Latest Crafty Happenings

Hello friends, how quickly the days seem to be going at the moment. It almost feels like spring is in the air, but late August/September can get very chilly and cold. I have noticed that the mornings are getting lighter now too, when Glenn leaves for work around 7am it was pitch dark a week or so ago but this week it's now light. 

So what's been on the go here over the past few weeks?

I finished the red work embroidery ornaments that my friend stitched - these are to be donated to a craft sales event later in the year. 

I also pulled out  my "Merry Christmas" banner red work project to work on over a couple of evenings, I hadn't stitched on this for absolutely ages.

Some lovely new fabrics arrived from Stitchbird in Wellington.  I purchased some of the new French General Sacre Bleu fabric range, and also some wool felt, for when I'm ready to make up Stacy Nash's Gingerbread House needlebook, which I've been stitching on recently. 

I added a new goodie to my sewing toolkit—a By Annie Stiletto & Pressing Tool from my local sewing shop. I can already tell this is going to be incredibly useful!

A lovely parcel also arrived from Rainbow Stash, I finally ordered some fabrics so I can made up the Lori Holt bags panel that I bought a few months ago, as well as some new charms and a vinyl bag - so cute!

I pulled out my knitting bag for the first time this year, as a friend has asked me to do some knitting for a grandchild coming in the new year.  This is the Bappity Jacket by Mariana Lazy Daisy, pattern can be found here. 

Stitching lately has included finishing some Stitching with the Housewives ornaments leftover from Jolly July, and also working on some older sampler projects, including Humming of the Bees by Blackbird Designs. I'll be back soon with some stitching pics but I'll finish here for today with a photo of these two cuties.

See you soon x

A finish, new stash, books and scissors

It's a beautiful autumn day here in NZ, and we've been enjoying some really nice weather lately. I love the weather at this time of the year, cooler mornings and evenings but gorgeous sunny days. Our daylight savings ended last weekend. Its also the start of the school holidays here, Hannah now has two weeks off school after finishing term 1. We have the Easter break coming up from Friday so we're all looking forward to some down time around home. We might head up to Napier over the break, for a day out, go somewhere nice for lunch perhaps. Other plans include more sorting in my craft room/office and Glenn has been building a new rose planter box as we were gifted a rose from some friends, Compassion, so he'll try and get it finished.

Another work in progress ticked off the list, Green Coat Santa, which I finished over the weekend. Stitched with recommended threads and 32 count natural Belfast linen.

Lovely mail received recently from Helen, That Crafty Kiwi :

I've ordered some linen from Helen for this chart

New Cohana scissors, all the way from Japan. I couldn't resist when I saw these being advertised 

Oh Joyous Day came out of my stitching basket for my sampler choice last week and I spent a few evenings working on this lovely design. 

Some new books bought with some birthday money. A new cook book by Vanya Insull, VJ Cooks, a NZ food blogger, and this is her third book. I just love her recipes, so easy and most of the recipes use pantry staples. 

a new Hunger Games novel, and the latest in a series by local Hawke Bay writers Gareth and Louise Ward. They own a bookshop in Havelock North, which is not far from where I live.

Have a fab week friends, see you soon x

A Festive Catch Up & new Goodies

Earlier in the month I met up with my dear stitching friends for our annual day of festive fun and to celebrate the December ladies' birthdays. We had such a lovely day together - so many laughs, show and tell, planning projects and ideas for 2025, birthday treats, a delicious lunch and dessert, and a secret Santa exchange.

Clare brought along three of her buntings and hangings.

This one is by Heartstring Samplery:

Annie Beez Folk Arts 12 Days of Christmas stockings - this in my 2025 stitching plans.

Merry Christmas Bunting by Rosalie Quinlan Designs.

The ladies, very seriously stitching away at times!

Chocolate brownie made by Kath, so yum!

I received some very sweet gifts :

From Val, 

From my secret Santa (Sonia) 

I just love this portfolio she made - gorgeous fabrics!

