Embroidery update

It's January, so that means long summer nights in New Zealand, and plenty of stitching.   

I'd normally be watching the Australian Open on TV right now, but the start date has been deferred to 8 February this year.   Instead I'm watching the fallout from some players having to endure 14 days in their hotel rooms (because someone on their flight tested positive for COVID once they reached Australia).  It's really going to impact on the tournament because some players can train for 5 hours a day, while others can't.  

Anyway, I've been working on three embroidery projects since Christmas.  

1. Pandemic Sampler by Long Dog Samplers.

I've finally finished page 11, so now I've done 7 out of 20 pages.  Consensus seems to be that pages 6 and 11 are the worst, and I've done both of them now, so it should be plain sailing from here.  ("Worst" as in densest stitching and most risk of error.)

2. Smoyg by Yvette Stanton

I promised to work on my Smoyg this year, and I have been. I completed the navy band in the photo below in just two nights.  Why didn't I do it earlier?

And then last night I started the large green block and I'm enjoying it. There are more colours to add to this block yet.  

So, it's looking good, but I do need to go back and complete some blocks yet. 

3. Shades of Indigo - by Northern Expressions Needlework

This wasn't on my to do list for 2021, but I've had the pattern since 2016, so surely it's OK to start one new thing.  In fact I started this piece on New Year's Day because it's a tradition among cross stitchers to start something new on 1 January.  It's a pity there's no tradition about finishing things!

This photo doesn't do it justice, but I'm using hand dyed fabric and Caron Waterlilies. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week?  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

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The Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua, May 2021

Yes, I'm back from our lovely holiday, and I'm enjoying some lazy summer days at home. 

I'm working on my entries for Aotearoa Quilters' Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua, 14-16 May 2021.  

All entries have to be 100% finished by 15 February.  (Conditions of entry are here.)

Of course I've decided to finish a couple of quilts that have been in my WIP pile for months.  Nothing like a deadline to make me quilt faster!

IF my Ballet with Kaffe Quilt is finished by the deadline, I'll be entering it.  If not, I'll enter something else.  There's no restrictions on when the quilt was finished.  

I've already booked my flights and accommodation for The Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua, and I'm really forward to it.  I've started my Lime challenge quilt, so at least I'll have one mini quilt hanging even if none of my other entries get accepted.  

The rules mean I can't show you any more than this. 

I don't know if the Quilt NSW Sydney Quilt Show will go ahead in 2021 or not, but I doubt that I'll be able to attend even if it is on.  New Zealand is a long way down the vaccination list, and I'm not paying for 14 days in managed isolation.  We may be free to travel within New Zealand, but our borders have been closed since March 2020.

So I'll make the most of 2021 by supporting our national quilting body and visiting the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua.  Hopefully I'll see some of you Kiwi quilters there!

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Thank you to everyone who continues to link up.  

 

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Holidaying at home

I'm currently on holiday in the South Island of New Zealand, as some of you will know from my posts on Instagram and Facebook, 

We flew to Christchurch, and then drove to Dunedin for a few nights.  I was born in Dunedin and lived here until I was 13, when I moved to Auckland.  My husband also lived in Dunedin for a while, and he went to Otago University.  

I'll have more quilting photos to share next week, but this week I'm throwing it over to you to share what you've been up to recently.  

Feel free to link up a recent blog post in the Peacock Party.  

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My Quilting Priorities for 2021

It's the start of a new year, so its' time to think about what I'd like to make in 2021.

In the second half of 2020 I rediscovered my love of cross stitch, so I definitely want to include some embroidery projects in my 2021 list.  

Lets start with the exciting new ideas running around in my head:

1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e...... Millefiori Quilts Book 4 by Willyne Hammerstein

There are so many beautiful quilts in Willyne's latest book.  I've purchased the hand piecing templates for six of them!! I'm not going to make six full sized hand pieced quilts, but I do want to have a play with the templates and start to make my own versions of some of these quilts.  

2. Topsy by Sheila Christensen

Sometimes I just need a change and I like to sew something straight forward on my machine.  This year I'd like to make the Topsy pattern by my good friend, Sheila Christensen.  

 

Now for the quilts that I've already started and would like to finish in 2021:

3. Cross Country by Anna Maria Horner

I'm keen to pull this one out and see what still needs to be done.  I'd like to hand quilt it myself with Aurifil 12wt. 

4. Ballet with Kaffe by Willyne Hammerstein

It's all ready for hand quilting.  I just need to start.  And finish.

5. Neptune and the Mermaid by Wendy Whellum

I'm half way through quilting this one, so it should definitely be finished in 2021. 

Just one block

6. Prizegiving Quilt

This is an oldie that's been hanging around for a few years now.  I've never shown a full picture because I might enter it into an exhibition.  

Now I'm going to add a few embroidery projects that I'd like to finish in 2021.

7. Smoyg by Yvette Stanton

This has been on the go for a while.  I picked it up again recently and discovered there's really not much more required to finish all the stitching. This is Norwegian pattern darning - not cross stitch.  

8. Pandemic Sampler by Long Dog Samplers

I'm committed to finishing this one in 2021.  

9. Gingerbread Flower Shop by Victoria Sampler

I've finished the front, one roof panel, and started one side.  I'm about 35% done I think. 

