My week

Another week has passed and I still haven't managed to get back to my sewing machine.  I have been  cross stitching in the evenings though, and I've finished the First Day of Christmas by Hello from Liz Mathews. 

I still need to turn it into a 3D tree, but at the moment it's just waiting on the finishing pile.  I love the linen I chose for this one - it's 32 count Wichelt linen in a lovely pale green.

Cyclone Gabrielle passed over New Zealand on Monday and Tuesday and the Hawke's Bay suffered terrible flooding (Napier, Hastings, Gisborne). Nearly 10,000 people are currently displaced from their homes, and 4,500 people are registered as missing.  The devastation is terrible.  Many people will never return to their homes, but they are just thankful to still be alive.  The death toll is sure to rise.

We were very lucky in Wellington and were hardly affected at all by the cyclone. It's hard to believe there's so much destruction just 4 hours drive away.  

Here's some photos from my garden this week.

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

Spring time

It's Spring time in Wellington and I enjoyed a lovely walk at Oriental Bay this week.  We're very lucky to have a sheltered beach within walking distance of Wellington city. There's no surf at Oriental Bay because it's within the harbour, but it's a very popular with swimmers and families in the summer.

  There are lots of lovely Spring flowers in my garden.

Camelia

Vireya rhododendron or Azelea 

Echium

Flowering Cherry tree

My mum sent me a photo of the wisteria growing on her fence.  It looks gorgeous too.

Wisteria 

All these flowers remind me of the wool felt applique cushions I made from Wendy Williams book - Wild Blooms and Colorful Creatures. 

I know a lot of you are preparing for winter, but we are looking forward to longer days and lots of outdoor living.  It's almost time to dust off the BBQ again.

An interview....with me!

A few weeks ago Charlotte Scott asked if she could interview me for her pod cast series.

Charlotte is a New Zealand quilter and textile artist who lives on a boat and runs an art gallery! She has a blog called The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady.  Charlotte had seen photos of my la passacaglia quilt, and thought the story behind it would be interesting to document.

Here are some links to the interview.
Charlotte's blog post with the interview
or
a link to Podbean where all Charlotte's interviews are stored.

Don't worry if you've never listened to a pod cast before, I was quite new to this too.  It will work on your computer, iPad, tablet, or phone. We had a lot to talk about so it goes for 52 minutes!!  But it's like listening to the radio - you can do other things while you listen. You can also pause it and come back to it later.

Of course we talked about more than just la passacaglia - here's some of the things we covered. There's tabs across the top of the this page with more information on most of these quilts:

my first quilt made in 2005

My Flower Garden wall hanging

My gingerbread village - cross stitch

my Possum Magic round robin quilt

my sashiko quilt

my la passacaglia - still to be quilted

 I hope you enjoy listening to the interview.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Flower Garden wool felt applique

Hello and welcome.  This is my second entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  It's my wool felt applique Flower Garden table runner.




This quilt is made from a pattern by my favourite quilt designer, Wendy Williams of Flying Fish Kits.  The pattern is in her book called "Wild Blooms and Colorful Creatures". In the book it's called "Clamshell Garden Runner".

I went to a class to learn how to make this quilt. Each year in Wellington we have a big event at Queen's Birthday weekend (first weekend in June), called Hand Made. There are many classes on offer and subjects include sewing, knitting, jewelry making, cheese making, etc.  Back in 2013 Wendy Williams was one for the guest tutors and she taught a class on how to make this table runner. I was already aware of her work and loved her style, so I attended the course.

I had a great time at the class, studying all of the other beautiful quilts and objects Wendy had bought with her, and buying up lots more patterns and brightly coloured felt.

These flowers are fussy cut from fabrics, and then hand appliqued onto the wool felt. The felt shapes are them attached to the background panel with coloured Perle 8.

This quilt was one of those very rare things that when I came home from the course I just continued sewing until it was finished. I loved every step of it, The clam shells weren't easy to get straight, but I do love the lime greens.

I especially love the Kaffe border too.  I hand quilted it with blue Perle 8. There's minimal hand quilting within the panel itself. The flowers already stand out and I wanted them to be the feature.

I wanted to put Kaffe on the back too, so I chose a bright and cheery print, with plenty of purple and lime green to match the front.

This quilt hangs above the bed in the spare room and really brightens up that room.

Finished size: 21" x 50"
Design: Flying Fish Kits

I do love this quilt, and I've enjoyed sharing it with you.  My other quilt in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival is my Mini Medallion and you can read about it here.

Voting isn't open yet, but I really encourage you to go and check out all the other quilts in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. More and more will be added to the linkup until entries close on 21 May. Then voting will be open from 22 May until 29 May. Winners will be announced on 30 May.  It really is a great way to see a huge range of quilts from the comfort of your own home.

Flower Garden Table Runner

One of the reasons I started my blog was to create a record of my quilting and embroidery. Here's something I made back in 2013 before I was blogging.

It's a Flower Garden Table Runner and the pattern is by my favourite designer, Wendy Williams of Flying Fish Kits.

The pattern is in her book called "Wild Blooms and Colorful Creatures". In the book it's called "Clamshell Garden Runner".

I went to a class to learn how to make this quilt. Each year in Wellington we have a big event at Queen's Birthday weekend (first weekend in June), called Hand Made. There are many classes on offer and subjects include sewing, knitting, jewelry making, cheese making, etc.

Back in 2013 Wendy Williams was one for the guest tutors and she taught a class on how to make this table runner. I was already aware of her work and loved her style, so I rushed to enroll, along with my friend Sue.

We had a great time at the class, but didn't get a lot of sewing done. We studied all of the other beautiful quilts and objects Wendy had bought with her, and snapped up lots more patterns and brightly coloured felt.

However, we'd done enough to understand the techniques involved, and knew we could finish our quilts at home. This technique is wool felt applique where fabrics are fussy cut and then hand appliqued onto felt. The felt shapes are them attached to the background panel with coloured Perle 8.

It was at that class that I saw "Your Place or Mine?" and just knew I had to make that too. I'm really hoping to get that top finished this weekend.

This quilt was one of those very rare things that when I came home and I just continued sewing until it was finished. I loved every step of it, The clam shells were a pain to get straight, but I do love the colour of them, so they are forgiven.

I especially love the Kaffe border.  It's hand quilted with blue Perle 8. There's minimal hand quilting within the panel itself. The flowers already stand out and I wanted them to be the feature.

I wanted to put Kaffe on the back too, so I chose a bright and cheery print, with plenty of purple and lime green to match the front.

This quilt hangs above the bed in the spare room and really brightens up that room.


Finished size: 21" x 50"
Design: Flying Fish Kits
Date: 2013