Wise Men by Lizzie Kate

I'd been wanting to stitch this cute Lizzie Kate design for ages so I added it to my Jolly July stitching plans.

I used the recommended threads and the fabric is a lambswool linen.

Finished into a flat mounted ornament (well, it's probably too large to be called an ornament!) using hand dyed ric rac and for the backing, some of the fabric I purchased from the lovely Dellbrook Quilt shop a few weeks ago.

See you soon x

Knit August Nights

On Sunday morning, with a couple of friends, we headed up to East Pier at Ahuriri, Napier, for the annual Knit August Nights (KAN) market. The retreat actually runs for a couple of days for registered attendees but the Sunday market is open to the public. 

I'd been so looking forward to going along, and once again, it didn't disappoint, I was in knitters heaven!!  It was a lovely day in Napier too - the venue for KAN couldn't be more perfect, right beside the sea.

We found the market very busy this year, KAN was celebrating 10 years, and there were people jammed packed into the whole place. As always, the yarns, accessories, etc were amazing, so much to see!

There were several new stall holders this year and all my favourite NZ dyers and knitwear designers back again to see and have chats with.

So this was my haul!!

Some pretty dishcloth cotton and a pencil from Holland Road Yarn Company:

Sweet Sweet Manuka, a merino by Prosper Yarn from Loopine Wool Co

These fun faux fur pom poms were from Nana Cindy NZ

Some 2019 souvenirs, including this fab calendar supporting the Yarny Army, a group of Hawkes Bay knitters providing warm knitted garments for those that need them :

Gorgeous yarn from Catrien of Yarnflozzy

A new pattern from Libby of Truly Myrtle Designs

And lastly, I was so pleased to see Union Fibre's stall so added these two squishy skeins to my shopping.

We could have spent hours browsing around, and spending a lot more too!  I'll have to start a KAN 2020 saving fund as I'd really like to attend the whole weekend next year.  It's well worth a visit if you get the chance.

See you soon xx

Merry & Bright

Here's another finish from a few days ago:

Merry & Bright by County Cottage Needleworks, stitched with mostly the recommended threads, 32 count vintage mocha belfast linen.

This was one of my first Stitch maynia 2019 starts so I'm pleased to have it finished.  I just the colours on this design.

See you soon xx

Birds & the Bees

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been trying to get a few of my Stitchmaynia 2019 starts completed this month.  

This lovely design by Heart in Hand Needlearts was finished the other day:

I used the recommended threads and 32 count vintage mocha Belfast linen. I'm not sure how I'll finish this one yet so will pop in the "to finish" box for now.

See you soon xx

Blackbird Designs Wips & a new kit

This month I've been trying to get a bit of stitching done on some of my Stitchmaynia & Jolly July starts and I have actually finished several of these so I'll share some pics soon. I have a bit of "finishing" in my future!  

I've also pulled out a couple of wips to stitch on including two of my Blackbird Designs projects:

Merrily Merrily We Welcome Spring - I'm using the recommended threads and fabric, 36 count Oaken linen by Picture this Plus.

Hear the Crickets Sing - also using the recommended threads and fabric, 36 count Ale by Picture this Plus

I'm also hoping to make a start on this gorgeous little kit, which was the last kit in the Silver Needle's Friends Stitching Circle Club.

These pretty handmade pins were the extra gift that came with the kit.

Some fun stitching to work on!

Also, just a mention, that it's now only a week away to the annual Knit August Nights, a Yarn & Stitch Retreat, which is held in Napier.  My friends and I just love going to the public Yarn Market, this year its on Sunday 25th August, at East Pier, Ahuriri. I'm so looking forward to seeing all the wonderful yarn and accessories for sale, I believe there's going to be over 25 stall holders from around New Zealand, including several New Zealand knitwear designers with their patterns and samples. Some of the traders I like to check out include Bleating Art Yarns, Yarnfloozy, Vintage Purls, and Truly Myrtle, and many more lovely goodies.

See you soon xx

This & That

Nearly half way through August means that Spring is now just around the corner. Although we've had some cold days, our winter here in my part of the world actually hasn't been too wet and miserable like previous years. We've had lots of winter sunshine, which is why I think a lot of the spring bulbs in the garden have been out for a few weeks already. I look forward to the freesias and irises popping up, some of my favourite flowers.

Last week, whilst in Hastings for a work job, my coworkers and I found time to stop by our favourite fabric shop, Dellbrook Quilt Company. It's been quite some time since my last visit so I did a good stock up of some lovely fabrics. I just love visiting this shop, I easily spend hours browsing all the gorgeous fabrics and sewing accessories.

There was a stop by Spotlight too - for a few more bits and bobs!

We are lucky to have an abundance of lemons and oranges at the moment, our orange tree is absolutely loaded this year.  I've been wanting to try a microwave lemon butter recipe for ages and found this one very easy to make. Yum!

