Spring has Sprung & Latest Crafty News

Here in New Zealand, spring has arrived. Earlier in the week, we had horrendous winds for a day causing quite a bit of damage around the district, and igniting several fires from recent rural burn offs. Our first responders and emergency service personnel had a crazy day, and they did an amazing job to deal with everything happening. The supermarket across the road from my work had some windows blow in, how scary!

In a few weekends time our daylight savings hours start and hopefully the temperatures will warm up. It's been an incredibly cold winter this year, we've been through so much firewood over the past few months.  But here's a cheery sign of spring, and I've noticed the neighbour's fruit trees all have blossom this week.  

September means #samplerseptember is underway, and this month I've chosen to start two new samplers.  First up, is Home on Quaker Lane by Brenda Gervais. I'm stitching this on 40 count Red Cedar linen by Cedar River Linens, and thread choice is DMC ecru.  

The other new start I'll have is Amazing Grace by Brenda Gervais.  I'm going to stitch this on 40 count Sandcastle linen by Fox and Rabbit. 

I made a new patchwork project bag recently using some Sacre Bleu French General fabrics I purchased last year.  

During a recent Friday after work finishing session, two Heart in Hand designs were fully finished:

The 2025 Collector's Heart

2025 Wee Santa, so cute!

I'm looking forward to stitching 2026's Santa, just love these every year. 

Spring time here in Central Hawkes Bay also means the start of the CHB Spring Fling, with various events being held during September and October. This Saturday is one of my favourite events, the Spring Market, where there will be lots of stalls, food trucks and entertainment. I hope the weather holds out for it as the forecast is not looking too good later in the week. My niece Zoe and her Dad Marcus, my younger brother, are visiting this coming weekend, as are my cousin Donna and her boyfriend Jess, so it should be a fun but full on weekend!

See you soon xx

Fully Finished x 3

It was my good friend Sonia's birthday recently and when I spotted some new Lynette Anderson fabrics in my local sewing shop I thought they'd be a perfect match for this Little House Needleworks stitched piece from several years ago.  I followed the project bag tutorial from Elizabeth Ann Can Stitch you tube, I've made several of these now. 

Accessorised with a silver heart and a macrame key fob, I was really happy with how it all came together. 

Next up from my finishing pile is Dear Santa by Teresa Kogut, I loved stitching this design.  This pattern was from the July Patreon club.

This Autumn pillow by Scarlett House was a kit from the Silver Needle's Stitching with my Friends club.

The linen, threads, and trim were included in the kit.

See you soon xx

My to do list

This new project bag came together just like I'd planned, lol.  My To Do List, is a lovely pattern by one of my all time favourite designers, Lizzie Kate, and I'm still sad Linda retired from designing patterns. 

I've had this stitched for a few months and when I was recently looking through some fabrics spotted these two fat quarters of fabric given to me last year by a friend.  Who can resist cute bunnies and owls. This fabric range is by Lynette Anderson.

I followed the easy tutorial by Liz from Elizabethanncanstitch on You Tube, which I've used several times before.

This now contains my latest stitching project, The Rabbit & Rose by Brenda Gervais, which I'm thoroughly enjoying stitching.  

Some other happy stitching news, a parcel of charts arrived yesterday from Art & Frame, here in New Zealand. That just made my day, containing some new designs by Jeanette Douglas, Erica Michaels and some of the new Blackbird Designs, it will be hard decision to pick out what to stitch first! 

Enjoy your weekend, see you soon xx

Eat Sleep Stitch Repeat

Back in January I stitched this sweet little design by Lori Holt.  Following a tutorial by Kimberley from the Fat Quarter Shop, I turned it into a little bag. 

You can find this tutorial on Fat Quarter Shop's Floss tube number 35 video.

This is going to be the perfect size for storing threads, etc, and a good idea to use some of your unfinished small cross stitch pieces.  

See you soon x

New Goodies & an early wake up

I had some lovely mail arrive at the end of last week, which was perfect timing after a very alarming start to the day. There were three earthquakes off the coast of New Zealand - the first one at 2.30 am, 7.1, was felt widely in the North Island and South Island. I thought I was dreaming at first, then realised the house was creaking and the rolling motion went on for ages. A few hours later between 7 am and 8 am there were two more earthquakes near the Kermadec Islands, 7.4 and 8.1! Land and Marine Tsunami warnings had been issued and many people in coastal NZ areas had to evacuate to higher ground.  We live about 30 minutes from the coast so were ok.  Thankfully, the alerts were lifted in the early afternoon and people could return home and to their work places. A timely reminder to have all the emergency supplies checked and ready, and a plan with family what to do in situations like this. 

In happier news, some fabric I'd ordered earlier in the week arrived, some of the Tilda Wonderland collection. I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it yet, it's so pretty.

