Hello!

 It's Friday again, and what have I got to show for this week? 

I've embroidered one more block for my Licorice Allsorts quilt.  There's just one more block to embroider now, and I'll be sad when they're all finished.  

My wool felt applique class at Coastal Quilters went well last Saturday.  The ladies all came with different ideas, so it was fun to see their designs emerging.  Coastal Quilters owns a Sizzix machine so we experimented with all the templates and cut lots of different shapes.

I came home with some snow flakes that I'm sure I'll find a use for one day.

Tomorrow I'm demonstrating hand quilting at my own guild, Capital Quilters.  We're going to have 8 tutors set up around the room and members will get 10 minutes with it each tutor who will give a quick overview of a new skill.  

Last night I started sorting out what I should take along to show how effective hand quilting can be.   

Bedazzle 12"x12" 

Whole Cloth Cushion

I hope I can inspire some more people to give hand quilting a try.

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!

Click here to enter

Wool Felt Applique

Firstly - thank you for all the answers to the question I posed last week.  How do you follow blogs in 2022?  I haven't had time to digest all the answers yet, but I will.  

This week I've been busy finishing up this piece so I can take it to Coastal Quilters tomorrow.  

It's something that I started when I came back from Dunedin all inspired by the local's use of woollen fabrics.  The maroons in the centre are from a small bundle of Sue Spargo woollen fabrics, and the borders on the side are flannel that I purchased from Fox's Cottage in Foxton, New Zealand.  

I got radical and chopped up a scarf for the back!! I've never tried anything like this before, but someone at Taupo Quiltmakers guild meeting had chopped up some scarves to make a quilt for a friend, and I thought, "Why not!". The colours work so well with the front of this mini quilt.  

In another first I used my new pounce pad and a stencil to transfer this cable design on to the flannel, and then I hand quilted it with chunky stitches to match the overall rustic feel of this piece.  

I'm really pleased with how it's all turned out.  I'm still painfully slow at developing my own designs, but I just let this piece grow slowly and I'm pleased with how it's ended up.  I suspect it's only finished because I have to take it to a quilt guild tomorrow, but sometimes we need a bit of pressure to get things finished.  

I LOVE that green velvet for the vase, and the pretty pink flower and Kaffe Fassett ribbons.  

This piece is 22' x 22".  I'm not sure if it's a wall hanging, a table mat, or just a teaching sample.  I guess it can be all three things at the moment.  

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!

Click here to enter

Licorice Allsorts

I must have been living under a rock because I didn't realise that Bloglovin is dead! I still get my daily emails updating me on new posts from blogs that I follow, but I didn't realise that everything is frozen in time and we can't select new blogs to follow.  

Follow by email seems to have gone the same way.  So how do you keep up with blogs that you follow? Or do you just keep checking back until there's a new post to read? 

Anyway, on a brighter note, I've finished another two blocks for my Licorice Allsorts quilt designed by Wendy Williams from Australia.

You can probably tell that I'm loving this! Hand stitching and bright colours - it's just my thing.  Here's the previous four months:

There's only three months of hand embroidery to complete and then I need to piece all the other blocks on the sewing machine.  I'm looking forward to that stage too because the blocks are quite different to any I've made before.  

But first I need to get through my work conference in Christchurch today.  Once that's over I'll deserve a break and will be straight into my quilting again. I've missed it.

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

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!

Click here to enter