Christmas decorations in February?

Although I haven't posted any photos of quilting progress lately, I have been working on my Pantone Quilt Challenge quilt. The top is finished and I'm currently hand quilting it with Perle 8. It has to be finished by the deadline of March 21, so I'll just keep it under wraps until then.

In the evenings I've been working on these lovely Christmas designs from Laura J Perin. I made a couple of her canvas work designs last year and I really enjoyed stitching them. Back at the start of January, while I was still in the Christmas spirit, I decided I'd like to make her Holiday Ornaments Series 2 (below), and her new Holiday Wreath. My aim is to have them both ready well before Christmas 2014.

I had some white canvas in the cupboard and rather than painting it, I decided to dye it with tea. I left it in the laundry sink overnight and it turned tea coloured. The canvas won't be visible when the designs are finished, because I'll be turning them into individual ornaments, but even so, I didn't want any white canvas peeking through.

I used cotton to mark the centre of each of the four designs, and then put the canvas onto the roller bars and wound the threads onto cardboard. This is how much I got done on the first night:

After another night or two it looked like this:

and within a week the first ornament was finished!

They're turning out slightly bigger than I expected - 4.5 x 4.5 inches. They'll look great on a big tree, but I might just cut down the designs and make smaller versions too, to give as gifts to people with smaller trees.  I'll keep the centre designs the same, but bring the outside borders in. Canvas work is great because you make lots of progress quite quickly.

I'll be linking up with Needle n thread Thursday and Esther's WOW. and Confessions of a fabric addict.

Grow Your Blog Winner

Well it's 15 February here in New Zealand, so time to determine the winner of the Grow Your Blog tour 2014.

Firstly I'd like to say a huge thank you to Vicki from 2 bags full for arranging this event. She must have put many hours into organizing this blog hop and I'm very grateful. Vicki has done wonderful things for all of the smaller bloggers out there. I had no GFC followers before this event, and only 5 followers on bloglovin. Now I have 32 GFC followers and 18 followers on bloglovin. Most of those new followers have joined as a result of Grow Your Blog, so thank you Vicki.

As for myself, I visited at least 50 new blogs during Grow Your Blog. I tended to restrict myself to those that sounded like they involved quilts or stitching. I discovered some real gems and have met a couple of people with very similar interests. It's a pity that they live in USA and Canada, and I live in New Zealand, and there's no real prospect of meeting up at quilt shows, but, at least we've got the internet, and don't have to send letters and photos in the post. I've gained a whole load more inspiration, and have many more ideas of things I'd like to make.

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog and left lovely comments. I hope you found some inspiration and might return again in the future.

I thought that the fat quarters looked a bit lonely by themselves, so I've added a New Zealand tea towel. I live in Wellington, the capital city, at the bottom of the North Island, where Peter Jackson made the Hobbit movies.

New Zealand tea towel and NZ fat quarters

Time for the prize draw then - drum roll please - the winner is:
Heidi from Red Letter Quilts - congratulations Heidi. I'll send you an email to get your address, and then pop your prize in the post.

Thank you everyone - I'm looking forward to doing it all again next year!

Canvas work cushion

This is a canvas work cushion that I made a while ago. I learnt how to do this in a class at Nancy's Embroidery in Wellington, New Zealand.

Canvas work cushion

This cushion used a wide range of embroidery stitches. What makes it different is the padding used to raise up the large shapes, which are then covered with satin stitch.

There are layers of felt underneath the blue satin stitched oval.

More layers of felt under the green circle.

There were about six people in the class, and once we had completed the satin stitch on main featured circles or ovals, we used a range of stitches around the edges of them to highlight them. There was no pattern for this design, we were just taught the techniques and stitches, and everyone's cushions ended up differently.

Once we'd completely finished the featured circles and ovals, we filled in large blank areas by adding smaller stitches that didn't need felt padding.

 You'll see that my love affair with blues, greens and pinks has continued on from the Bargello cushions. In fact, I used some of my left over Perle 5s to make this cushion, plus some veriagated threads to add interest.

My mum kindly turned the finished canvas work into a cushion for me. I chose Kaffe Fasset Millefiore in blue for the border because I though it tied in perfectly. Once again, it's too good for general use, so it sits on a chair in the hall.

I'm linking up with Esther's WOWs, and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Knitting at the Winter Olympics!

I was watching the Men's Slopestyle Snowboarding from the Sochi Winter Olympics this morning, and was amazed to see one of the coaches knitting as she sent he snowboarder off down the course! He only paused knitting to give his boarder, Roope Tonteri from Finland, a high five, and then continued knitting as he set off.

knitting at the Winter Olympics

I guess the coach has an urgent need for another scarf while he's is in Sochi, but coming from Finland you'd think he already had plenty of warm clothes. Or maybe he's just discovered knitting and can't put it down, even for the finals at the Olympic Games! I can see that it's garter stitch, so maybe he is a beginner.

We waited for Roope Tonteri to do his second run to see if the coach was still knitting and he was. See how he's standing on the other side of him now, but still working those needles.

Update: After posting this I checked the internet to see if anyone else had noticed. It turns out that other members of the Finnish team will add to the scarf and it will be given to Finland's team for the summer Olympics in Brazil. You can read more about it in this article from the Wall Street Journal. The snowboarder thought it would be fun for the coach to knit at the starting line.

