Garden Threads: Slow Stitching as a Contemplative Practice
A New Course Coming in Summer 2025
Are you looking for more stillness in your days so your soul can breathe? Garden Threads: Slow Stitching as a Contemplative Practice offers you just that.
In Garden Threads, slow stitching becomes a gentle way to connect with something sacred, inspired by the peace of gardening and the joy of creating.
Garden Threads is for anyone who feels a tug of something deeper while planting in the soil, spending time in nature or creating with their hands. If youāre looking for a calm, meaningful way to explore spirituality without churchy rules or big theology, this course is for you. Whether youāre a gardener, creative, or someone craving a quiet moment to connect with your heart, slow stitching invites you to start where you areāno skills required, just curiosity.
If you are a gardener or nature lover, you already know that time in the garden feeds your soul. Youāve felt the calm it brings, the way it slows your thoughts and stirs your sense of wonder. Garden Threads brings that same feeling into your creative life.
This course blends slow stitching with thoughtful reflection, encouraging you to notice, respond, and create from a place of grounded presence.
When you've completed the lessons you will have a tangible reminder you can place in your home that reminds you to slow down, notice the beauty around you, and check in with your soul.
About the Instructor:
Hi, Iām Susan Ernst, and like many, I found my deepest connection to something sacred not in church, but in the rhythms of my garden and in the joy of creating. That spark led me to dive deep into studying spirituality for over a decade, and now, with Garden Threads, I share slow stitching as a gentle way to explore that same wonderāno big theology, just a needle, thread, and an open heart.
In Garden Threads, youāll discover slow stitching as a new spiritual practice, blending the calm of gardening with the joy of creating.
Garden Threads offers:
A simple, soulful way to explore spirituality through slow stitching, inspired by gardening and creativity.
Four weekly lessons to learn stitching techniques that calm your mind and open your heart.
Contemplative Stitching Circles (via Zoom) to stitch together, fostering a sense of quiet community.
A final Zoom call to share your creations, ask questions, and reflect on the experience.
A practice thatās all your own, yet shared with others, welcoming gardeners, artists, and curious beginners alikeāno skills or big theology needed.
Garden Reflection Journal, a beautiful downloadable companion to prepare your heart and spirit for our creative journey.
Resources to support you.
Earlybird Bonuses:
Special discounted pricing
Beautifully designed Garden Reflections Journal sent upon registration to get started before the classroom opens
First 10 to register receive a gift - fabrics and thread from my collection
"Young Woman Sewing in the Garden" by Marry Cassatt, 1900 (public domain)
Join the Waitlist
Be the first to be notified when this course is available. In the meantime you will begin receiving my newsletter, Soul Tending: Cultivating a Joyful Spirituality.
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What Students Have Said about past offerings:
What an amazing course! Susan is the ideal person to teach "art as a contemplative practice." Her whole demeanor and instruction is contemplative. Thank you!
Susan is a perfect facilitator - calm, gentle, guiding, caring, and she creates a safe environment. Susan created an environment perfect for attendees to feel safe in their vulnerability, necessary for the possibilities of discoveries and epiphanies. I came away enthused and excited. If you have a chance to learn from Susan, take it.
I've collaborated with Susan on art projects, and attended a workshop she led. She combines thoughtful planning with gentle guidance for her participants, and unlimited creativity. Her "space" is warm, comfortable and welcoming. It's always a pleasure to work with her.
Whether you're a lifelong gardener, a creative spirit, or someone simply longing for a slower rhythm, Garden Threads offers a fresh way to connect with what you love.
A Practice Rooted in Hand Work
This course grew out of my year-long journey of making prayer flagsāa practice that deepened my creative life and invited me to listen closely to the seasons of the earth and the seasons of my soul.
Garden Threads continues this practice: gathering beauty, offering presence, and creating small, meaningful works with your hands.
To learn about my Prayer Flag Project, download my free e-book here:
Stitching Prayers: A Creative Guide to Contemplative Prayer Flag
or read about it in the Summer 2025 issue of In Her Garden Magazine.
Imagine this: a quiet corner, soft light, the slow rhythm of your hands stitching meaning into fabric. Outside, the garden whispers its wisdom. Inside, your spirit listens.
Questions?
Join the Waitlist
When the course is ready, you will receive an email with Early Bird pricing and extra bonuses!