Joy to the World

This week I've been working on another Christmas tree decoration designed by Liz Matthews.  

It doesn't look very exciting in this photo, but I'm stitching it on white sparkly 32 count evenweave and I'm really pleased with it.  

I think it will look nice next to my first tree that I stitched back in January.  You can read about that one here.

Next Friday I'll be in Christchurch at my work conference.  I'm really looking forward to regaining some work life balance after the conference.  There's been too much work lately and not enough quilting! I have big plans for the rest of 2022. 

My daphne plant that smells gorgeous right now

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Quilt Symposium 2022

I haven't had a lot of time for quilting lately.  I've been busy organising my work conference, learning a new system for cricket registrations, and managing the communications for the Quilt Symposium 2022.  

The quilters in New Zealand get together every two or three years for a Quilt Symposium.  This time Capital Quilters are hosting the Symposium in Lower Hutt.  We've been busy booking tutors, setting up the rules the exhibition and arranging social functions.  You can read all about it here on our website:

https://www.quiltsymposium2022.co.nz/

Everyone admires our Block of the Month programme at Capital Quilters, so we decided to run Block of Symposium.  I've made 6 bears paw blocks and they are my entries into the draws.  We're hoping to get lots of blocks and will give away sets of blocks to lucky entrants.  

If you're in the Wellington region between 5-9 October I really encourage you to come and see the exhibitions at the Lower Hutt Events Centre (where Capital Quilters' exhibition was held in 2020 and 2018) and the Hutt Arts Society - just a short walk away.  I'll let you in on a secret - one of my new quilts has been accepted in to the exhibition!

There's also going to be a fantastic Merchants Mall at Sacred Heart College.  Anyone can visit the Merchants Mall - you don't need to be registered for Symposium.  

So start making plans now if you're a kiwi quilter.  We also have info about transport, parking and accommodation on our website.  

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Mill Hill Santa

This week I started to think about the #12in22ornamentstitchalong again.  And wondered how many ornaments I made before I fell off the wagon! I think it might have only been three - which is pretty poor really, but to regain that sense of achievement that I love, I pulled out my Juniper Santa who has been in my travel bag for a few months now.  

I really do enjoy stitching these decorations.  Everything is in the kit - even the needles, and they don't take long at all.  I think this one has only taken me a week, with other things in between of course.  

I just need to cut this Santa out carefully now and glue some felt on the back.  then he'll be all ready to join his friends on my bookcase this Christmas.  

Given how easy and delightful this Santa was to make, I might just even fit in a couple more over coming weeks.  I do have a stash of Prairie Schooler Santas to make too now, but I just love these cute Mill Hill Santas too. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Have you been thinking about Christmas decorations this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Spooky Darlings

Well, last weekend didn't go according to plan and I didn't make it to Christchurch after all.  I was caught up in Air New Zealand's worst weekend of 2022.  It was the start of the school holidays, the All Blacks were playing Ireland in Dunedin (so a lot of people were travelling), the weather was awful in parts of NZ, and the second wave of COVID-19 is affecting airline staffing levels. 

My Friday morning flight was cancelled, and then my Saturday afternoon flight was cancelled too!   The next available flight down was on Tuesday.  So, I had to stay at home.

However, I did finish my Spooky Darlings quilt top and I took it in for basting yesterday.   I intend to hand quilt it with a spider web design which will be a new challenge for me.  

I made these triangles as wide as I could with the fat eighth bundle I had purchased.  My original plan was to jumble them all up, but then my eyes kept searching for the partner triangles, so I just let them naturally return to their partners.  I've kept this design really simple because I want the hand quilting to shine.  

The fabric is Spooky Darling by Ruby Star Society.  I was never a huge Cotton + Steel fan, but I do like some of the Ruby Star Society fabrics.  They use interesting colour combinations.  

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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30 June check in

Greetings from Christchurch.  Yes, I'm away again.  No wonder I feel like I'm not getting anything finished this year.  I keep going away for long weekends!