 

Another parcel was a surprise all the way from Australia from a stitching friend. Vicki sent the loveliest project bag and accessories, all made from Tilda fabric too. 

I couldn't resist these from my local sewing shop last week. New in store, I think they will be just perfect for using on cross stitch pillows, etc, as trims. Such pretty colours too. They were $3.70 NZ each.  

See you soon x

Mistletoe Lane Project Bag

This design, Mistletoe Lane, was a mystery stitch along from the Fat Quarter Shop during Jolly July this year.  Each week the month of July, a piece of the chart was released until the whole design was revealed.  I love being able to participate in these stitch alongs, you just purchase the chart, and then print off when the pdf chart arrives in your inbox, so easy!

I used a piece of grey 32 count Lugana linen from my stash and the recommended DMC threads.

For the finishing, I followed Lisa from Kindred Stitcher's easy project bag tutorial on You Tube which you can watch here. I've made this style of project bag several times now and they are the perfect size for all your stitching necessities.

This project bag is already in use, it's filled with all the charts I've been buying from Priscilla and Chelsea's Etsy shop, Stitching with the Housewives. There's some real cute ones!

See you soon x

Two New Project Bags

Earlier in the year I made a list of several sewing projects I wanted to complete during 2020, mostly finishing off some stitched projects and also some small hand made items for gifts.

When our NZ lock down started, one of the first projects I worked on was a new project bag. I'd had this in mind for this stitched piece for quite some time, I bought the matching fabrics well over a year ago.

For this bag, I used a You Tube tutorial by Lisa, Kindred Stitcher. It is very easy to follow. You can find it here :

I Belong to the Cross Stitch Nation is a design by Heartstring Samplery and I stitched it on 32 count vintage mocha belfast using the recommended threads.

I had to sew the fabrics to the stitched piece to match the measurements used in the tutorial.

The next project bag, I used a stitched design that I actually finished last year. This is the Love My Stitching design by Cathy of Hands on Designs. Once again I used the tutorial mentioned above. I was down to my last zip and it was a bit short so I added some tabs to the end of it. Zips will be one of the first things I'll be stocking up on when my local sewing shop reopens!

As you can see I used my own colour combination for the thread choices, red, grey and white DMCS and the fabric, although it doesn't show clearly in these photos, is a light blueish grey colour.

This is for Kringles, the new chart by Little House Needleworks, all set to go, and yay, my fabric arrived in this morning's post so I can finally get it underway. 

See you soon xx

Another Week & Prairie Schooler Santa Finish

Hello friends, I hope you are coping well with lock down, self isolation, quarantine or if you are still going to work as an essential worker, my heartfelt thanks to you for everything you are doing.

Another Monday has rolled around and our days seem to be blurring into one another. I've been working from home Monday to Friday for several hours, mostly my usual admin work and also, lots of time on the phone/text to my lovely coworkers, the people we support in the community and other work colleagues.  Staying connected, making sure everyone is ok and offering kind words, or help when needed.

I've had time to get a few jobs ticked off my list, starting with the kitchen, cupboards emptied, wiped out, sorted and tidied. The oven and microwave have also been cleaned. Only the pantry to go in the kitchen now.  I've also cleaned all the house and garage windows inside and out. Confession time, for many years now we've have a chap come in and clean them for us three times a year and he was due in last week, so I decided to get them done myself. Another tick on my list.

Outside jobs done have included potting up some vege seeds and also, winter vege seedlings planted into the garden. The ironing is up to date, and the house has never been cleaner, lol.  I'll share some pics in another post of what hubby has been up to, he's never idle that's for sure. Hannah has been having her dancing classes via Zoom, which she's really enjoying. The weather has been pretty good too, allowing lots of outside time in the fresh air, walks, etc.

Now for some photos:

I'm back tracking now until early March when I spent a fun afternoon with my stitching buddies. For a laugh, we got out all the project bags we had with us for show and tell - what an awesome collection.

I absolutely can't wait until we can meet up again in person and share in some stitching, yummy snacks and lots of laughs with another xx

I'll finish this post with another Prairie Schooler Santa finish, 1993.

Stitched with all the recommended colours on 32 count vintage mocha belfast.

Take care, stay safe and thank you for visiting,  until next time,

See you soon xx

Bags and more bags

I've been enjoying a few sessions at my sewing machine lately and over the recent long weekend, I finished off a few project bags I'd cut out and prepared the week before.

First up, these little bags were made using the Stocky Sock Bag pattern by Sandra from Cherry Heart Designs. These are going to be birthday and Christmas gifts for some of the ladies at work.

I've also made up several stitching project bags, mostly for gifts too.

This one I'm keeping!

Aren't the Santa charms cute?? 

If you are interested in making your own project bag, this is the tutorial I followed.

See you soon