My Gnomes - and the Peacock Party link up

I finished my Gnome quilt in time to give it to my mum and dad for Christmas. They laughed, and thought it was a good representation of themselves.

It was fun to make the quilt in fabrics similar to what they wear when they are gardening.

I had it quilted by Sue Burnett of Busy Bee Quilt Shop in Wellington.

The pattern is Norm and Nanette by Elizabeth Hartman.  Although you can download it in pdf, I'd recommend buying the printed version like I did, because the pattern is 24 pages.  Many local quilt shops are stocking Elizabeth Hartman's patterns now.

photo from Elizabeth Hartman's website

The pattern gives instructions for the full sized quilt above, and also the small lap quilt that I made.
The large quilt is 68" x 76"
and the small quilt is 30" x 36"

We've been outdoors enjoying summer this week.

Here are a couple of photos of a beautiful Pohutukawa tree in my neighbourhood.  These trees are flowering all around the coast of the North Island of New Zealand at the moment.

Now, it's time for the Peacock Party.  Thank you to everyone who has been linking up.  It's great to discover new bloggers and read what other quilters have been making. Feel free to link up and share your latest creations.

Inlinkz Link Party

Too many WIPs

I feel surrounded by WIPs at the moment.  I know I should prioritise and finish one or two, but I keep dipping in and out and nothing is getting finished. 

Here's a few of the things I'm working on at the moment:

1.  My Glitter quilt - pattern by Jen Kingwell from Amitie Textitles.  I'm aiming to have all 152 blocks finished by the end of November, and then I can hand sew them together over summer. I haven't looked at them together since about April, so I hope the colours are all fine.  I don't mind if I have to sew a few replacement blocks - that's bound to happen when I haven't got a design wall to monitor progress.

 

I've got the remaining blocks cut out and bagged up, so if I can just hand sew one block each night of November, I'll achieve my goal. 

2.  Kim McLean tapestry - I've started putting a few stitches into this tapestry each night too.  I just love the vibrant colours Kim has chosen.  I can't do tapestry for too long each day or it hurts my hands, so I just do about 30 minutes each night. 

3. I'm also trying to finish my Gingerbread Needlework Shop so it can sit on my shelf at Christmas.  It will become my number one priority when the Glitter blocks are finished.

4. I stitched this sashiko table runner back in January, but I only just fused the fabric circles on this week.  I did a couple of simple rows of machine quilting on it, but now I want to apply facings to finish it. The pattern is by Indigo Niche from Australia.

5.  I also started another table runner before I put away my Alison Glass fabrics.  I've hand quilted this one, but again I want to finish it with facings. I've used a pattern by Christina Cameli. I'll post better photos when I finish it (which should be soon).

6.  And then, because I'm a sucker for quirky cute things, I bought this pattern by Elizabeth Hartman for Norm & Nanette.  I had one of those moments where you think you're just going to cut out some pieces so you can sew them together another day, but you end up just sewing a few together to see how it looks, and before you know it, you've made a gnome!

I'm not going to show my gnome yet, because he needs a few fix ups - I chose a checked fabric but it was a bit warped and the checks veer off at the sides.  I have to correct it before I show it.

So that's some of my active WIPs.  How's everyone else getting on?