The Treehouse

Feeling Festive

Yes, the festive feeling descended upon me this week. I was hunting around in my fabric drawer and came across poor, abandoned Santa. I'd made a start on him last year...a small start, I'd ironed the fabric onto the steam a seam ready to cut out the shapes for the jolly old chap and that was all. I think that at the time, I was all Christmass-ed out having finished making the Christmas countdown from the same pattern book - 12 Days of Christmas by Art to Heart. Anyway, Santa was looking at me in a pleading fashion and I felt that having waited for 12 months he really deserved to be completed so I set to with scissors and got him all cut out. This was a rather fortuitous job to discover as Matthew and I spent a few days last week glued to the sofa with some ghastly lurgy and it was the ideal thing to do while all snuggled up and watching a film in front of the fire. Santa is just needing a little embroidery and a few buttons stitching on and then I can sandwich him together ready to hang on the wall - I have a lovely hanger ready and waiting for him.

I think the festive feeling had been approaching for a little while as I was feeling the need to stitch a Christmas stitchery and was looking with needy eyes at one of Lynette Anderson's beautiful designs which I'd seen on May Britt's blog. Having a failed to find the pattern over here I decided that by the time it arrived from Australia I would probably be too busy getting ready for Christmas to play with it and so I went looking for something else to stitch. I happened upon a pretty design on Gail Pan's blog and decided it was perfect for my needs...and it was available right now, straight away and free of charge - a lovely gift :D

I've also managed to join in with a Dear Jane festive swap and have been preparing some blocks ready for applique.

 

Last night I spent a bit of time printing some Inklingo shapes. I love the apple core and bought the download quite some time ago and was super eager to start stitching the shapes until I decided that I would make a mess of the cutting out! I had a nice project in mind to use these shapes for but kept on putting it off because I was convinced I'd make a mess of the cutting. Time for a trial run, I thought. I decided to make Tilde's little bag and see how things went. I thought this was a free pattern but I can't find a link to it now on the Inklingo site. I used some charm squares to print onto and the cutting went much better than I thought  -  I used my little 28mm rotary cutter and held it in a different manner from usual and now I have a pile of lovely apple cores to stitch into a bag :D 

 

Next printing job is to get some more POTC hexagons printed out. I'm going away for a crafty weekend with friends next week and I've got some stitcheries to take, the little bag and hopefully a couple of POTC blocks...I won't get all of that completed of course but it's nice to have a selection to choose from!

Triangle Tuesday

There are 3 triangles to make each month. Thought I should try and make one a week. They're a bit stressful. Those pieces are very skinny. It took a long time but I survived and the result isn't too bad. Thank goodness I thought to put matching marks on the fabric and double thank goodness that I had the forethought to purchase the rulers! I need to go and lie down in a quiet place now and tonight we'll visit the library for some new reading material and then I'll stitch something that's less stress inducing tonight!

I think this scan is a bit wonky, it looks much better in real life and the green fabric is delicous.

I finished Shattered Silk by Barbara Michaels (library book) last night. It was an ok read. I made a start on the first chapter of the second book featuring these same characters as I couldn't nod off last night. At first I thought a new character had been introduced but no - one of the main characters is being called by a different name - Kara, instead of Karen :o How strange is that ? I flicked ahead a few chapters to see if it was a printing error but no, she's still Kara there. Perhaps an explanation will be forthcoming or perhaps it is indeed a printing error of gross proportion!

Stitcher's Angel Gifts Arrived

I was starting to worry a little bit but my parcel has finally arrived safe and sound with Lyn in Australia and she's very happy with them :D I made an matching embroidery folder, needle case and pincushion for Lyn and I also sent her a blue bird as the name of her blog is Bluebird Quilts. I popped in a couple of thimbles that I bought for her when we were on holiday in Scotland and also a stitching pattern that says...this is the home of a needleworker! Here's a picture.

 

The embroidery folder and pincushion were from a pattern that I had by Cheryl Goss of Willowberry Designs and the Needle folder was one of the free Stitcher's Angel designs by Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches. The blue bird was made using a Melly and Me Messenger Bird pattern. I thoroughly enjoyed making all of them and taking part in this swap has been a lovely experience. My thanks to Helen of Hugs 'n' Kisses who did all of the organising for the swap.

Sunday Afternoon Sewing

Have spend a very pleasant afternoon with my sewing machine while listening to DD playing her flute and occasionally singing along in a fairly out of tune fashion - tuneful singing and paper piecing do not go together, lol! 

Had a lovely little parcel yesterday morning from the Fat Quarter Shop. It was month 1 of a BOM that I signed up for. I did that at a point in time when I had few projects on the go and had recently begun to wonder if I'd made a mistake and taken on tooooo much. Well - no mistake was made, I knew that as soon as I opened the parcel and saw the fabric. It's Wiscasset by Minick and Simpson and it's very, very lovely indeed. In keeping with my 'do not get behind on BOM' rule I set to it last night and printed 1/2 square triangles onto the fabric using my Inklingo cd - love that, so glad I got it working :D This month's block is called Prairie Star and it went together super quick this afternoon :D

 

This afternoon's Dear Jane blocks - first off...A2. I was terrified of this one but it's turned out not too badly.

 

 

and a Jason's Jacks for a Dear Jane Winter Holiday swap. Got a couple more that are almost finished and just needing some applique doing on them.

Christmassy post...

I meant to post about my lovely post arrival yesterday. I received a lovely parcel of Christmas goodies from Janey as part of the Very Quick Christmas Fabric, Buttons and Trim swap organised by Jenny - isn't it all festive and lovely? I've plans to make some Christmas tree ornaments with the fabric I think...and those cute little Santas.

