I’ve fallen a bit behind on my WIPGO posts, so doing these after the fact in July (oops!). Apologies for that! I’ll be backdating these entries to fit where they’re supposed to go in the sequence.
Baba Yaga by Autumn Lane Stitchery is not the type of piece I’d normally stitch. I received it in the Black Needle Society “Trick or Treat” box in 2021. I loved the fabric, but swampy witches? Ehhh… not sure about it. But it was fully kitted… so I put it aside into one of my project bags and thought about it. My somewhat twinkly, romantic foresty Pagan side was conflicted on this one.
Last year for the 13 Stitches of Halloween hosted by Black Needle Society, I decided to start it. With Witches Wheel completed, I had no Halloween pieces going. Crazy, right? I love Halloween! Baba Yaga filled that “creepy” need among my pieces, to fill the space that those staring faces from Witches Wheel had lived in for a decade. I embraced exploring a bit more of the dark side of Paganism – which yes, I know, must exist to keep balance with the lighter side of faith – and some of the more Slavic roots behind this goddess that I’d otherwise only encountered in Rosemary Edghill’s Bell, Book and Candle book series.
Of course, when you’re doing rapid start rotations, not a whole lot gets done on any one day. I put in my day one start on it, and it went back to sit in the pile for a while. A nameless skull hanging from the bottom of the swampy chicken leg based cabin of the goddess witch.
There is a ton of black in this project, but because it was fully kitted in the Trick or Treat box, I won’t be cracking out the Cone of Doom (large DMC 310 cone) for this one. I started dead-center, so it’s going to be quite black for a while… but eventually some of those other muted tones will come forward.
But this fabric? OMG I love this fabric color. It’s broody, it’s complex… and I absolutely adore it.
Want to learn more about Baba Yaga? Pop over here for the Wikipedia entry. She’s quite an interesting character!