The Treehouse

Owl Scissor Fob

I was having a little surf around my favourite sites this morning while enjoying a cup of coffee when I happened upon a new embroidery design at Embroider Shoppe. I wasn't going to buy it but I was in a mood to play with Felix (my embroidery machine!) and I was also in a mood to avoid (once again) doing some quilting on a poor quilt that's been in the queue since around last March! This is the first design that I've purchased from this shop but let me tell you - I will be buying more in the future! The instructions were excellent and the entire thing was made on Felix, in the hoop - so clever. There are four designs in the download - an owl, an ice cream, roses and a ladybird. I know I'll be making some of the others very soon. Of course, I chose the owl to make first of all and I think he turned out very well...

and here he is wearing his 'glasses' 

I've several pairs of pretty scissors but these remain my firm favourite and hopefully, now that they've got a safe place to live I won't be worrying that they've poked a hole in the sofa! 

Variety is the Spice of Life

I've been having a sewing morning and decided that a little update was in order. The 1st of February meant that it was time to start on a new cottage with Carole and I was eager to start. Here's the progress so far - the colours are so pretty...

As you can see, I'm stitching mine all together on one piece of fabric. I think they're going to look lovely like that.

Once I'd finished my SKOW blocks I started back on The Library just for a few days until it was Cottage time. I managed to complete all of the bottom border and have done the outline of the next set of bricks. Just a few leaves up at the top to frog now and resttich and I'll have the green all correct.

I think it could have done with a visit to the ironing board before having it's picture taken really, never mind!

This morning I decided to prepare the next SKOW block - I really can't leave these alone at all so I'm a bit ahead of myself on the stitch a long schedule.

I'm looking forward to stitching that down and doing the embroidery over the weekend - I love this block.

Finally - I resisted and resisted but...I had scraps on my desk and ready printed hexagons and so I 'accidentally'' started on a Rose Star block - oops! I'm not planning on making loads. This one is destined to go on a cushion cover to add to the ever increasing pile of cushions on our bed! 

I've plenty to work on over the weekend now. It's our crop day on Saturday - 11 hours of chatting and stitching. Well, stitching for me and some of the other girls - paper crafting is a bit rare these days! I'll need to keep myself busy this week while Catherine's off on a school jaunt to Belgium and France. I think they're going to have a wonderful time, the schedule sounds very exciting. Although it's primarily a history trip in order to visit WW1 battlefields they are 'coming home via Paris' and fitting in a visit to Disney on the last day. My girl is so excited that she's fit to burst! The bag is all packed ready for our super early 4.30am start tomorrow. I've got my tissues ready for when the bus sets off...still can't manage to watch them leave on a bus without a few tears!

Ful House - January Schnibble

This is my first foray into the world of Schnibbles. I have bought a couple of patterns in the past but never got around to making them. I've lurked about watching people taking part in the Year of Schnibbles and Le Petit so this year I decided to join in occasionally. I probably won't manage every month but I was determined to do this month's pattern as I love the Full House quilt. There are a couple of variations using these houses that I would also like to make sometime.

I used Kate Spain's lovely Good Fortune. I don't think she has done a collection that I don't like and I could quite happily make something from all of her fabrics - in fact, I have Terrain ready and waiting to turn into a Swoon and also her last Christmas line to turn into the Christmas Present quilt.

I went with all white for the sashings and borders for a couple of reasons. 1) I have a lot of white fabric sitting in my stash and 2) it stopped me procrastinating over what other colour to use!

I would like to make more small quilts - it's very satisfying and it means I can use more of the the gorgeous fabrics that are around without having to make a huge quilt. I've seen beautiful versions of Full House appearing around Blogland already and I'm looking forward to seeing more after tomorrow's parade.

Some Kind of Wonderful Part 2 and 3

I finished stitching together parts 2 and 3 of the Some Kind of Wonderful Quilt this morning. Also stitched together were the top and bottom borders which were part of these 2 months schedule. 