I love all the patchwork designs they've used for the signage and officials clothing at these Olympics. The ladies presenting the flowers to the medalists have lovely blue fitted jackets with white fur trim. Watch out for them if you're watching the Olympics.

Your Place or Mine progress

Tomorrow is a holiday in New Zealand and I'll be working on the 'Your Place or Mine?' Block of the Month. You can read more about the blocks I've completed here.

The holiday is Waitangi Day (also referred to as New Zealand Day). It's the day we celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, our founding document, signed in 1840 by the native Maori people and the European settlers (mainly English and Scottish). Businesses and schools will be closed, so most of us have a holiday. The shops will still be open of course.

Month 5 in progress

I've fallen a little bit behind with this Block of the Month, so I'm aiming to complete months 5 and 6 in February, before month 7 arrives at the end of the month. Unlike most quilting BOMs, this one consists mainly of hand sewing. There are many felt shapes to cut out and stitch onto the background fabric. Above is a photo of month 5 in progress. The felt pieces are sewn on with Perle 8 which has a nice sheen.

Someone did ask for some close up photos of the centre piece, so here they are:

The flowers in the flower garden above are circles cut from fabric and then appliqued onto felt, which is then cut into a circle and stitched onto the background fabric.

The doors and windows are all sewn onto the houses before they are attached to the background. I'm really enjoying making this quilt.

I'm linking up with Esther's WOWs, WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Bargello Cushions

Bargello Cushion 1

Wow, I'm been so busy visiting other peoples' blogs and answering all the lovely comments left on my blog, that I haven't had time to write any new posts for a while. I'm very grateful to Vicki from 2 bags full  for organising this blog hop. It's a great way to see what other people are making and blogging about.

I made these bargello cushions in a class at Nancy's Embroidery Shop in Wellington, New Zealand. The instructor's cushion was rather more free form than mine, but I like straight lines and segmentation, so I came up with the designs that you see.

Bargello cushion 2

I initially thought that bargello was rather dated, because most of the work I'd seen was done in olive geens, browns and oranges from the 1970s and 80s. Of course I didn't want to use those colours, so I opted for blues, greens and pinks. The secret to good bargello is to have three or four shades of the same colour and then you will get the shading effects you can see in my cushions. I used dark navy canvas and Perle 5 for these cushions.

For my first cushion I divided the space into nine equal squares and then chose a pattern to fill each square. I used a bargello book (The Bargello Book by Frances Salter) and selected the designs that I liked the best.

I used graph paper to map out the designs and check that I was going to see the pattern repeating enough times within the squares. The tumbling block pattern appealed of course, because it's also used in quilting.

For the second cushion I used parts of a pattern that I'd seen in another bargello book. It might have been 

Bargello : a fresh approach to Florentine embroidery by Brenda Day but I can't be sure now.

I put a different pattern on each side of the main panel, and sneakily incorporated one square of the wave pattern into the grid cushion so there would be a linkage between them.

I make sure that these cushions are looked after because they did take a lot of time to make. Teenage boys have a habit of throwing cushions on the floor, so these cushions live beside my chair and are for my use only!

Bargello cushions

Grow Your Blog 2014 and Giveaway

This is a special blog post for Grow Your Blog 2014.

Hello, and welcome to my blog. Thanks for dropping by. My name is Wendy and I live in Wellington, New Zealand. I'm in my 40's, happily married with two teenage sons. I'm an accountant, but fortunately I only work part time at the moment. so I have plenty of time for sewing. I've gained a lot of inspiration from reading other people's blogs and seeing what they are working on, so I thought I would start my own blog so I can also share my work with other like minded people.

I started hand sewing when I was quite young, encouraged by my mum who is very good at all forms of sewing, quilting and knitting. I now enjoy a wide range of embroidery and have completed pieces in canvas work, goldwork, hardanger and of course, cross stitch. My local embroidery shop offers embroidery classes and each year I try to learn a new technique each year. Below is an Elizabethan goldwork piece that I learnt to make in a class at Nancy's Embroidery in Wellington.

Goldwork 'W'

I'm currently working on the Gingerbread Village, by The Victoria Sampler. You can read more about the  pieces I have completed by clicking here.

About 10 years ago I dipped my toes into the quilting world and took a year long course to make a sampler quilt. I enjoyed it so much that I have carried on quilting. Although I machine piece, I like to hand quilt my quilts. I currently have 4 quilts on the go that I would like to complete in 2014.  Below is my Sashiko quilt which I designed and made in 2012. Each of the dark navy blocks is hand stitched with a sashiko pattern. I wrote a post on how I made it here.

Sashiko quilt

My main quilting project at present is "Your Place or Mine?". It's a wool felt applique block of the month, designed by Wendy Williams of Material Obsession in Sydney. You can read more about my progress here. I just love the bright colours in this quilt, and all the Kaffe Fasset fabrics.

Your Place or Mine? Block of the Month

I do appreciate you visiting my blog and reading about my quilts and embroidery. If you would like to be entered into the draw for two uniquely flavoured New Zealand fat quarters, please leave a brief comment below. Entries close on 15 Feb 2014.

NZ fat quarters 

One fabric has Buzzy Bee (a favourite noisy toy for toddlers to pull along behind them), and the other has Pukekos (a New Zealand native swamphen bird). I will post these anywhere in the world, because I realise that the likelyhood of the winner being in New Zealand is very low. Good luck!!

Thank you for stopping by.
Wendy