Licorice Allsorts...again

Do you remember my Licorice Allsorts block of the month designed by Wendy Williams?

I barely remember it myself because it's been so long since I worked on it.

But last Saturday I made a quick trip to Auckland to support my mum for a few days.  As I was throwing a few things in a suitcase I suddenly remembered that she had asked for my help with some of the trickier blocks in this quilt. 

When I first saw this block of the month advertised at Material Obsession in 2021 I knew that we would both enjoy making it, so we both signed up.  Mum has finished all of the embroidered blocks but was struggling a bit with piecing the blocks due to the half square triangles and flying geese.   

By the time that I left Auckland I had trimmed and joined all of the blocks above and mum was so please to see it coming together.  She didn't want to give up on it, so was very happy to have some help in getting it together.  

Now I've bought the remaining blocks home and am going to join it all up for her.  Fortunately she's agreed to some modifications which will make the piecing easier.  Then I'll just post it back and she can do her own hand quilting.  

We even bought a lovely wide back for it and ordered some batting online. 

my finished quilt top - photo taken April 2023

It's only two weeks until Capital Quilters Exhibition at the Lower Hutt Events Centre.  Hopefully I'll see some of you there if you live close enough.  I've been working on my quilts and am looking forward to sharing them on my blog after the exhibition.  

My Easter break in Tekapo

At Easter I went to Tekapo in the middle of the South Island of New Zealand.  The mountains and lakes are amazing there and the weather was beautiful.  The place we stayed at had great views and a big deck off the lounge.  

I took some quilting along because our Capital Quilters exhibtion is fast approaching and I'm not ready!! I still have two quilts in progress and this is one of them.  It's the Trip Around the World that I started in January.  You can read more about it here.  

It's quite a bit colder in the South Island than the North Island and the trees were already starting to change colour for autumn.  

We went to Aoraki/Mt Cook while we were in Tekapo.  Mt Cook is New Zealand's tallest mountain. 

We walked to the first swing bridge on the Hooker Valley Track, but everyone else had the same idea and it was very busy!

Lake Pukaki looked gorgeous on such a brilliant day. That's Mt Cook at the top of Lake Pukaki.

So that was Easter 2024 for me.  I'm now quilting every spare minute to get my quilts ready for the exhibition.  I'll have lots to share after that. 

Shades of Indigo

I'm busy finishing three new quilts for our Capital Quilters exhibition in May. Plus I want to enter at least one of the challenges.  So I'm quilting every day but I can't show you any of that just yet. 

However, in the evenings when I collapse into my chair I pick up my cross stitch and I've made good progress on Shades of Indigo by Nicole of Northern Expressions Needlework. 

There's just one more border to go now.

Of course mine isn't stitched with indigo threads.  I've chosen my favourite greens and blues.  The problem is that when you deviate from the pattern you have to make all the colour decisions yourself!

I started off with Caron Waterlillies, but I've morphed into Threadworx, Weeks Dye Works and Classic Colorworks Belle Soie.  I may have a lot of options but it's still trial and error because what looks good on the skein may not look so good on the fabric.  Last night I unpicked quite a bit of the next border because it just didn't look right.

The end is in sight now and it may even be finished in 2024.  I'm going to another cross stitch retreat in August and it would be embarrassing to bring out the same piece I worked on at retreats in 2022 and 2023.  

Pandemic Sampler

You probably thought you'd never see this day, but my Pandemic Sampler is fully finished and ready for framing!!

I had most of it finished in April 2022 (almost two years ago), but I still had all the back stitching to do, plus my initials - which were the real sticking point.  The back stitch took about a week of stitching just in the evenings.  The pattern is 20 pages of A4 paper so there was a fair bit to work through. 

My initials were an issue because "W"s are wide and I had to figure out how to fit them in.  In the end I came up with a dainty, subtle solution that I think works well. They're there, but they don't jump out at you.

I started this piece back in July 2020 when Long Dog Samplers released this pattern to commemorate the COVID-19 Pandemic.  The pattern is available for purchase here if you're interested.  

I used 28 count linen in Flax colourway because I didn't want to go blind stitching this.  Or give up because it was too hard to see what I was doing.  

I used 2 strands of Madeira silk and it was beautiful to work with, but definitely not cheap.  I possibly could have found cheaper silk alternatives, but my local embroidery shop had this in stock and ordering anything from overseas in the early stages of COVID was very unpredictable.  Things that previously took weeks to arrive were taking months or were just plain unavailable.  So I worked with what I could get and I'm very happy with the result.  

There's a lot of flurry going on in the Long Dog Sampler Facebook groups about Leap Day starts for 29 Feb 2024.  I've resisted all temptations and will continue to work on my WIPs in 2024.  

I have made one small new start since I finished Pandemic and I'll show you that in my next blog post. 

Capital Quilters' Exhibition

I've got exciting news to share.  Capital Quilters are having an exhibition in May 2024 in Lower Hutt. 

It's going to be on Saturday 11 May and Sunday 12 May which is also Mothers' Day.  Wouldn't be lovely to take your mum to a quilt show on Mothers' Day? You can look at the quilts together and then stop in at the on-site cafe for a bite to eat. 

Of course we're going to have merchants too so you'll have to allow time for shopping too.  

The Lower Hutt Events Centre is the lovely modern facility where we've held our exhibition twice before, and where the Symposium exhibition was held in October 2022.

I'm busy planning my entries now.  Each guild member is allowed to enter as many quilts as they wish, but entries will be scaled back if too many entries are received.  All quilts must have been completed since our last show in October 2020.  

I've got 3 quilts that are still WIPs.  Will I be able to get them finished in time? I'm not sure. 

We've also got two challenges running so I'm thinking about what I'm going to do for them.  I always like seeing mini quilts hung together and especially when they've got a common theme.    

So, there's a lot happening.  I encourage to visit the show if you possibly can.  The Capital Quilters exhibition back in July 2014 is what got me enthused about quilting.  I wasn't a member of the guild then but I walked around the freezing school hall and was amazed at the quilts on display.  Now I look back at those photos and I know all the makers and I am a member of Capital Quilters myself, 

(PS - our venue won't be cold - it will be warm and welcoming)

Stone Flower

Hello!!  I'm back and I've got a finished top to show you.  

I'm calling it Stone Flower because the fabric in the centre is the Stone Flower wide back by Kaffe Fassett Collective. Here's how it evolved over a short period of time back in April 2023.

Another wide back by Kaffe Fassett Collective

mixed in with Cactus Flower in blue

I took elements of the Blue Square Dance pattern from Kaffe's Quilts in the Cotswolds book and used them to expand on my fussy cut Stone Flower centre piece.  But I stopped when I got to the final border because I didn't fancy the labour intensive border shown in the book.  So it sat on the shelf for nine months.  

Then January 2024 rolled around and I decided to finish some more WIPs. So I browsed through the book and spotted the triangle border on the Flowery Jar pattern and decided to use that border instead.  I wanted to bring out the green again so I found an Alison Glass print that was just the right shade of green and I used that. 

I couldn't decide if I liked the green triangles pointing in or out, but I went with my original plan and have pointed them out.  It feels like there's more green showing when I point them out and that's what I wanted.  

Now it's finished and ready for long arm quilting.  I've already got 4 quilts in my hand quilting pile so this one is going straight to the long arm quilter.  I intend to use it as an everyday quilt.  It will replace my very thin Kaffe jelly roll quilt that I made about 10 years ago. 

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.