Christmas Stocking for Harrison

 

Made this a couple of days before Christmas to gift to my cousin's new wee grandson, Harrison McGowan.

Went with my tried and true pattern for a stocking, as used for all the previous ones I have made (click on 'stocking' or 'Christmas' in the labels on the right of this page to see the others).

Hand-stitched felt, with added embellishments as pictured. Rudolph has a little bit of stuffing to make him more 3d. The ears and antlers also stick out a little. So much fun to make!

So This Is Christmas

 Still catching up on 'old' projects - I finished this one during the New Year holidays at the start of 2023, using it as long arm practice on my 'Heidi' - a Bernina Q20 on a studio frame.

It was a good project to use, and show-case, the cute Christmas prints in a bundle of fat quarters that I had in my stash (purchased from Spotlight), supplemented by some other stash fabrics.

The quilting is a mix of free-motion and ruler work - I totally love being able to get a quilt finished so quickly on the longarm!

If finished at 42" x 52" (a twin quilt) and the pattern is from the book 'Simply Modern Christmas' by Cindy Lammon (published by Martingale), and is called 'Snowball Games'.

My intention was to gift it to Ronald McDonald House at Southland Hospital for them to perhaps use as a Christmas raffle prize, but I left it too late for 2023, so I got it to them in mid-2024 and it was used for a Christmas raffle at the Hideaway market day.

Little Blue Christmas

 

This is my art quilt entry for the 2023 Bernina NZ Colour Challenge, currently touring Bernina stores around NZ. Quilts had to be 12" square.

The challenge was 'Favourite Colour' and mine has always been blue.  I looked in my stash and found a small set of fat quarters with this blue and white Christmas theme.

I took elements of the different fat quarters to create a collage scene of houses and trees; then I machine appliqued and hand-stitched over top, with some metallic threads and beads for added sparkle.

The photos are not the best as I took them indoors at night; I only finished this a couple of days before entries were due to be handed in, so had no time to take nice photos outside in the daylight.

Sharing with quilting friends and fan(atics) on Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky, with Michelle's (Bolt to Beauty) Beauties Pageant and with Wendy's Peacock Party - hello everyone!

Christmas Stocking for Florence

In January I took some time to update my 'maker's journal' with craft projects and cross-referencing with photos and blog posts - and I have a few projects from the past year or two that haven't been shared, so will get them here on record! 

This is the Christmas stocking that I made in late 2022 as a gift for my cousin's newest daughter, Florence.  Her big sister, Lucia, has an angel-theme stocking.

I used the same stocking template that I have used for all the felt stockings that I have made for other children, and a gingerbread man motif that I have also used before.

These buttons have been in my stash, waiting for the right project...

It is all hand-stitched; slow stitching is always so satisfying.

Christmas Joy and Christmas Fun

Two of my last projects of 2022...a couple of bassinet quilts for the NeoNatal Unit at Southland Hospital. They were made with some stash fabrics and leftovers from a larger quilt.

Christmas Joy: 18.5"x12.5"

A bit of sparkle on the reindeer!

And some flannel for the backing:

Christmas Fun: 20"x24"

A lot of cute little characters on this one!

I kept the quilting simple on these (I usually do for these quilts so they are not too stiff) and they were added to the pile of donation quilts - thirty in total!

Sharing with everyone at Michelle's Beauties Pageant link-up party - Happy New Year!

Moravian Star #2

Have been updating my 'maker's journal' with craft projects and cross-referencing with photos and blog posts - and have found a few projects from the past year or two that haven't been shared, so will get them here on record!  

This was my second Moravian Star, created in early December as a gift for a colleague.

It started like this...1" EPP diamond pieces...

And quickly became these...'star-flowers' x12...

And was then stitched together into the final 3D star shape...

using Xmas fabrics that have been in my stash for a while...

Thank you to Cheryl Katz-Rae for the design and process 

(I took her workshop at the NZ Quilt Symposium in October to 

create my first Moravian Star).

Moravian Star Christmas Decoration

 

Right! Has been a while since I added to the blog, so will start with my most recent finish...this Moravian Star that I started at the 2022 Quilting Symposium in Lower Hutt last week.

This is an English paper-pieced decoration - I started it in a class with the lovely Kiwi tutor, Cheryl Katz-Rae of Heartfelt Handmade (Facebook / Instagram) (now my new friend in crafting!) 

I was determined this would be done by Christmas (and not join the pile of UFO projects from the previous two symposiums in 2017 and 2019!)

I took the option to purchase a kit from Cheryl, which she put together with the diamond acrylic template, the paper pieces, the French General fabrics, and the little buttons for embellishment and ribbon for the hanger.

I managed to get six 'flowers' (each one side/face of the final, twelve-sided decoration) completed during the one-day class, then spent another happy day sewing on Monday to finish off the other six and put them altogether. 

The one inch diamonds are definitely the smallest size EPP that I think I would ever want to work with, as quite fiddly, but so effective for this project.  And so tempting to make another to see what it will look like with different fabrics/colours.

Also sharing with everyone at Michelle's (Bolt to Beauty) Beauties Pageant - 

and with Kelly's (My Quilt Infatuation) Needle and Thread Thursday linky party 

and Wendy's (W's Quilts and More) Peacock Party - kia ora!

UPDATE: gifted to my wonderful Teacher Aide, Liz Scott, for Xmas/thank you gift.