2022 Christmas Countdown - Merry Christmas

It's Day 25 of my Christmas Countdown - and it's Christmas Day.  Merry Christmas to everyone, and I hope you have a lovely day with family and friends.

December 2018

I'm spending Christmas Day at home in Wellington this year, with my husband, two sons, and my parents.   

I've enjoyed bringing you my 2022 Christmas Countdown.  It was fun to look back at some of the things I've made over the years.  Maybe I'll do it again in another five years in 2027.  I wonder what I will have made by then!

December 2014

I'll be back on 30 December with my wrap up blog post for 2022.  Until then, Merry Christmas to you all. 

2022 Christmas Countdown - Gingerbread Flower Shop

Day 24 of my Christmas Countdown and it's Christmas Eve.  It's time to bring out my Gingerbread Flower Shop.

the front

the back

Yes, I've finally finished the last cottage in Victoria Sampler's Gingerbread Village. The cross stitching was straight forward, but I was hesitant to do the fancy stitches and the silk ribbon work. 

But I got there, and I'm very happy with the result.  Once again I embroidered my name and the date on the base so people can remember who made these cottages in years to come. 

I'm sad that this is the last Gingerbread cottage that Victoria Sampler will produce, but I'm happy that I've made them all and I love bringing them out each Christmas.  I've taken them to show various quilt guilds around New Zealand, and will continue to do so because they deserve to be shared.  

Thank you Thea Dueck for sharing your amazing designs with us all.  

I'll be featuring all the other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

2022 Christmas Countdown - Gingerbread Etui

Day 22 of my Christmas Countdown and it's my Gingerbread Etui.

An etui is "a small ornamental case for holding needles, cosmetics, and other articles".  However, my etui is sewn closed so it doesn't hold anything, but I like to think of it as a big Christmas tree in the middle of my Gingerbread Village.  

I'll be featuring all the other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

2022 Christmas Countdown - Retreat Cottage

Day 20 of my Christmas Countdown and it's the Retreat Cottage from the Gingerbread Village.  

I love the thought of stitchers having their retreat in this log cabin covered in snow.  

I love the little annex or porch out to the side, the railings on the balcony and how the roof overhangs slightly.  And the lacy curtains on the windows where the ladies are stitching.  There's just so many cute details. 

I'll be featuring all the other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

2022 Christmas Countdown - Gingerbread Quilt Shop

 Day 18 of my 2022 Christmas Countdown and it's my Gingerbread Quilt Shop.

I do love how Thea has made this shop so appealing to quilters.  The sewing machine mounted above the door way, the beautiful quilts depicted on the sides and back of the shop, and the ladies sitting upstairs above the front door actually quilting! It's all so special and I loved making it.  

I embroidered my name and the date on the base so people will remember who made it.  

I'll be featuring all the other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

2022 Christmas Countdown - Candy Cane Cottage

Day 14 of my 2022 Christmas Countdown and it's my Candy Cane Cottage.

This is another one of the cottages from the Victoria Sampler Gingerbread Village.  The candy canes are so cleverly designed, and once again, I love the decorative roof. 

There's little bit of hardanger on the windows, but the pattern explains clearly how to do it and it was quite straight forward. 

This is the smallest cottage in the Gingerbread Village and it was quite fiddly getting all those red and white beads place perfectly.  

I'll be featuring all the other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

2022 Christmas Countdown - Gingerbread Bakery

Day 11 and it's my Gingerbread Bakery designed by Victoria Sampler.  

I wish I could churn out sweet Christmas treats like these busy ladies do!

Assembling an "L" shaped building was a bit tricky, but the solution is to make two rectangles and then join them together. 

I love the decorations on the roof of the Gingerbread Bakery. 

Can you see the gingerbread men on the top of the cabinet in the photo above? 

I'll be featuring other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

2022 Christmas Countdown - Gingerbread Church

Day 7 of my Christmas Countdown and it's time for another Gingerbread House.

This time it's my Gingerbread Church - the second building in the Victoria Sampler Gingerbread Village.  

I do love the stained glass windows on the church, and all the snow on the roof.  The steeple was tricky to attach, but it's what makes it a church.  

I was lucky to find a shiny Mill Hill cross just the right size to hang above the front doors.  

And here it is in the sun.  

I'll be featuring other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

2022 Christmas Countdown - Gingerbread Stitching House

Yes, in case you missed Day 1 yesterday, I'm doing a Christmas Countdown and I'm going to show you a different handmade decoration each day of December until Christmas Day.  

Today it's my Gingerbread Stitching House.  

This was the first cottage that I made from the Gingerbread Village designed by Victoria Sampler.  I quickly became addicted to the Gingerbread Village and have now made almost all of the cottages.

I love the way that the stitches on the roof  look like icing.  It's almost good enough to eat. And the hardanger on the windows.

This stitching house was designed so the roof lifts off and you can store things inside. The area is very small though because the whole house is only 4" x 4". 

I like to record my name and the date on the base of my cottages, and this tells me I made this stitching house 10 years ago.  It seems fitting that I will finish the final house in the village series in December 2022.  

I'll be featuring other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

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

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.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Gingerbread Flower Shop

 It's December, and I suddenly decided to drop everything and start stitching the Gingerbread Flower Shop by The Victoria Sampler.  

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will know all about my Gingerbread Village.  

I started making these delightful cottages in 2012.  Each year I bring them out for Christmas and we all enjoy looking at them.  

This time last year I was busy finishing the Gingerbread Retreat Cottage.

And the year before that it was the Gingerbread Needlework Shop.

I do love the Candy Cane Cottage - it's just so sweet (even though applying all those beads was pretty arduous!). 

You can read all about my tips and tricks, plus find links to each of the other cottages, in the Gingerbread Village tab at the top of the page. 

I know I won't finish the Flower Shop before Christmas, but I do like working on Christmas designs in December and January.  This pattern is slightly different to the others because it includes some ribbon work.  I've done a little bit of that before, but I'm not worried because Thea always includes such great instructions and photos.  

I'll leave you with a photo of the Gingerbread House - because that's where it all started for me. 

 

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Midwinter Christmas

Tomorrow I'm going to a midwinter Christmas celebration at one of our local quilting guilds.  

My Gingerbread Village

Some people in New Zealand and Australia like to have midwinter Christmas celebrations, and do all the things it's usually too hot to do at Christmas - like drink mulled wine and eat roast dinners.

I've been asked to bring along some of my hand made Christmas decorations, and my Gingerbread Village in particular.  If you're a new follower, and haven't seen my Gingerbread Village, you can read all about it on the tab at the top of the page, or by clicking here.  The gorgeous patterns were designed by Thea Dueck of The Victoria Sampler in Canada.  

So this week I pulled out my shoe boxes and sorted out which decorations I'll take along.

I'll also take some of my Christmas quilts because I expect they'd like to see them too.  I'm not going to give away too many spoilers here, but I might report back next week on more of the things I'll be sharing tomorrow.  

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