From Wendy:

From Kath :

From Lisa:

I'm so grateful to have these cherished friends in my life. We missed seeing our dear friends Lisa and Nicki this time but will catch up with them both in the new year. Looking forward to our catch ups in 2025 already xx

A small parcel arrived recently from 123 Stitch, its been some time since my last stash delivery lol.

Peace on Earth will be started once I source all the threads and suitable fabric.

Red linen for some Hands on Designs charts.

Note of Love, Hannah Rome, will be a holiday start.

Fabric to get 12 Days of Christmas stockings underway in January

Couldn't resist one of the mini plaid bags,  and the girls and I are planning to stitch on these next year.

I'll be back tomorrow with my final post of the year.  

See you soon xx

Long time between posts

It's been quite a few weeks since my last post and the weeks are rolling by so quickly, can't get my head around the fact that it is December this Sunday, the first official day of summer here, and now only three weeks until my summer holidays start.  As of this evening, after prizegiving, Hannah will be finished high school for the year. She recently sat her Level 1 exams, and this coming Saturday morning has her annual end of the year dance show, which I always love going to. 

The last few weeks have been filled with a few trips away, celebrations and as always, lots of stitching.

I'm looking forward the 2024 Jingle Ball getting underway from the 7th December and this year I purchased three of the classes, yay, PDF charts, as kits are not available to overseas stitchers. I don't think I'll have the stitched pieces ready for the finishing classes over the weekend but each class does come with instructions, which I'll use when I'm ready to finish the stitching.

One of the classes is Hashtag Joy by Cathy from Hands on Designs, which I got underway recently.

One of my friends made me a new project bag recently from this cute fabric I'd bought from my local sewing shop.

Another friend had made these lovely strawberry fobs so I was able to get one for my little scissors.

My sewing machine has been getting bit of work out lately as I'm getting all my gift stitching made up. Primrose Cottage Stitches featured a tutorial for these easy thread catchers a few months ago so I decided to make up a few to add to friends pressies. You can find the video here.

In other stitching news, I had a small parcel arrive with two of the new Brenda Gervais charts, these will be my December projects, and a fat quarter of Picture this Plus Legacy Linen. I'm excited too because a recent order from 123 Stitch should be delivered any day with some fabrics, accessories and a chart I've been wishing for ages, I'll share this next time.

Glenn and I had another trip to Auckland recently, this time for the Pearl Jam concert, which was awesome!

The start of Christmas shopping

We took the ferry across Auckland Harbour one morning and had a stroll around Devonport, before enjoying coffee and cake at one of the cafes there.

Unexpectedly, due a cancelled flight, we had an additional night in Auckland, so we were able to catch up with some friends for dinner, one of whom we hadn't seen in few years.

Going back to where I left off in my last post, we were heading out to the beach for the first trip of the season in our campervan. We had to change locations due to the many other campervans all ready parked up but found a great spot at another of our local beaches, Porangahau.  

We had a wonderful few days, the weather was hot and sunny, and really enjoyed the break. Fishing, lots of beach walks, good food and company with our friends. 

I had to share this photo of myself and a dear family friend, Alison. Many years ago, when I was in my last year of university, I boarded with Alison, her husband Cliff and their two young children.  

I love my time staying with them, no stress, just a warm home, family meals and always, a ride to an from uni when I needed one, or missed the bus! Alison's Mum is a good friend of my Mum's so a short time ago, we met for lunch with some other friends. It was a wonderful catch up as it had been several years since we'd last seen each other. 

Each year I like to see which of our roses flowers first, and for the third year in a row, it was the divine smelling Friesia rose. 

This is Courage, gifted to us by friends when Glenn's Mum passed away. 

My number one favourite, Blackberry Nip.

Earlier this week, I headed along to see Wicked at our local movie theatre, and absolutely loved it. I think I'll go again during the holidays!

Finally for today, a very special occasion at my work a few weeks back, we celebrated our 30th anniversary of our disability service. It was a lovely afternoon attended by our mayor, deputy mayor and other invited guests.  This beautiful cake tasted delicious and was enjoyed by everyone.

See you soon xx