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

Current Projects

Last week I stitched ALOT - trying to make up for not getting much done during the summer heat of the previous few weeks. I pulled out one of the projects I haven't stitched for ages, Hear the Crickets Sing, part of Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers Series, For the Birds.

I'm using the recommended threads and fabric, the colours are some of my favourite to use.

I also stitched a little bit on my stitch along project with Kath and Clare, Patchwork sheep.

There's going to be a lot of white stitching in the two sheep!

See you soon x

Last Week

My #santasundayxs stitching is going really well, on the weekend I finished this sweet angel design by Little House Needleworks.

This is the second time I've stitched this lovely design, the first time was for my MIL back when the chart first came out.

One night last week I decided that some easy knitting was in order so I printed off a dishcloth pattern from my Ravelry list and found some Sugar 'n Cream cotton in my stash. Pretty colours huh?

I also received a little parcel from all the way down south, Vintage Purls in Dunedin. I'm going to use this gorgeous yarn for the first pattern in the Curious Handmade Sock Society Club. I recently mastered magic loop sock knitting (more about that another time) so I also bought these ChiaGoo 2.25mm circuluar needles. These are great to knit with.

On Saturday I went out for the day with Clare to spend the day in Napier with Kath. I couldn't decide what to knit or stitch so I packed up all my latest projects and more, lol.

We had a wonderful time catching up, lots of chatting and laughs and as always, a stitching together has to have yummy treats to share.

So much fun and I'm already looking forward to our next catch up.

See you soon xx

Our Friends Stitching Circle Project & a Get Together

The second part in the Little Help from Our Friends Stitching Circle club arrived recently from the Silver Needle.

This time we received a gorgeous hand made needle holder, it's so pretty. I love this design, I haven't stitched anything before by the Cricket Collection so I'll look forward to starting this over my summer holiday break.

It's been sometime since my stitching group's last catch up, due to one thing or another, so on Sunday I invited the ladies around as we were going to have a special friend join us for the afternoon.

Several years ago I "meet" Elizabeth from Auckland, via my blog and we've been great friends ever since. At the moment Elizabeth and her DH are on holiday, having a little road trip around the North Island, including a few nights in Hawkes Bay. This was the very first time I have met Elizabeth in person and we had a fantastic time catching up with one another.

It was a lovely afternoon, lots of chatting, show and tell of our current projects and some yummy goodies for afternoon tea, including Kath's homemade brandy snaps and I made some sausage rolls, which I knew the ladies loved from previous get togethers.

I decided to make Elizabeth a little project bag using some of my favourite Moda fabric:

Also, a little pin cushion to go inside, this is a Soed Idee Design pattern.

We were thrilled to find out that a quilt of Elizabeth's had recently won a prize at the Auckland Festival of Quilts, congratulations and well done!

See you soonx

Friends in Stitching Part 2!

On Saturday Kath and I headed up to Taradale, Napier for a meet up with some stitching buddies. Anne, who is on holiday in New Zealand, and her Mum had travelled down to Hawkes Bay for the weekend, and Nicki now lives locally so it was about time we met her!  

Kath, Anne, Nicki and I have been internet stitching friends for many years now and how wonderful it was to get together at Nicki's home and to meet her DH as well.

Anne gave each of us a little parcel containing some lovely fabrics and threads, each depicting our favourite colours, and one of her gorgeous fobs, thanks again Anne for your lovely gift.

Of course because we were in Taradale Kath and I popped by JJ's, a quilting, wool and stitching shop for a quick shop.  I spotted lots of lovely fabrics but will wait until I visit their stall at the quilt show next month.

The afternoon just flew by, sharing stitching and crafting stories - chatting about our projects and other up and coming stitching plans, and chatting, and lots of laughing, about life in general! So much fun!

Friends in Stitching

This Saturday I spent a lovely afternoon with my stitching buddies. It was a stinking hot afternoon but I think we all managed a few stitches, a few snacks and quite a few glasses of iced apple and elderflower tea!

Although we've been meeting for awhile now we had our first ever group photo, thanks to my Mum who happened to call by.

A round up from Saturday's stitching:

Clare has a Drawn Thread alphabet sampler underway, looks wonderful! I  might just be inspired to get my An Open Heart UFO underway again, I did get it out to show the ladies.

Janet was working on some stitchery by Leanne's House

Kath has another Lizzie Kate underway:

Wendy is perservering with her cats, we both did some reverse stitching on Saturday!

I stitched on a Little House Needleworks ornament as my 2016 ornament stitching is underway, I have several ornaments kitted to stitch over the next few weeks.

Next month we are going to meet up at the Wine Country Quilt Show, which is held locally every two years. I can't wait to go shopping at some of the stalls!

Stitching with Friends

Or should that be chatting and laughing as there's always plenty of that too, and internet technical help, and online shopping for qsnaps, whenever I get together with my lovely stitching friends :)

We spent the past Saturday afternoon catching up with one another as we'd missed July's stitching date for various reasons.

I decided to start my Mum's 2015 Christmas ornament.

Here's dear Kath and Clare, please excuse the no wallpaper look behind them!

Kath is stitching a Travelling Pattern, passed onto her by Clare, which has been around the world and has been stitched over 40 times I think.

Clare was very patiently sewing on the ribbon and beads to her Shepherd's Bush Fold pincushion, just so sweet.

Lovely Janet was making great progress on her stitchery by Leanne's House

She finished this piece and was very happy as its been a work - in - progress!

My little friend Miss Poppy was our honorary member for the afternoon, spending her time smooching between Kath and Clare!

Already looking forward to our September get together and I think we might be planning a little road trip to check out some fabric shops, can't wait!