So that's nine things on my list.  As usual, I don't stick with one until it's finished, but rather jump around and do a bit on each of them when I get inspired.  Most of them get finished in the end.  

I think my biggest pledge for 2021 will be to resist starting any mystery quilt alongs or stitch alongs (cross stitch). 

Happy New Year

It's the 1st of January here in New Zealand, so Happy New Year everyone. 

I certainly hope that 2021 is going to be kinder to us all than 2020 was! We won't forget that year in a hurry.  

Here's my first finish of 2021.  Can you guess what it's for?

It's a pouch for my son's new Xbox Series S.  The Series S is a very small, portable Xbox, so my son requested a pouch for it.

He chose the fabrics from my stash - black and white for the outside, a tone on tone black for the interior, and "Xbox green" for the trim.  

The exterior fabric was easy to machine quilt because of the lines on the fabric.

I used the skills I've learnt making bags byAnnie to custom design this bag for the Xbox, and I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out.  Because it's a small pouch with tight corners, I used two layers of batting rather than Soft and Stable.

I hope you have a happy New Years Day, although I know many parts of the world are going back into lockdown again.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post in the Peacock Party below. 

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2020 - My quilting year in review

Wow! What a year that was!

My 2020 finishes

At the end of each year I like to look back on the goals I set myself at the start of the year.  This year my goals were:

1.  to move away from English Paper Piecing to hand piecing with a running stitch
2.  to find a method of applique that suits me.

I've done well on my first goal of improving my hand piecing.  I even made some videos about hand piecing and put them on YouTube.  You can find them here. 

And as for my second goal, I've found a method of applique that suits me, but I just don't enjoy applique as much as I enjoy piecing at the moment.  Maybe I'll enjoy applique more as I spend more time on it in 2021.

Now it's time to check progress on each of the quilts I said I'd work on in 2020.  

1.  Ballet with Kaffe Fassett by Willyne Hammerstein from Millefiori Quilts 2.
See the tab at the top of my blog for all the details on this quilt (or click here).  

It's still not finished, but it's basted and ready to be hand quilted.  It's high on the priority list.  

2.  Glitter by Jen Kingwell
It's finished! And I won Best Hand Piecing for it at Capital Quilters Exhibition.  You can read more here. 

3.  Cartwheel by Liza Prior Lucy for Kaffe Fassett Collective Quilt Grandeur book.  
Also finished, and now called "You Spin Me Round".  

4.  Green Diamonds
This is my own way to use up some of the diamonds I cut at the Kaffe Fassett class in January 2018.  I'm experiment with lots of different hand quilting designs, so this little quilt is still a work in progress. It's nice to have something easy to take with me when I go to stitching days. 

5.  Neptune and the Mermaid - pattern is Pieces of the Past by Wendy Whellum
This was so much fun to make (click here to read more).  I've hand quilted about half of it. 

6.   Cross Country by Anna Maria Horner
I started this quilt in a class with Anna Maria Horner  in November 2019 (click here to read more).  I now have the fabrics to finish it, but I need to decide if I want to add applique in the big triangles. (That's carpet you're seeing in this photo.)




7.  Don't Leaf Me by Wendy Williams
I've made a little start, but there's still a long way to go with this one. I haven't had much experience with needle turn applique, so I'm going to use this quilt to improve my skills. You can read more here.  

8.  Endless Summer by Anna Maria Horner
Started and finished during the COVID-19 lockdown.  I've now called my quilt Endless Lockdown, because it felt like it at the time.  

9.  Stars Upon Stars by Edyta Sitar
I'm still admiring this pattern, and I will start it one day.  

10.  Something new from Millefiori Quilts 4
There are so many beautiful quilts in this book, and can you believe Willyne is currently working on quilts for book 5!  

11. We Built This City (was Marshal by Jen Kingwell - the Quiltmania mystery quilt). 
I took a wild departure and made something new with half of the blocks from the Marshal Mystery quilt.  You can read more about it here.  I entered this quilt into Capital Quilters exhibition in October 2020 and I won two prizes for it.  

12.  Wedding Quilt

And, I've finished the wedding quilt for some friends who got married in October. You can read more about this quilt here. 

So that's 5 out of 12 quilts finished in 2020.  I'm happy with that.  Most of my quilts take more than a year to make, so I think finishing 5 of my WIPS is quite good.

Did I start anything new? Of course I did.  How could I resist the #sayyestokaffecollective challenge.  I started, and finished, Turkish Coffee from Quilts in Burano. 

13. Turkish Coffee

You can read more about this quilt here.

So, I finished 6 quilts in 2020 and I'm very happy with that. 

Be sure to check back in early January when I'll list my quilting priorities for 2021.  

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.  I hope you have a lovely Christmas Day with friends and family.  I know Christmas will be quite different this year for many of you, but I still hope that you have a special day.  

We'll be with my family at my parents' house in Auckland, so that will be nice.    

Here's yet another photo of my Gingerbread Village (details here).  There's no Gingerbread Flower Shop yet, but there will be by next Christmas in 2021.  I've finished the front and one roof panel. 

Merry Christmas to you all - and thank you to all my loyal followers who continue to read my blog, follow me on Instagram and Facebook.  Your support is what keeps me posting.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

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