I also used this recipe to make one of our favourite cakes, Orange Lightening cake. You put a whole orange in the food processor and blitz it, it smells divine!

I started a new shawl project during knitting group earlier in the week, the Pebble Beach Shawl by Curious Handmade.  This gorgeous yarn is Smashed Gemstones by Catrien of Yarnfloozy.

I also finally finished this little handmade Ouch Pouch too, I'd started it ages ago.  This will go into the gift box for a friend.

See you soon xx

A project bag for a project bag!

While browsing Pinterest recently, I went down a "rabbit hole" of vinyl project bags, ha ha, and came across a You Tube video for a  different clear vinyl project bag by Lorrie Nunemaker and here is the result!

I will be popping this away into my gift box for a friend later in the year but for now so you can see the size of the bag, I'm storing a new cross stitch project in there.

I've had this lovely pattern ever since it first came out several years ago, it's a collaboration between Hands on Design and SewMuch2Luv.  I was recently reminded of it when I watched the Fat Quarter Shop's weekly Floss tube video. Kimberly had stitched the design, using her own thread colours, and made a project bag.  You can see it in this video.

I've planned a red and black project bag so I'm using DMC 321, 414 and B5200 for the thread colours, and my fabric is a piece of Lugana that I had in my stash forever - it's a light blue and grey colour.

A fun stitch so far! See you soon xx

#Santasundayxs

The last few Sundays I have been stitching on Merry & Bright by Country Cottage Needleworks:

I'm using a mixture of the recommended threads and DMCs, and my fabric is 32 count vintage mocha Belfast linen. 

#santasundayxs is a stitch along on Instagram if you would like to join in on the fun!

See you soon x

Cosy Stripes

This week I've been enjoying a bit of crochet on the Cosy Stripe blanket by Attic 24. I've been working on this for quite some time! I'm now up to row 32 of 90, each colour is a double "row". 

For this blanket I'm using the Stylecraft yarn pack I purchased from the Wool Warehouse in the UK. It was great value for money and the delivery time was just under a week here to New Zealand.
The yarn is so soft and squishy.

Have a lovely weekend friends! See you soon xx

July Books

Here's a wrap up of the books I read throughout July:

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert was my holiday read and I loved this book. Set in the 1940's, City of Girls is the story of Vivian, a college drop out, who is sent to live with her aunt in New York City and help with her struggling theatre. She is thrown into a world of show girls, dancers, musicians who lead riotous lives. But then a scandal derails her fun and sends her live into a spiral. Another book I couldn't put down. 

A Dream of Italy by Nicky Pellegrino, my favourite New Zealand author, is a delightful story about a set of strangers given the opportunity to buy a house in a small town in Italy for one euro. Of course, things are not straight forward, family secrets are revealed and there's an element of romance too.

The Button Box by Dilly Court was lent to me by my cousin Donna - she is an avid reader too and every time we catch up she has one or two books put aside for me.

Set in Victorian London, the Button Box is the story of Clara, her sisters and how she tries to better their lives. This is my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it.  I loved all the characters and twists and turns right to the end.

This week I've started reading Past Tense by Lee Child, #23 in the Jack Reacher series and I also have a book started on my Kindle, the Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Bedani, which I'm enjoying so far.

What have you been reading lately?

See you soon x

Prairie Schooler Santas

I have made two more little pillows for my Christmas basket. These are the 2016 and 2018 Prairie Schooler Santas.

I finished stitching the 2016 Santa way back at the start of the year and the 2018 Santa was a Jolly July finish.

I used the recommended threads for both, 2016 was stitched on 32 count natural belfast linen and 2018 on 32 count vintage mocha belfast linen. The twisted cord was made with DMC 221 thread.

And whoops, a friend on instagram asked about the snow man's twiggy arm - I completely missed it!

See you soon xx

Jolly July Wrap Up

The 1st of August has arrived and dare I say it, there almost feels like a touch of spring in the air and I've noticed it's already staying lighter for a bit longer in the evenings.

Today I thought I'd wrap up my stitching from throughout July. I participated in Jolly July, a stitch along organised by Kimberly from the Fat Quarter Shop, and Priscilla and Chelsea. They had this great idea to get a head start on their ornament stitching, picking 31 ornament starts for the month.

31 new starts would have sent me over the edge, especially since I already have quite a few wips left over from Stitch Maynia, so I found about 15 ornaments I wanted to work on and these were kitted ready to go for the 1st July.

Over the past few weeks, I finished five ornaments and have several more started. 

I also worked on two Stitch Maynia projects, Santa's List and Merry and Bright both by Country Cottage Needleworks.  I guess I'll have to have a "finishing" session some time soon.

Over the weekend I sorted through all my current wips and put together a list of what I'm going to stitch on during August. I've also got a list of some charts I'd really like to stitch and finish before the end of the year, a few gifts as well and the last of the Friends Stitching Circle club projects, a lovely little Blackbird Designs kit,  will be added in there too. 

See you soon x