Several finishes, knitting, beach trips and more

Hi friends, lots of stitching and putting the final touches on previous stitching finishes has been happening lately. The craft sales event I'm donating some items to is now only a few weeks away. I gave myself a deadline to have everything finished by the first Friday in November.  Whew, I made it! Now I can get back into some of my own stitching projects and finish a few gifts.

These ornaments were fun to stitch and make up.

Lori Holt - Vintage Christmas sampler, a selection of the little squares. 

Little House Needleworks - Gingerbread Cookie, one of my all time favourite ornament designs, which I think I've stitched about four times now.

Lori Holt - Vintage Christmas sampler, a section of the design.

Stitching with the Housewives - Santa's Pals

Finished earlier this year, the 2024 Christmas Stitch along by the Tiny Modernist

Stitching with the Housewives - Claus Christmas, stitched in late 2024

Cottage Garden Samplings - Christmas Parade, stitched in 2024

I also knitted up some booties over a couple of nights. Pattern can be found here

We did make it out to Porangahau Beach late last month for four days.  The weather had been terrible all week, and there had been wind warnings too.  It was pretty much windy the entire time we were there but we still had a good couple of days with our friends and enjoyed the break.

Last week we decided to go out to the beach after work on Friday afternoon, this time we went to Pourerere Beach.  The weather was the complete opposite to our previous trip - sunny and hot, just perfect. 

It was a very relaxing weekend, I read one book, read half of another, and watched a couple of movies. 

Glenn was happy with his fishing efforts, and Hannah and her friend enjoyed several swims in the sea and going boogie boarding.

This past week has seen the first of the roses in my garden bloom - I always like to see which one is first. This year it was "Courage", the rose given to us by friends when Glenn's dad passed away earlier in the year.

The gorgeous smelling Freesia was next, 

When we got home on Sunday,  the stunning Blackberry Nip was out too, just divine.

This coming weekend, Glenn and I are heading to Auckland with my brother in law and sister in law for a concert.  There might just be some time to start some Christmas shopping!

See you soon x

All sorts

It's been a few weeks since my last post - the weeks seem to be rolling on by so quickly, and it's now only a week until the end of October, crazy! I thought I'd do a little round up of what has been happening around here, including some more finishing and a new start.

Hannah and I have both been unwell over the past fortnight, nasty viral infections, and both of us ended up with ear infections too, I've never had one before, not very pleasant. Spent a small fortune on doctor appointments and medications lately!

Remember how we lost half of one of our big trees in the high winds a few weeks back? Well, this led to all the trees along this fence line being chopped down.  Glenn decided to redo the fence, his brother Paul gave him a hand to replace all the iron and the fence posts.  Last weekend we replaced all the topsoil, and then replanted this garden with new hedging plants, Grisilinia geckos, which will eventually grow to about to about the height of the fence. Lots of work but hopefully from now it will be easy maintenance of this garden.

I'm slowly getting through the finishing pile, all of these designs were stitched earlier this year.

Cottontail and Company by Scattered Seeds Samplers:

Peace & Goodwill by Brenda Gervais:

Spring Fling by Brenda Gervias:

All is Calm by October House Fibre Arts:

Next up is a bunch of little kits from the Ribbon Rose in Auckland that arrived recently, which to stitch first? I also got some thread snips, they are so handy to have by the sewing machine.

A friend gave me this beaded fob she made for me, so cute!

I couldn't resist purchasing Lori Holt's new chart last week, Garden of Quilts, and I have made small start.

This is the lovely stitching folio my friend Clare gave me last year for my birthday. 

Pretty threads, all Classic Colourworks

The fabric I'm using is Weeks Dye Works 36 count Rhyolite linen.

I'm looking forward the 2025 Jingle Ball in early December, and this year I have purchased two of the classes, yay, PDF charts, as kits are not available to overseas stitchers. The good thing is if your class pieces are not stitched in time for the finishing classes over the weekend, you have 30 days to view the class, and each class also comes with instructions. I still haven't finished my 2024 classes yet, lol. 

This coming weekend we get a four day break thanks to two public holidays, Hawkes Bay anniversary tomorrow, and then Labour Day on Monday. We're heading out in the campervan for our first trip of the season to Porangahau Beach.  Friends will also be there with their campervans so it should be a fun weekend catching up with everyone, fishing and lots of walks along the beach with Diesel.  The forecast for later today and this evening isn't very good, but hopefully from tomorrow on the sun will be out.