 

I'm sure every crafter is the same...stuff expands to fit the space available. I have my own sewing/crafting room but yet what do we find on the sofa? A little pile of craftyness :o

 

Proof that the cardigan is ongoing although the fact that it's covered up by a Dear Jane block in progress doesn't really bode well for its completion.

Neither does this...

 

While it isn't the one that I've been having trouble with...it is the one that I've been longing to make since I bought it. It was one of the first three that I bought I think and I kept looking at all those points and thinking...Nooooooooooo, I'll mess it up. Helen does say in the pattern that you can do it with fusible web but...I wanted mine to have that needle turned edge finish and so I kept leaving it.

After yesterday's little success courtesy of the Piece of Cake dvd I'm ready to dive in and try it! I really should fix up the other block first but I want to redo the birdies on it and I've not enough blue fabric left so...if I complete a couple more blocks then I might have sufficient scraps left to give my birds a makeover :)

Needle Turn Applique

I read the blog of Quiltsalott on a very regular basis. Actually, sometimes I just stop by to drool over and admire her stunning hand applique. Of late I have been frustrated with my applique-ing. When I first learned to applique it was using freezer paper. It's a fiddle of a job and it didn't teach me how to do sharp points and curves and other such tricky matters. I've experimented with just about every technique I could find...except needle turn, because I was scared of that! I did have a little go but I just couldn't get that needle turning the fabric under. I was unhappy with the results I was getting...freezer paper, starch, iron on interfacing stuff just wasn't doing it for me. This is the reason for the neglected Bluebird block that I keep harping on about.

This morning I decided to have a little 'me' time and sat down to watch a dvd called "Hand Applique the Piece of Cake Way." I bought this from Amazon for a seriously bargainous price after Quiltsalott recommended it. All I can say is that it's absolutely the bees knees. I watched it all the way through this morning and then watched the bit about points again. Then...I cut out a Dear Jane block that's all applique and dared myself to take a deep breath and needle turn it.

Now - I know this isn't absolutely perfect but I tell you - I'm thrilled to bits with it. Apart from the much pointier than usual points - there are curves and no frayed bits, I didn't burn my fingers and my iron isn't covered in spray starch either. 

I will conquer that Bluebird block after all :D I think 'Jane' will have to take a little holiday for a day or two while I get that block all done and dusted.

D£ - Jason's Jacks

C1 - Trooper Green's Badge

This one turned out well - finally, a successfully paper pieced block!

 

Cardigan has progressed - just needs its sleeves sewing on now...that's tonight's job with another episode of Bones. We're trying to relieve the Sky Player of some of its burden, we record far more than we make time to watch!

A1 - Pinwheels Gone Awry

Learned quite a few lessons from this block! It was the first one that I started to make (because of the pinwheels of course)...on my birthday, ages ago. I abandoned it after I'd paper pieced the first two rows and sewn them together. It was too lumpy bumpy and the seams weren't matching. I pulled apart the first two rows and put them in my Rainbow Jane box for a later date.

Today was the later date - I have quite a few blocks left to make for this month's Rainbow Jane so I thought I would try to finish this one off.

It's not too bad I suppose - hopefully the lessons that I learned while making it will mean that Flowery Jane gets a better Pinwheels Gone Awry!

There was progress made on the cardigan last night - at last! Just need to cast off the button/buttonhole band and sew up the rest of seams and then I'll be wearing it - woo hoo! Would have been more but DD needed a scarf knitting - her class are sending Christmas gifts to an orphanage in Bulgaria. It was difficult to know what best to send really as there was a list of things that weren't to be sent. We opted for some fashionable woolly gloves and a scarf like the ones I showed on here a little while back, this one was lilac and grey. No picture as it's gone off to school this morning to get gift wrapped.

I bought a nice little book of cardigan patterns the other week...there are a few in there that are calling my name and they're knit in lovely soft, non-scratchy merino wool - the children don't like proper wool...it itches when they snuggle up.

An Afternoon with Jane...

t's been rainy and wet here again today. Not fit for going anywhere at all so with jobs and DS' badminton done this morning, it was an afternoon indoors with a little television, a little surfing and some sewing. I finished off that starburst block this morning...only had the little triangles to applique onto it and this afternoon I've made a Bachelor's Buttons for both Flowery and Rainbow Jane and a Sweet Tater Pie for Rainbow Jane...I would have made one for Flowery as well but the material hasn't arrived for that block yet. I'm having fun with these little blocks although I'm no expert at making them it's all a fabulous learning curve and I'm enjoying it.

Bachelor's Buttons for Rainbow Jane...I LOVE that fabric.

This is one of my favourite blocks, not because of the colour (I'm not big on red) but because I LOVE pinwheels. Can't wait to make it for Flowery Jane now. I finally got my windows printer drivers installed on the Mac this afternoon so that I could print from my Inklingo triangle cd and that is what I used to make this block - really super quick and easy.

and finally, a Bachelor's Buttons for Flowery Jane. I did both of these using reverse applique which was a new thing for me - turned out to be easier than I thought :)

F12 -Starburst

It isn't perfect but I quite like it!

1. Print hexagons DONE

2. Finish Bluebird block (some serious effort required) - STILL NO PROGRESS JUST SOME FRAYED FABRIC

3. Finish off cardigan (not much left to do) - STILL NOT TOUCHED THIS!

4. Make this week's DJ block - DONE