The Treehouse

March Owl

Finished this last night just in time! Each little owl is a gorgeous, quick, satisfying stitch. They look lovely when they're stitched but then when the backstitch is done they really spring to life. I think the April owl is green, I'm really looking forward to that! This is half way done now, there are only 6 owls in total.

Hard to tell on this picture - the fabric is a gorgeous soft blue colour with white cloudy bits -  really pretty.

My task for today was to start the next cottage however - I've ordered up a larger R&R frame for the cottages as my hoop is making a disaster of the fabric and it's getting harder and harder to iron the creases out each month. My plan therefore is to start on this...

Completely off plan and rather naughty of me but...I couldn't resist. It's full of birds and look at the colour of the fabric - luscious! It's a 12 part series called The Flock by Sam Sarah Design Studios. I think I can just about manage to squeeze in another bit of birdie stitching each month :grin: I bought the goodies (including the lush fabric) for my flock of birds from Karla at the Patchwork Rabbit I spotted it on one of my frequent 'let's see if the next cottage has arrived' browsing sessions!

CCN March Cottage

I put the last few stitches into the March cottage this afternoon. I could have had this finished last week really but a nasty bug, a sore arm and the beautiful sunshine conspired to prevent any stitching going on :) 

It is straight in real life - honestly!

and here are the first 3 all in a row...

The chart and threads for April's cottage arrived yesterday, I'm looking forward to stitching with some pretty lilac :)

There may not be much stitching going on at the moment but the postman has been a rather frequent visitor to our post box! The Grinch fabric arrived so I can start stealthily cutting that out when a certain person isn't around and a couple of new books - Lynette Anderson's and another very pretty applique book which I can't for the life of me remember the name of...it has many tempting projects in it though. 

I have my March owl to finish off - she only has a few stitches done so plenty of work there for the next few days. I did put a few stitches into the Library this month while I was away with the girls but not enough of a difference was made to take a photo really. I'm hoping to press on with that project a little more this month - I can see the end in sight, it's just finding the time to fit some stitching in on it as well as the cottage, the owls and the gazillion other projects on the go!

 

March Cottage, In Full Bloom and Henrietta

I was a little late starting this month's cottage as I was busy finishing off the first two blocks for Lynette Anderson's In Full Bloom BOM. I got underway with March on Friday last week - I LOVE the greens in this cottage. I've loved all the colours so far actually and each month becomes my new favourite!

Here's the progress so far...

The little shamrock above the house is in the wrong place and will have to come out - I miscounted, oops!

The next pics are of the In Full Bloom block of the month - there are two blocks to stitch each month and these are the one for the month one. Thoroughly enjoyed stitching these although that garden bench seemed to be neverending!

My kit for this BOM came from Bev at Fobbles and she has chosen a gorgeous linen type fabric for the stitcheries, it's a pleasure to stitch on...so glad I bought an extra metre of it for my cushion making.

I decided to stitch the quilt top together while I was in the mood so that all I will need to do each month is to stitch the designs and then applique them to the background. The original pattern uses Broken Dishes blocks but I wasn't too keen on those and have swapped them for pinwheels. I have the two borders to stitch on and then the quilt top is all done but for each month's stitcheries. My husband loves this quilt already and can't wait to see it hanging on the wall!

In the continued spirit of finishing things off, I dug out poor neglected Henrietta Whiskers yesterday. I decided to get the final block made and to attach the borders so that I can take this away with me at the weekend and enjoy stitching the applique down. I'm hoping to get the top finished before the end of the month. Just a few borders to stitch on and the applique to prepare now - Sophie the blackbird makes several appearances in the border along with some more stars I think.

We're having the first of our crafting weekends away this coming weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. I've probably got enough stitching for 6 months ready to go with me! 

I've got quite an exciting little project planned once the postman delivers. I was enjoying a wander through the Fat Quarter Shop coming soon pages one day when I happened upon the upcoming Grinch fabric. Catherine was looking over my shoulder at the time and fell in love it and asked if I would make her a Grinch quilt. As it doesn't come out until May I explained that she would have to wait. Later on, I found that they still had a supply of the previous Grinch fabric so I have secretly ordered it up in the hopes of completing a quilt for it in time for her birthday in May. Whether or not I'll manage I don't know as procrastination is one of my middle names!!!

Hexagon Cushion and February Owl

I have managed to finish both my scrappy cushion and my February owl. The cushion was made with scraps from my kit for In Full Bloom plus a couple of pieces from some yardage that I have for another project. I played around with the embroidery stitches on my sewing machine while quilting around the hexagons and the rectangles in the borders. The background of the hexagons I just quilted with straight lines.

I'm really pleased with the results. I have a few more scraps to play with at some point but not sure what I will do with those yet - they're quite small.

February's owl was a delight to stitch. The backstitch really makes these little birds come to life...

I had forgotten what a fun stitch this is. I'm looking forward to the March owl now. The chart is Outrageous Owls by Glendon Place.

Planning to do some more quilting this month - Catherine keeps drawing my attention to her unquilted 'blanket' so I think that may skip to the top of the pile!

 

February Cottage

I put the last few stitches into the February cottage on Sunday. This is such a pretty design, I really enjoyed stitching it.

Not such a brilliant photo as it's rather dark here the last few days - in fact, this morning it's really rather foggy outside...headache weather :(

Here she is next to January...

I'm really glad that I decided to stitch them all on one piece of fabric - I'm using 32 count, I think the chart calls for 28 but I had a large piece of 32 in my stash so went with that. I started stitching on my February owl when I'd finished and Matthew thought that I was going to stitch his cottage next...his birthday is March so of course, the March cottage belongs to him :) The March cottage is green - my favourite colour. I'll be starting that along with Carole on 1st March. Carole made a few litle changes to her Feb cottage which I think are wonderful - she substituted Rhodes hearts and I think they're smashing...go and take a peek.

I've been fiddling about with cushion making this month. I bought a gorgeous pattern from Chitter Chatter Designs as soon as it was released last year and then put off making it. I thought it was time to make a start and have been enjoying making the Dresden plates for it. I have one stitched down with the other one left to do. I love this cushion and can't wait to have it on our bed along with the rest of the cushion family that live there! I've a plan to make some small quilts for the bedside tables with pointy Dresdens also using Butterscotch and Roses - eventually!

A new project arrived in the mail this month from Bev at Fobbles. I had been eagerly awaiting it and started cutting up the fabric almost immediately. It's Lynette Anderson's new BOM, called In Full Bloom and Bev provided a lovely kit of Lynette's fabrics. I had some nice sized scraps left once everything was cut out and distracted myself from the quilt by making yet another cushion as I couldn't bare to throw them out. It's almost finished and I'm just dithering over whether to add a little embroidery to it before calling it finished.

You can see why I couldn't throw away the scraps can't you? I have the first two blocks traced onto the fabric which is a gorgeous linen type of fabric and I'm itching to get started on the stitching of them. I'll need to keep on top of this project as the new button club - 'Fernhill' is due to arrive anytime soon and it looks adorable.

Speaking of the button club - I haven't yet finished off Christmas Fun and in spite of having kept up with the stitching of My Garden, the first button club, it has sat in my sewing room for almost 12 months waiting to be quilted. Last weekend I decided that it was time to stop fretting over what quilting to do on it and just get it finished. I went with what I know best and stippled the outside borders and stitched in the ditch for the rest of it - didn't take very long at all and I'm thrilled that it's finished and ready to hang on the wall.

It's just as well that there's an extra day this month - I'm hoping to have my 'scrap' cushion completed and also my February owl all stitched up before March makes an appearance :)

 

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.