What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I'm busy finishing three new quilts for our Capital Quilters exhibition in May. Plus I want to enter at least one of the challenges.  So I'm quilting every day but I can't show you any of that just yet. 

However, in the evenings when I collapse into my chair I pick up my cross stitch and I've made good progress on Shades of Indigo by Nicole of Northern Expressions Needlework. 

There's just one more border to go now.

Of course mine isn't stitched with indigo threads.  I've chosen my favourite greens and blues ...

You probably thought you'd never see this day, but my Pandemic Sampler is fully finished and ready for framing!!

My initials were an issue because "W"s are wide and I had to figure out how to ...

The Peppermint Purple 2023 stitch along finished on Wednesday and I can now show you what I've been working on all year.  

I love how the outside border is the inverse of the inside border - clever.

Clare from Peppermint Purple has been running mystery stitch alongs for a few years now and she's really perfected the art of running a very well organised programme.  

She releases one little black work design each week and people stitch along at their own pace with their own fabric and thread choices.  It usually only takes about an hour to stitch that ...

I haven't managed to do any quilting since I've been back from my holiday, but I am making progress on my Shades of Indigo cross stitch. 

There's still one more wide border to go after I finish the one at the bottom of the photo above. 

Part of the problem for me is deciding which colour thread to use for each new border.  Once you deviate from the pattern you have to make all the decisions yourself!! And sometimes that requires stitching a bit to see how it's going to look on the fabric and against ...

How cute is this design!

The threads are just gorgeous because they are silks by Cottage Garden Threads and the colours are so vibrant.  

The linen is my first foray ...

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 ...

 I haven't done any quilting in January - instead I've been busy cross stitching.

The online Jingle Ball online event in December rekindled my interest in cross stitching, and seeing all the beautiful hand made Christmas decorations on Instagram definitely got me motivated to stitch more.  

Through the Jingle Ball I became aware of some different designers, so I've been stitching decorations designed by Hands On Design and Erica Michaels.  The one above is part of Christmas Countdown by Erica Michaels and it's going to be finished as a drum - something new for me!

These two below ...

Day 16 and it's my Celtic Snow cross stitch designed by Northern Expressions Needlework.

There's a few factors that make this piece sing:

Day 11 and it's my Gingerbread Bakery designed by Victoria Sampler.  

I wish I could churn out sweet Christmas treats like these busy ladies do!

Day 9 - A Treasured Time by Dimensions Gold Collection.

This scene is so different to Christmas in New Zealand.  We go to the beach at Christmas and have our summer holidays, but I've always loved these snowy Christmas scenes so I decided to stitch one for myself.  

Day 7 of my Christmas Countdown and it's time for another Gingerbread House.

This time it's my Gingerbread Church - the second building in the Victoria Sampler Gingerbread Village.  

I'll be featuring other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my ...

Day 5 of my Christmas Countdown.  

These cute ornaments were designed by Thea Dueck of Victoria Sampler.  I still remember downloading the patterns and then searching through mum's box of embroidery fabrics to find this perfect red fabric. I always get the urge to stitch something Christmassy on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  

They'll definitely be going on the tree when I get it ...

Day 4 and it's time for my first set of Mill Hill beaded ornaments.

I love stitching these little ornaments.  It's a tradition now for mum to give me a new kit for Christmas and for me to stitch it between Christmas and New Year while watching cricket on TV.  

The perforated paper can be a challenge at first, but once you get used to it, it's fine.  Just don't pull the thread too tightly and rip the paper!

I glue felt on the back to finish the ornaments nicely, and I like to make beaded ...

Yes, in case you missed Day 1 yesterday, I'm doing a Christmas Countdown and I'm going to show you a different handmade decoration each day of December until Christmas Day.  

Today it's my Gingerbread Stitching House.  

This was the first cottage that I made from the Gingerbread Village designed by Victoria Sampler.  I quickly became addicted to the Gingerbread Village and have now made almost all of the cottages.

I've made a lot of special Christmas decorations over the years, so this year I've decided to do a Christmas Countdown and show you a different handmade decoration each day of December until Christmas Day.  It will be like opening a virtual advent calendar.  

I'm going to publish my daily December posts at 8pm New Zealand Daylight Savings Time (like I normally do with my weekly blog posts). The beauty of blogging is that the posts will always be there to look back on.

First up - some little house ornaments to ...

This week I've been working on another Christmas tree decoration designed by Liz Matthews.  

It doesn't look very exciting in this photo, but I'm stitching it on white sparkly 32 count evenweave and I'm really pleased with it.  

I think it will look nice next to my first tree that I stitched back in January.  You can read about that one here.

Next Friday I'll be in Christchurch at my work conference.  I'm really looking forward to regaining some work life balance after the conference.  There's been too much work lately and not ...

This week I started to think about the #12in22ornamentstitchalong again.  And wondered how many ornaments I made before I fell off the wagon! I think it might have only been three - which is pretty poor really, but to regain that sense of achievement that I love, I pulled out my Juniper Santa who has been in my travel bag for a few months now.  

I really do enjoy stitching these decorations.  Everything is in the kit - even the needles, and they don't take long at all.  I think this one has only taken me a week, with other things ...

Yes, I met my goal and finished all of the stitching on my Pandemic sampler by Long Dog Samplers at Easter.  I still have to do the back stitch, and possibly squeeze my initials in somehow, but I've finished every page in the pattern.  

I don't think I'll do another large sampler for a very long time. It was interesting, and challenging, but there's a lot of other things I want to try too.  

I'm glad I opted for a ...

I know I said that I wouldn't join this band wagon, but the more that I looked at all the gorgeous displays of Prairie Schooler Santas, the more I started to weaken.  

Then a shop in New Zealand advertised the 2021 Santa pattern, and my fingers must have slipped because before I knew it, I'd purchased it.  

I haven't turned it into a FFO (finally finished object) yet, because I've fallen down another rabbit hole and need to source the right display basket first.  Yes, stitching the ornament is just a small part of this process ...

Yes! I'm 90% finished my Pandemic Sampler.  

There's only 2 more pages to go, and one of them is the page with the least number of stitches in the whole design, so it should be quite quick.  But then there's all the backstitching to do.  

I have to admit that finishing this one is hard work.  I'm itching to start other things, but if I don't finish this now, it could languish for years to come.  

It feels quite appropriate to be working on it now as the COVID pandemic has finally reached New Zealand ...