Gingerbread Needlework Shop

Great news! I've finished my Gingerbread Needlework Shop before Christmas. It's my latest addition to my Gingerbread Village designed by Thea Dueck of The Victoria Sampler in Canada.

I finished the stitching on Monday night, and spent most of Tuesday assembling the shop.  I knew assembly would take time, but I was surprised that it took about 8 hours to get it all finished.  It was well worth it though to get a beautiful new addition to my Gingerbread Village.

The assembly involved a lot of measuring, pinning and gluing. The walls all need to be symmetrical so the building stands nice and straight.

The pieces need to be laced together with Perle 8 after they have been glued. 

I always like to put my name and the date on the bottom of the buildings.  I've devised a little logo that I repeat each time.

The inside is a bit messy, but you're never going to see it because I sewed my box shut.

I have modified the pattern and made a closed box rather than a storage box.  I didn't want to have to line the interior like we did for the Gingerbread House.

I sewed another panel for the ceiling so the building would retain it's shape when I put it away after Christmas.  I didn't want the walls to warp.

After the ceiling was on, I sewed the roof on. I love the crispness of the white snow on the blue roof.

 And it's finished!  Now it can join the other buildings in my Gingerbread Village on my book case.   That's the Gingerbread Quilt Shop on the right in the photo below, with a couple of Lego mini figures skiing on the roof apparently!

You can read more about my Gingerbread Village on the tab just under my header photo, or you can click here.  That page has links to each of the buildings I've made to date. There are two more in the series that I haven't made yet - The Retreat Cottage and the Flower Shop.  I have the Retreat Cottage pattern already, and the Flower Shop pattern is wrapped up under the Christmas Tree.  I can't wait to start them now!

I need to take a new group photo now including the Needlework Shop.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Good Fortune - Part 4

The weeks are flying by in this Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.  We've just had week 4 and I think we've used all the colours now.

I enjoyed using my orange and yellows this week.  I decided to go very scrappy, and used up some of those fabrics that I never know how to classify.  Are they orange? Do the other colours stand out too much? Never, mind, I threw them all into the mix this time.

My little collection of pieced blocks is looking good. I'm keen to find out how these pieces will all fit together eventually.

I'm linking up to Bonnie's Part 4 post here where you can see everyone else's progress too.

Peacock Party and my Gingerbread Needlework Shop

Hello, and welcome to the second edition of the Peacock Party.  Thank you to everyone who linked up last week.  I know it was a little tricky for some, so I hope this week is easier.

I've been busy with work this week, so I haven't had much time for sewing.  I am desperately trying to finish one more building for my Gingerbread Village.  I had accepted that it wasn't going to get finished in time for Christmas 2018, but then someone said they had faith in me to get it done, so I decided to give it a good try.

I've modified the pattern for the Gingerbread Needlework Shop slightly, and I think that's why I was stalling on it.  It's always easier to stitch to the pattern than to try and make changes.  However, I was reluctant to make the roof removable because that requires a high degree of finishing on the inside.  So, I've made the walls higher and moved the signage onto the walls.

If you'd like to read more about my Gingerbread Village you can find all of my posts under the Gingerbread Village tab at the top of my blog.  They are all beautifully designed by Thea Dueck who owns the Victoria Sampler in Canada.

Now it's time for another Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up what you've been working on lately.

Good Fortune - Part 3

It's week 3 of Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune mystery quilt and we're making green chevrons.  I'm not as far along as I was on the previous two clues, but that's OK, because it's a very busy time of the year and I always knew I might not be able to keep up.   

This week we made chevrons (and some bonus HSTs from the off cuts).  I'm certainly learning some new tips and tricks from Bonnie's instructions.  She has provided instructions for multiple ways to make each of the clues released to date.  I like that! We can each choose the method that works for us, but also learn that there are different ways to get the same result.

I do admire the people who have changed up the colours, but my brain just can't cope with that at this time of the year.  I don't want to see Bonnie using red and have to remember that I'm doing green for those sections, and when I see her using green, remember I'm doing blue there.  Maybe in the future, but not this time thank you.