See you soon x

Wrapping Up September

Hello friends, we're in the last few days of September already! We've just had a great weekend weather wise, it was quite warm yesterday.  Glenn and I have been super productive outside and over the past two weekends, we were able to get some trees cut down and cleared away, eight huge loads of green waste taken to our local dumping station. Wow, I was so tired and worn out at the end of the day! Some other outside jobs have also been ticked off the list - vegetable gardens prepped for seedlings to be planted, the greenhouse tidied up, outside house windows washed, gardens weeded, lawns mown and edges clipped - lots of work but it felt good to be out in the sunshine.  

This coming weekend, we are going to start getting our campervan ready for the coming summer months (cleaned, cupboards filled with non perishable food, linen aired out, etc) as we are so keen to head out on our first trip to one of the local beaches.  Mid to late October is when we usually go on our first trip but if the weather is good, it will be earlier.   We're also in the process of organising a summer roadie trip in the Christmas holidays, to a part of New Zealand we've not been to before so that's exciting.  

More finishing has been happening, and I'm really pleased how the next piece turned out - my first time at trying a stand-up finish.  This is the French Country Santa, Pere Noel, by JBW Designs.

A little freebie by Hands on Designs, which was from the 2024 Jingle Ball. 

Love and Joy by Heartstring Samplery

Bids that Sing by Michelle, from MommalovesyouGB

Another freebie by Hands on Design, also from the 2024 Jingle ball.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it but all the Christmas stitching I've been doing this year, it either for gifts for my family or to be donated to a craft sales event in late November.  

A lovely bundle of fabric came in the mail recently, this is some of the new Tilda fabric from the Merry Little Christmas range, so pretty.  Not sure what my plans are for it yet.

I decided to purchase a Kindle recently, previously I've used the Kindle app on my phone. This will be so handy over the summer months when we're out and about in the campervan.  

Over the past few months I've read more books than any other previous winter - you should have seen my library pile last month!  I'm on Goodreads here if you want to check out what I've been reading lately. 

See you soon x

More ornament finishing and other stuff

Hello friends, I hope the week is going well for you.  We've had some high winds here over the past week, so gusty, a very big branch came down in our back garden yesterday morning and landed on the fence by the vegetable garden. Oh no, we'll have to replace a small part of it as there's now a rather large dent it it! We've decided now to remove some of the trees along that fence side and replant some smaller shrubs or hedging. Another job to add to the list, ha ha.

Last Sunday it was a miserable day here so I spent the afternoon at my sewing machine and worked on some more items from my finishing pile.

This is Cookie Klaus by Notforgotten Farm - stitched on 32 count cream linen and I changed the red thread to Gentle Art sampler thread, Holly Berry (I think!)

Little Nick by Notforgotten Farm,  same details as above

Christmas Magic by Primrose Cottage Stitches, stitched on 32 count natural linen using DMC threads

Christmas Fawn by Satsuma Street

Jim Shore's 2024 Santa Christmas Santa and Cardinal Birdhouse by Mill Hill

I have been following Anna from Justamum for many years on her blog and Instagram. How exciting that her first cookbook has just been released, and contains some fabulous recipes. 

I made the apple and walnut loaf for this week's lunchboxes and it is delicious. 

I always love to try Whittaker's new releases and picked up these two from the supermarket recently - the strawberry would be my favourite.

Hannah has a couple of days left of the school term, then two weeks holiday break, and once she goes back for the last term of the year, she'll only be at school for a few weeks before study leave starts for end of the year exams. She's recently decided on her subjects for next year, her final year at high school, and will be returning to study one day a week at the local polytechnic. She has thoroughly enjoyed her studies there this year, and it's looking like she'll head there in 2027 for full time study in her chosen course.  Exciting times ahead.  

See you soon x

Finally some finishing

After work last Friday afternoon, I set up my sewing machine, got out some supplies, and spent quite a bit of time over the next few days finishing off a whole pile of stitched items. That's in between catching up with friends, going to the local spring market, dropping Hannah off to the dance studio a few times, having dinner with my parents, niece and brother, doing the usual housework jobs, and keeping the dog entertained as he was missing Glenn!

Jingle all the Way by Crafty Bluebonnet Designs

Wee Santa 2024 by Heart in Hand

A Little Bit of Joy by Hands on Designs

A Whole lot of Joy by Hands on Designs

Several Stitching with the Housewives ornaments 

Joyful Christmas ornaments 2024 by Stitches by Ethel

I've been wanting to make one of these project bags ever since Elizabeth put up her tutorial on her You Tube. This was a fun make, quilting the fabric first.  I used some pretty Lynette Anderson fabric on the outside and inside, with a pink glittery fabric for the binding  - just love it.  I'll definitely be making more in this style. My new project bag is already filled with a special project.

Lastly for today, our gorgeous ballerina, so proud of all the work Hannah has put into her ballet this year.  

See you soon x