 

Not brilliant photos. It's so long that it's getting quite difficult to photograph it. I ought to have taken some individual photos of the blocks as I finished them  -  I'll do that with the next blocks that I make. I am itching to start on the house block but I think I'll work on a couple of other things first of all. 

 

Linking up with BOMs Away at Life's a Hoot.

CCN January Cottage

I have just put the final stitches into the CCN January Cottage. I would have had it finished last night but stitching those snowflakes under electric light was proving a challenge - my eyes were stinging and I was having trouble getting my stitches in the right place! I decided that I was overdue for my bed and called it a night. They were much easier by daylight I have to say. 

I'm really pleased with it - I love the turquoise shades. I'm looking forward to starting the Feb Cottage on 1st Feb - Carole and I have decided to start each month's cottage on the first of the month.

I'm going back to some applique now - I've a little bit left to do on this month's SKOW blocks.

Wildflower Cushion - January FNSI

I decided to make my Wildflower cross stitch into a cushion for last night's FNSI. I had a little hunt through my stash and came up with what I think are two perfect fabrics. The back has a zip closure and is made of the same fabric that I used for the little trim around the edge of the cross stitch.

I also put some more stitches into my January Cottage but as I'm hoping to finish it off today or tomorrow I'll wait until then to take a photo.

 

Ruby Rag Squares and a Library Update

I'm still happily working away on WIPs - there are plenty for me to go at! Last week I was a bit off colour and so some cross stitch on the settee was in order. Although I was enjoying stitching the January cottage I was overwhelmed with a need to resume stitching on LHN's The Library. Now I have had this on the go for a shamefully long time. This time last year there was only a little part of one of the firs scroll of the top border done and I took it in hand and pressed on with some stitching. I didn't work on it continuously but got it out occasionally and enjoyed putting some stitches in. This was all going well until the day that I realised I'd used the wrong green thread in the top and bottom borders. Away it went into the darkest recesses of my cupboard - banished through no fault of its own because of my mistake! 

I'm glad to say that building is once again underway and some of the necessary frogging has been done and replaced. I did a little more unstitching last night and there's a bit left to do but things are definitely progressing again.

Now that the door and the steps are finished I'm returning to construction of my January cottage until it's complete. The chart for February's cottage arrived on Tuesday so I'm all set to stitch on that next month. I saw the picture of the March cottage last week and it is gorgeous - and green, my favourite colour!

In other stitchings...I had the squares all cut out for a rag quilt using Ruby flannels so I deemed that to be a WIP and have this week cut out all the squares of batting and glued them together. I'm currently free motion quilting my way through this rather blurry pile and hope to have that part complete this week. I cut the squares out for this quilt using my Accuquilt Go.

Tomorrow is the first Friday Night Sew In of 2012. I haven't managed to join in one of these for a while now so I'm hoping to stitch tomorrow night but haven't yet decided what to work on. Maybe a little work on the Ruby squares or perhaps I might make the Wildflower cross stitch into a cushion.

2 new starts and 2+1 WIPs

I started the year off with the intention of NOT starting anymore quilts! I'm determined to work on my WIPs - after all, I started them because I loved the design and I would dearly like to see some of them complete. I did commit myself to a couple of new cross stitching projects.

The first one is Outrageous Owls by Glendon Place. I spotted this last year and when I showed it to the girls at our Cropiday (crafting holiday) in November they were so taken with it that we decided to stitch along together on it. We're stitching an owl per month plus a bit of branch.

This is what the finished stitch will look like...

and here is my progress so far...

Sorry for the terrible photos today, it's a rather dark and dreary day. This was a real treat to stitch - there are quite a few colours in each owl, 6 possibly 7 so I'm glad that we split the threads between us!

My second cross stitch project for the new year is the new series of monthly cottages from Country Cottage Needleworks. These are so pretty that it was just impossible to resist them - Carole also had the same resistance problem so we are stitching along together again :D My only problem was deciding whether to stitch them separately or all on one piece. I liked the idea of individual cottages but then wondered how to display them - I didn't really see myself changing the picture in a frame each month. I had a little sort through my stash and found a rather large piece of the called for fabric in 32 count and that decided me - I'm stitching them all on one piece. I think it will turn out too big to frame but a wall hanging will be lovely. Here's my progress so far...

