The Treehouse

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!!!

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 :)

 

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!

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.