I see all the snow at Bonnie's cabin, and am very grateful that we're going into summer in New Zealand.  Here are some beautiful hydrangeas I've seen in my neighbourhood this week.

and some fairy roses too:

I'm linking up to Bonnie's linky party here where you can see all the chevrons other people have made.

Introducing the Peacock Party

On 16 December it will be exactly five years since I started blogging. Since then I've published 366 blog posts - an average of 1.4 per week - and gained many loyal friends and followers.  What started out as an online diary and way to share with family and friends, has now become a means to connect with quilters all over the world.  Thank you everyone who has taken the time to read my posts!

My largest single source of blog visitors has been from Crazy Mom Quilts blog, via her finish it up Friday link party. However, this Friday is going to be the last ever link party at Crazy Mom Quilts because Amanda Jean is closing her quilting business, and won't be blogging anymore.  It certainly will be the end of an era and I thank Amanda Jean for hosting the link up for so many years.

I know a lot of people will miss the Crazy Mom Quilts link party, so I've decided to dip my toes in the water and start a link party myself.  Fellow bloggers can link up to my brand new Peacock Party each weekend and share what they've been up to.

Why the name "Peacock Party" you ask? Well, a number of my friends call me Mrs Peacock because I love of the rich jewel tones found in peacock feathers.  I'm not especially fond of the birds themselves, but I do love the beautiful colours in their feathers. And a link up party is a way to show off our accomplishments to anyway who is prepared to look - much like a peacock does when they fan their tails!

The Ehrman tapestry I stitched called Peacock at Sunset

I'm going to keep the Peacock Party quite simple, because some days we have more time for reading blogs than other days, so:
- I'm not going to tell you that you need to visit and comment on other linked up posts
- I'm not going to demand that you mention my blog in your blog post
- I'm not even going to commit to visiting and commenting on every post myself!
- I'm not going to try and sell you anything because I don't have anything to sell

But I am going to provide a place where fellow bloggers can meet and share what they've been making.  Does that sound like a good idea?

The first Peacock Party starts now!  I intend to run one each weekend - starting on Friday PST / Saturday NZ time.  I do hope you will join me.





https://fresh.inlinkz.com/p/f1ea5e59cc534885a0232729b26a0c79

Good Fortune - Part 2

It's the second week of Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune mystery quilt.

This week we made blue and white half square triangles.

Blue is probably my favourite colour, so I had a lots of blues in my stash to chose from.

After seeing all that red dye last week, I decided to prewash the blues too.

I also had a number of low volume prints with hints of blue on them, so I've used up some of them too.

I prefer to make my half square triangles (HST) by cutting squares 1" bigger than the finished size of the block.  I then mark a diagonal line with a ruler, and sew 1/4" either side of it.  I cut down the line and then press the two halves open.  I use my Bloc loc ruler and my rotating cutting board to trim up my HSTs.

Bonnie suggested a couple of methods in her blog post for making HSTs, but I'm comfortable with the method I've been using for some years now.

I'm linking up with Bonnie Hunter's linky party here.  You can see everyone else's progress if you take a look at Bonnie's post on her Quiltville blog.

Cartwheel quilt

Yes, I've started something new.  It's a crazy pattern from Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Grandeur book called "Cartwheel".

The rainbow ric rac is from Spotlight in New Zealand, but I believe you can buy it at Joann's in USA. 

There's so much going on in this quilt, and to top it all off, it's got ric rac!

I've admired the pattern since I first got the book, and when my good friend Anne was destashing some of her Kaffe Fassett fabrics, I spied the background fabric called Parasols in her box.

So Anne kindly sold me the fabric, and I started to pull together all my spotty fabrics from my various storage places.

The fan pieces are foundation paper pieced and I soon worked out that I could use very small scraps in some of the sections.

I've finished all my fans now, so next I have to cut the background fabric into large squares.  Then I get to place the fans and add the ric rac.  Yay!!!

This could be something fun to work on over the Christmas holidays.