I would have been futher along but for the quandary over whether to stitch on one piece or many!

Last year I started stitching Leanne Beasley's Vignette mystery quilt. I don't think I've shown a picture of my progress on this at all. I fell way behind with it once my elbow started being a nuisance and then once it was better I was SO behind that I didn't feel inclinded to stitch on it at all - how silly. I was inspired by Sharon at Lilabelle Lane to get going on this beautiful project again. I had already completed the first part...

and made a good start on the second part...

The majority of the stitching on the blocks had already been completed but I hadn't started anything on the border. Last week I dug it out and made a start on that. I have most of the stems stitched now and am taking a little break from them by stitching the teal flowers at the moment - love those, they're in tiny chain stitch. It's my intention to sew the rest of the blocks together this month and mark out the stitchery designs so that I can just keep on stitching when I eventually get to the end of part two. My lovely DH called in at the copy shop on the way home from work last Friday and got the copying done for the centre so I have no excuse now - it's time to catch up! 

Here's a project that I am up to date with - Some Kind of Wonderful. I love this quilt and the fabric that I've chosen to make it in (Fig Tree Buttercup) and I'm really enjoying stitching the blocks. The schedule for this month is two blocks from the second column - the daisy and the chocolates. My daisy is almost complete now - just the leaves to stitch on and I have the chocolates prepared and ready to stitch down. I cut out all of the pieces for this quilt before starting any of the blocks so I decided that I would make up all the little patchwork blocks and stitch them to the top/bottom of the blocks. I worked on that last week and have just two left to complete. 

I think that will be a big time saver and I am thinking of stitching together the borders so that they're ready to stitch on when I get to the end of each column but that will be after I've done some more stitching for Vignette. 

Another project that I'm slowly plugging along on is Gail Pan's Berries and Bluebirds. I'm still on the first block - there are a lot of pieces to applique!

So worth the effort though, it's a gorgeous quilt and I have my eye on her new design once this one is completed.

I've seen a lot of lovely new projects around blogland this last week or so, they're all so tempting but I really want to make some progress on my WIPs. I have given in to purchasing the Full House pattern for A Year of Schnibbles as it's one that I've wanted to make for a while. Whether it gets completed this month or even started is another matter entirely! The pattern hasn't arrived yet so I don't have any distraction from my current plan just yet!

 

I've linked this post with Lynn at What a Hoot and her BOMs Away Monday.

One last finish for 2011

I finished stitching my Wildflower cross stitch by SamSarah Designs yesterday. The colours are lovely and the little buttons are a sweet addition. I'll be starting CCN January Cottage along with Carole at the weekend and also making a start on another stitchalong that I'm doing with my cropping friends (the ones that aren't allergice to needle and thread that is!). 

 

I think this is destined to become a cushion rather than being framed - just need to select some fabric for a border and the back. I've had quite a good year for cross stitch finishes and I've already got some lovely charts lined up for stitching in 2012 from my favourite designers.

This will be my last post for 2011 so I would like to wish a very Happy and healthy New Year to everybody.

Some Kind of Wonderful and Autumn

I finally finished the backstitching on the last block of the first part of the Some Kind of Wonderful stitch a long. Part one is now all stitching together and it's looking very nice indeed. Here's the little suitcase block...

and here are is the first column stitched together with its border on...

I've also been working on the Autumn part of the Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers mystery - it's just as lovely as Summer and I'm enjoying stitching it. Not quite sure why I started stitching the bird from the bottom up - must have been that my hoop was down there and I couldn't be bothered to move it, lol! I'll be reattaching my hoop at the top when I do some more on this - hopefully over the holidays. I'm hoping that the postman will visit today with my order for CCN January cottage. I've been stitching again on my Berries and Bluebirds applique by Gail Pan - haven't a picture to show yet, I keep forgetting to take one so that's definitely a job for the new year!

 

I doubt that I'll get chance to post again before Christmas now so I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very happy, healthy and stitchy New Year :)