Lord Nelson

I'm just back from a lovely family holiday in Nelson.  It's such a pretty place with beautiful beaches and bays. We stayed in an Airbnb overlooking Tasman Bay and I loved watching the ebb and flow of the tide and the sea changing colour throughout the day. 

I did take some hand sewing with me, but it's hard to get going when you're away from home and the seating doesn't match your ideal setup at home. 

Also - I kept getting distracted by the action on the water.  We saw standup paddle boarders, kayakers, people learning to sail little P class yachts, kite surfers, wind surfers, jet skiers, tug boats, the pilot, big ships - everything!!

The owners kindly supplied a telescope and binoculars for the visitors.  

I did some work on my King Charles III coronation tapestry that I bought at Liberty in London.  It's almost finished now but I did too much in one day and now my finger hurts so I have to have a break. 

I hadn't been to Nelson before so I was interested to see all the links back to England.  

Trafalgar Park

Stoke

Halifax Street

Richmond Ave

Hampden St

From Wikipedia: Nelson was named in honour of Admiral Horatio Nelson, who defeated both the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Many roads and public areas around the city are named after people and ships associated with that battle. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Nelsonians; Trafalgar Street is its main shopping axis.

Although I probably shouldn't have been surprised because most New Zealand towns and cities have a:

Queen St

George St

Princess St

Albert St

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 between the Maoris and the Queen's representatives (The Crown), and many settler ships arrived from then on with English, Scottish and Irish settlers aboard. They naturally named the new towns and streets after what they had at home. In New Zealand there are many towns and streets with Maori names too.   

Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, was the first European to visit New Zealand and he arrived in 1642.  He stopped in a beautiful bay at the top of the South Island and named it Tasman Bay.  Now we have Able Tasman National Park and it's a protected area at the top of the South Island.  Many people go tramping/bush walking there.

Captain Cook came to New Zealand mapped the shore line much later in the 1770s. 

So that's a little history lesson to go with my royal tapestry. 

Kaiteriteri Beach In Tasman Bay

I'm home now and back into work, but it's HOT and I wish I was still on holiday.  

A Trip Around the World

Happy New Year everyone. 

No sooner had I dropped my mum and dad at the airport on 27 December than I started getting inspired on Instagram.  Often I will start a Christmas themed cross stitch between Christmas and New Year, but this year I started a Christmas quilt and I had the whole top pieced in just seven days.  

I was inspired by this photo on Instagram:

But I used the brighter colours from this Christmas gift bag:

The photo I liked was by Edyta Sitar so I used her Laundry Basket Quilts PDF pattern for a Trip Around the World quilt.  I watched her video first and I liked the sound of her method, so I purchased the pattern and made a start.

I did consider making the quilt larger, or enlarging the size of the squares, but either option would have meant that I would need more than a fat quarter for the 4 consistent colours that run through it.  I wanted to make it all from my stash, so I stuck to the instructions.  

I used scraps of fabrics on many of the rows but if you're going to do that, just be careful to space them evenly when you're sewing the columns together.  I like how my scrappy fabrics are evenly spaced out in the final design. 

 
While I was in the mood I even pieced a quilt back using one of my precious Cotton+Steel fabrics from 2017.   I do love the ski jumpers, but if I haven't got around to using it yet, it's best to put it on the back of a quilt and at least I will get to see it sometimes.  

So now I have a lovely Christmas quilt ready for hand quilting with sparkly threads when the weather gets cooler.  

Finished size is 54" x 62"

2024 is off to a good start.