozybluehandmade.com/   https://www.avleaembroidery.com/ 

Before I post this today fresh from my oven this morning my traditional Irish Soda Bread

Beltane Embroidery Revealed and other Emroidery Projects in the Works

About 10 days ago I wrote a post that included the few snippets of images for an upcoming hand embroidery project I wanted to make for Beltane, I had given little clues as captions.

driftwood or horns?

leaf unfurling or spiral or shell?

leaves or duck foot prints?

As you can see all those clues have been answered, the below photo is the piece on the stitch and wash away fabric right before I put in the last stitches on the ivy vines.

stitched on a wash away fabric

The finished piece is of a spiral Goddess standing between the stag horns used to represent the God. I used pink cotton fabric for the background for a experiment for Spring the first photo is more the true pink of the fabric, my lighting is not ideal and neither are my photography skills.  I am making another of these on a white background, I'm not too happy with my experiment, oh well live and learn and redo.
My next projects for hand embroidery will include two kits to keep me stitching between pieces I design myself.  I like having a few projects to keep me on track with the Year of Stitches challenge I joined in January.

The phases of the moon is a kit I purchased from an Etsy shop a few months ago and finally got around to putting it my hoop. The shop is here  https://www.etsy.com/shop/cozyblue

This lovely Peace symbol is from a shop on Ebay, a friend sent me a link to the shop thinking it would be something I would like and she was correct.

It is a Zenbroidery pattern and are available on Amazon, Ebay, Etsy just to list a few places for you.
I have another design in the works and should have it done in a day of so.

Moon Phases stitched

Here is the Moon Phases with all the embroidery done now I just need to iron it and decide how I want to finish the piece.

October Stitching up a Storm

The month of October seems to have creeped in when I wasn't looking.  We are watching hurricane Matthew this week so I'm sure we will have lots of rain, wind and humidity to start us off this month. Last month we started off with hurricane Hermine which brought some rain and a few bunches of mistle toe fell from the oak tree.

I have been slowly stitching the Hocuspocusville Quilt blocks for a little over a year now and began block 10 in September a year from when I began.

block ten

I am currently working on the hand embroidery for the Christmas tree skirt from Gail Pan's book.
Christmas Patchwork Loves Embroidery.

The next 6 blocks will be 3 stars and 3 gifts I plan to change the motif design just a little to make the tree skirt more personal.

I am taking a class at a local quilt shop for the tree skirt it meets once a month for 3 months the second class in October 19th.
Another hand embroidery project I will be working on is a Goddess pattern from Urban Threads, she will be a winter goddess.

Instead of tracing her onto the fabric I decided to print out the pattern onto a stitch and wash away sheet because I wanted to use the snowflake printed pale blue fabric which will be easier to see stitching and I didn't have to struggle tracing it through the fabric.

The last project I want to start this month is from an Etsy shop, Cozyblue, this moon phases embroidery kit has everything I need.

The shop also sells just the pattern as a download which I will probably buy too so I can make another with different fabrics.  I just love the sashiko look of the kit.

Here are links to
https://www.etsy.com/shop/cozyblue

http://www.urbanthreads.com/