Needlepoint cushions

I do love a good needlepoint cushion! My mum and I both enjoy working on wool tapestries.  This is mum's latest finish.

It's designed by Bothy Threads and is called Morris Bell Flower.  This is how it looked before I took it to Nancy's Stitch Studio and got it stretched and turned into a cushion.

Look at all those stitches! Tapestry is very dense and completely covers the canvas.

I've made a tiny start on my new tapestry too.  My tapestry is by Kim McLean Designs and is only available from the Crewel Gobelin in Sydney, Australia. 

I'm looking forward to doing some slow stitching on this tapestry over the next year or so.  It's something I like to pick up when I take a break from other projects. 

I hope you all get some sewing time over the weekend.  It's Spring time here and I'm going to watch my son play cricket tomorrow.

It's a Capital Day

I forgot to show you the mini quilt I made with my friend Anne for the Capital Quilters exhibition back in August.

The President's Challenge was titled "It's a Capital Day" and we had to make a mini quilt that represented our view of a "Capital Day".  Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand, even though it's not as big as Auckland.

It does hang straight and lie flat - it's the velcro making it crooked in this photo.

Anne and I decided that we would recreate the view in the school hall when our guild does our show and tell.  That is our idea of a "Capital Day".

We each made some tiny mini quilts and then we hung them on a clothes line with tiny wooden pegs. Yes, I English Paper Pieced those tiny hexagons and then hand quilted it.  It was so cute!

Anne quilted the background, and I had the job of stitching the lettering at the top.

The red bear paw block is on our guild's logo so it had special significance.

Here's what the hall looks like when we have our guild meeting. See where we got our inspiration from!

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.

Bon Bon table runner

I've finished my Bon Bon table runner and I'm very happy with it.

The colours in the Alison Glass fabrics work really well with my dining room chairs.

The three feature Bon Bon blocks are hand pieced, using acrylic templates purchased from Jen Kingwell's shop, Amitie Textiles.  You can read my earlier WIP post here for more details.

I wanted the table runner to fit nicely on the bookcase in the dining room, so I padded it out with some filler blocks.

I also wanted it to be quite flat so we could stand things on it, so I machine quilted it with a curved ribbon design from Jacquie Gering's book, Walk.  It's a great book to have on hand when you're wondering how to quilt something with your walking foot.

I used Aurifil 50wt in a mustard colour.

So, I got to use the Bon Bon templates, and I have something useful for my home. Win, win!

What's everyone else up to this weekend?

Zebra

This is my second entry in this year's Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side.  It's my Zebra wall quilt, made from a pattern by TartanKiwi (Juliet).

Juliet ran a class for our guild and I started my zebra there.  It's quite tricky foundation paper piecing a design like this, but I was very happy with my finished piece.

I had my Zebra machine quilted by a friend.  I just didn't think hand quilting would suit this design, and my machine quilting isn't up to this standard.

You can read more about how I made this quilt here. 

The finished quilt is just 20" x 20".  The pattern is available for purchase and download here, but Juliet also has other sizes available in her Etsy and Payhip stores.  She even has a book out now called Animal Quilts.

My first entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival for 2018 is Home and Away and you can see it here.

Amy Ellis from Amy's Creative Side has been hosting the Bloggers' Quilt Festival for many years.  I've been entering since 2014 because I love joining with other quilters to show what we can make with fabric and thread.

This year is different - you don't need to visit all the categories, and you don't need to vote for winners.  The prizes will distributed randomly across everyone who enters.

I encourage you to pop over to Amy's blog and see all the quilts on display.  Once you visit a quilt there is a check mark that appears on the photo, to help you keep track of where you’ve been. The linky software Amy uses keeps track of your IP address, so if you switch devices you won’t have the same check marks.

Home and Away quilt

It's September so it's time for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival with Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side.   My first entry is my Home  and Away quilt.  Wendy Williams from Sydney, Australia designed this pattern and I made it as part of a Block of the Month programme from Material Obsession in Sydney.  It's wool felt applique so I sewed all those felt shapes on by hand, and then joined the sections up.

I had this quilt quilted on a long arm machine because I couldn't imagine hand quilting around all those shapes.  I love how Sue B from Busy Bee Quilt Shop managed to avoid all the felt pieces when she was quilting it for me.

Here it is on the spare bed.  That wall quilt above the bed is designed by Wendy Williams too! I love her bright colourful designs.

You can read more about Home and Away on this post.  If you want to buy the pattern you can get it from Material Obsession here.   A word of warning though, this quilt took me almost two years to make.  There's a huge amount of cutting and stitching, but all the good things in life take time.

My second entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival is my Zebra and you can read about it here.

Amy Ellis from Amy's Creative Side has been hosting the Bloggers' Quilt Festival for many years.  I've been entering since 2014 because I love joining with other quilters to show what we can make with fabric and thread.

This year is different - you don't need to visit all the categories, and you don't need to vote for winners.  The prizes will distributed randomly across everyone who enters.

I encourage you to pop over to Amy's blog and see all the quilts on display.  Once you visit a quilt there is a check mark that appears on the photo, to help you keep track of where you’ve been. The linky software Amy uses keeps track of your IP address, so if you switch devices you won’t have the same check marks.

Halloween bookmark

Last week I started something new.  It's a mystery Halloween bookmark from the Victoria Sampler Chat Group on Facebook. 

Thea Dueck (owner of The Victoria Sampler) is going to release the pattern over four weeks and we can stitch along as each section gets released.

There are no recommended linens or threads, so everyone's bookmarks will be quite different.

I chose some mauve linen that I had left over from my Sardinian knotwork piece (pattern by Yvette Stanton). 

I'm using some of the threads left over from my Haunted House - also by The Victoria Sampler.

Which of course reminds me that I still have finished my Gingerbread Needlework Shop yet. I only have two more side to make now, so I still intend to have it ready for Christmas 2018.

And then I'll be able to start the Gingerbread Retreat Cottage which I have here waiting for me:

If you'd like to know more about my Gingerbread Village you can click on the tab at the top of this page - Gingerbread Village.

And of course my Christmas Village is still in the "To Do" box too!

 I need more time!!!!

An online friend in Canada had a destash sale this week, and I was tempted to buy a Chatelaine pattern and threads, but I resisted the temptation.  I'm quite proud of myself.  I was realistic and thought "when would I ever get to do this?".

I hope you've got something fun to work on over the weekend.