But we did pass the half way mark of 2022 last week, and I usually check in against my priority list when we reach 30 June. So here goes: 

1.  Licorice Allsorts Block of the Month from Wendy Williams

I've started doing the embroidery blocks and I'm really enjoying that.  I haven't started machine piecing any of the blocks yet.  

2.  Ruby Star

The piecing is finished and it's currently at my long arm quilter - Rayna Clinton.

3. Starry Night

It's finished and gifted to my mother in law. You can read more here. 

4.  Tea Party BOM by Wendy Williams

No progress on this one in 2022 - yet. 

5. Neptune and the Mermaid

It's finished!! And I've entered it in to Symposium so I don't want to show a full photo until I find out if it's been accepted or not.  

So that's the five things that I had on my list.  But I've also worked on a lot of other things:

6. Bordered Diamonds

This was a fun quilt to make. You can read more here. 

7. Quilts for Ukraine

I dedicated April and May to making blocks and 11 quilt tops for Ukrainian refugee children.  You can read more here. 

Plus of course there's lot of other things I've done this year, including trips to Dunedin and Taupo for quilting.  Overall I'm happy with my progress and what I've been able to achieve in 2022 so far.  If I stay at home a bit more in the second half of the year I might get even more done.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Have you written a list for 2022? How are you tracking against it?  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Taupo Quiltmakers' Exhibition

I'm just back from a wonderful long weekend in Taupo. The Taupo Quiltmakers Guild invited me to be the guest exhibitor at their "Quilting with the Stars" exhibition over Matariki weekend.  

I drove to Taupo on Thursday with my husband, and 10 large quilts on the back seats of my car.  It's winter here in the Southern Hemisphere, so there was plenty of snow on Mt Ruapehu in the middle of the North Island.  

(Mt Ruapehu is an active volcano, but it's fairly stable and the last eruption was 15 years ago.  The North Island's main ski fields are on Mt Ruapehu.)

When we got to the Great Lake Centre in Taupo my husband helped me to hang the quilts and I took a quick video of my quilts which I've put on YouTube here:

I met so many quilters over the weekend - thank you to everyone who came up and said hello.  It was great to meet so many members of KiwiQuilters - a very popular Facebook group for New Zealand quilters.  The ladies from the Taupo Quiltmakers Guild were very welcoming and friendly too!

I decided to offer some of my quilts for sale and "Turkish Coffee" sold on the first day.  It's now off to a new home in Tauranga.

I did enjoy making this quilt, but there is a limit to how many quilts I can keep in my house.  You can read more about Turkish Coffee here.

I still have some more quilts that I'm willing to part with, so I'll write about them in future posts.  

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.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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New Tote Bags made from Kantha Cloth

By the time you read this I'll be in Taupo at the Taupo Quiltmakers' "Quilting with the Stars" exhibition.  It's been a while since I've been to a quilt show, so I'm really looking forward to this one.  And I have the honour of being the guest exhibitor this time.  If you see me there please do say "hello".  

In the mean time, I've been busy making some new tote bags.  

I saw this amazing Kantha cloth designed by Valori Wells at Stitchbird Fabrics in Wellington.  It's not the type of thing you'd cut up into small pieces, so I kept it big and made two large tote bags out of 1 metre.  

I modified and merged two Tote Bag patterns to get the bags the sizes I wanted.  

The second bag isn't as wide, but it is slightly taller.

I originally wanted the stitching on the Kantha cloth to show on the inside too, but that meant I couldn't use Soft and Stable.  And I would have had to bind the seams to give the bag a tidy finish.  I didn't want to do that, so I found some blue fabric that complemented the exterior nicely. And my bags stand up by themselves because they've got Soft and Stable in them.  

Valori Well's Kantha cloth comes in two colour ways - the Indigo that I used, and also Pomegranate. I'm very tempted to go back for some Pomegranate.  

It looks so good.  I love this Kantha cloth and I love my new bags.  

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:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter