What I am reading this week

For the 2015 Witches & Witchcraft challenge this week I am reading Katherine Howe's The Psysick Book of Deliverence Dane.

I didn’t know anything about this book, I fell for the book cover then I read the summary and it peaked my interest. It has magic, witches and Salem. The perfect read for the witches & witchcraft challenge, Here’s a small summary:


“Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie’s grandmother’s abandoned home near Salem, she can’t refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest–to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge”

I have to say this book really caught me by surprise, I found myself turning page after page. The novel moves between contemporary times and one of the disturbing periods in American history – the Salem witch trials. This book moves solidly and tensely through a series of events, building suspense and anticipation, feeding us tidbits of what is to come and making it impossible to set the book down.

For more information on the Witches and Witchcraft challenge here is a link
http://melissaseclecticbookshelf.com/2015-witches-witchcraft-reading-challenge-sign-up-post/

Earth Day and Greenman progress

Have a Happy Earth Day

Here is the progress on my Greenman #2 hand embroidery piece the top alf is just about complete.

April's Full Moon

This is the first Full Moon of Spring and is called the Pink Moon to celebrate the return of the many wildflowers. It is positioned very near Spica, the brilliant binary star in the constellation Virgo. This star marks the shaft of wheat in the left hand of the Virgin who was named Demeter or Ceres by the Greeks and Romans; Ceres being the goddess of ‘all things that grow’. It would seem appropriate at this Full Moon to make sure to acknowledge the abundance in our lives upon which we thrive. 

Spring is Here!

Progress on Greenman #2 embroidery

Greenman #2

The Greenman #2 hand embroidery piece just off the lightbox and waiting for stitching, the Celtic knots on each corner

Celtic Knot 

I decided to crayon tint the piece to add some interest to the stitching, I've added some darker greens around the mouth when I noticed how yellow it appeared in the photo.

crayon tint

The first stitches have been added and I am rethinking the entire piece

Stitching begins

The outline stitches of the piece are done now to tackle each leaf and the acorns which resemble pinecones, the lines were added before I decided to crayon tint to make them stand out among the leaves.

Greenman #2 in progress

For me the Greenman represents Spring, gardening and life in general, whenever I see a Greenman whether as a piece of jewelry or a garden ornament, a printed tee shirt or a quilt I just think Spring.

My favorite Greenman pendant from 1992, this embroidery may have been inspired by the pendant

Back in 1999 I was taking a pottery class at the local adult education center where my love with clay first emerged along with hand built pottery.
My first greenman piece was very flat but to me still held a certain charm and became a test piece with glaze, firing and making pottery in general.

Test piece

A few weeks later I my first Greenman piece emerged from the kiln after the last firing and I was overjoyed.

Greenman One

I would go on to create and sell several more of these pottery pieces, none of them were as special as this first piece I made in 2000 just in time for Spring.  I have an itch to get my hands back into some pottery clay again and you can be sure there will be a greenman in a kiln once again.

The Greenman in stitches

The month of February has been moving along rapidly, we are having more days of sunshine finally after the month of gray rainy skies in January, the drops below 30 degrees may actually be a positive thing for my daffodil bulbs I planted a few years ago, the first blooms on my Rhododendron are a sure sign Spring is on her way.

Here is a peek at some stitchery projects I have been working on this month, the quilt class is not meeting again this week from the last class I attended below are the nine-patch variation blocks.

I will be cutting the strips for the log cabin blocks from the class I missed on the 6th due to illness, I was going to stitch them at home but the piecing method used isn't one I am familiar with and I don't want to mess up the blocks I have trouble enough using the rotary cutter to get the strips I need for each block. This pile of scraps is from trying to get a straight edge on the fabric.

Here is the Greenman #1 hand embroidery piece with the stitching complete, I like the overall look using the subtle green print fabric.

Here is Greenman #2 traced onto fabric and waiting for the stitching to begin, I am considering using crayon tint on this piece.

The Celtic knot are going to be in each corner of the greenman #2 piece which is on an eighteen inch piece of fabric.

Currently on the light box are a few Goddesses I have wanted to make for some time now and I finally managed to make the time to trace them onto fabric.

I am feeling bright colors and beads for the Goddesses though those plans can change in a blink of an eye.
Here are a few of this month's embroidery stitches on my crazy quilt block, thanks to the Joyuful Embllishments group my hand emboidery is improving.

For February the stitches are variations of the Herringbone stitch, I like how the stitch looks over the seam.

While my pistil stitch needs work my knots are forming very nicely and no longer resemble mini cauliflower heads.
For the Witches & Witchcraft reading challenge I am reading this wonderful series by

Dolores Stewart Riccio, If you are trying to find a good Wiccan fiction with strong likeable characters, without the silliness of a romance novel or the usual paranoral page turner this series may be for you.

The first book, Circle of Five in the series by Dolores Stewart Riccio introduce five women of varied backgrounds who have formed a friendship. This friendship moves beyond the typical coffee klatches and lunch dates. These women experience a spiritual awakening and form a circle to explore Wicca and all the varied magickal practices that each woman has a particular talent for.

As Tarot, herb magick, candle magick, psychic skills develop so do the characters. The group of women are real, warm, funny, serious, spanning the ages of a young mother with children, accomplished business women, and a delightful lady of a certain age who has the gift of glamour.

So far I have read the first five in the series and have just ordered six throughhere is a link if you are interested in the reading challenge for 2015.
http://melissaseclecticbookshelf.com/2015-witches-witchcraft-reading-challenge-sign-up-post/

Have a warm and happy Imbolc and Blessed Brigid's Day

A few things coming off the embroidery needle, and the beginning quilt class I am taking is proving to be a good idea for me.  I have always pieced my quilts by hand which is a long process of tracing the template pieces, adding a 1/4" stitch line, then the tediuos often days long adventure of cutting the pieces with scissors.  The class eliminates all that, with the precise cutting of strips and squares with a rotary cutter and a grid type ruler or two the pieces come together in a flash.

week one

homework week one

I was sick last week so it wasn't until mid-week when I began to feel better that I did the 3 blocks above, and not without incident, midway through the sewing my bobbin jammed and over and over again for an hour. I was clear headed though very tired on Friday afternoon but I did make it to class and stitched a the next set of blocks

week two

While stitching along the first 4 blocks no problem then the machine bobbin jammed, thankful it didn't take an hour to get back to stithing.  This baffles  me because the machine is only two years old, and I just started to use it on a regular basis in October, for another class I was taking. I will give it another go, I have to redo a few pieces and put together our homework blocks, if the machine keeps jamming I may just buy a new machine or pull out the beast, my 43 year old Kenmore.

wonky pieces to redo

I don't mind having to redo the above pieces while taking the photos I decided I don't like the color choices for the block.
I mentioned above I have other items off the embroidery needle, here is a few stitches made during the Joyful Embellishments stitch along I did this week on my crazy quilt block

Since I don't work with ribbon embroidery yet I made lazy daisy with a french knot stitch, here I like

the tree like look of the feather stitch and here we stacked the feather stitches, I will use this stacked look again, maybe make a seascape block.