Reflections of 2012

It is always interesting to look back over the stitching year and see what has been achieved, isn’t it?  Sadly, not too many finishes in my case.  No large quilts, in fact not a single quilt at all.  Perhaps the fact that we spent three months travelling the length and breadth of the South Island early in the year had something to do with it. But I’m not really making excuses, and I’m still rather pleased with those few items I did finish.

I took a whole bunch of rail fence blocks down to the South Island as we travelled around, and diligently recorded on them all the places we stayed, and the attractions we saw.  When we returned home I stitched all the blocks together to make my Travelling Rail Fence Tablecloth to use in the caravan.  This is certainly full of many happy memories. 

Rail Fence Tablecloth

I met up with several very special ladies as we travelled around the South Island, strangers all till we met up.  Marie of Ashburton kindly invited Robin and me around to her home for a home cooked meal.  And I had been exchanging emails with Miche’le from By Hoki Quilts for a wee while. We visited her lovely shop at Hokitika and she plied us with home made scones and coffee while we chatted the morning away.  And lastly, Gloria from the Manapouri Motor Camp invited me inside her home while we were camped there to view her very extensive collection of quilts.  Thanks so much ladies, for making a fellow quilter so welcome. 

My other finishes were cushions.  I made a New Zealand themed cushion for our travelling companions Geoff and Pauline in remembrance of our shared South Island Odyssey.

New Zealand cushion for Geoff and Pauline

The herb cushion stitchery travelled around the South Island with me and I stitched away whenever I got the chance.  On completion, it was a birthday gift for my daughter Nicky, who is very interested in herbs and their uses.

Herb Garden Cushion for my daughter

The final cushion utilised the unused labels and buttons from a Memory Quilt I had made Kathryn earlier.  There is no  way I can do “random” so everything had to be set out neatly in rows.

Memory Cushion for Kathryn

I attended several quilt shows over the year, Capital Quilters Exhibition in Lower Hutt in May, Feilding Quilt Show in June, PInestream Quilters Exhibition in Upper Hutt in September, and Wellington Quilters Exhibition in October.  So many wonderful quilts to drool over and admire.

The last few months of the year ended in a bit of a rush when we decided to put our house on the market.  As you can imagine, everything went into overdrive with tidying up, clearing out and packing things in crates and boxes.  Including all my sewing stuff!  (I never realised I had quite so many UFOs).  After 29 years we moved out of our home, and are spending the next couple of months living in the caravan.  I decided against taking my sewing machine with  me, instead I have some hand stitching, knitting and books to keep me busy.  Our new home is under construction, and should be completed by early March.  That’s quite exciting, I never dreamed we would ever have a brand new home!