The Treehouse

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 :)

 

 

Some Kind of Wonderful - part 1

I decided to take a little break from stitching Wildflower and carry on with my blocks for the Some Kind of Wonderful stitch a long. I had stitched the first two blocks a little while ago and had only 3 blocks to stitch to be up to date with the schedule. These little blocks are hard to stop stitching - very addictive indeed! Here are the first four completed blocks - the fifth one, the suitcase, is almost done I'm in the middle of stitching the words on it.

  

I'm stitching the little patchwork sections on as I go and then stitching the blocks together - just the suitcase to finish and I'll have the first column complete and can stitch on the first two borders.

Here's where I'm up to with Wildflower...I've two large flowers left to do, a couple of words and the coloured stitches in the large leaf. Might stitch on this at the weekend at our crop but then again, I might stitch some of the Autumn Blackbird Designs instead :)

 

I mentioned to Carole about the new CCN monthly cottages. Looks like we'll be having a little shopping spree sometime soon :grin: I asked yesterday and Karla at Patchwork Rabbit has the January chart just waiting to be ordered up!

Summer and Wildflower

I've been having a little break from blogging for the last little while. My Dad died at the beginning of November after a long illness and although it wasn't unexpected it still really knocked the stuffing out of me. I'm slowly getting back to some semblance of normality and some days are better than others... I have lost myself in some good books and pondered matters and reminisced while doing some quiet stitching. 

I did manage to finish the Summer part of Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers before the next part arrived. I was really enjoying stitching it and would have gone straight on to stitching Autumn but needed a few threads to arrive in the post and decided to wait for those until beginning the new chart. A couple were out of stock and they've just arrived this morning so I'm looking forward to putting some Autumn stitches into place very soon. Here's a pic of Summer...

The colours are beautiful and the photo really doesn't do them any justice at all - it's a very dull and dark day here today and difficult to get a good pic.

I am stitching along with Carole again this month on Wildflower which is turning out to be lovely. The colours are most unusual and probably not something that I would ordinarily choose but I'm thoroughly enjoying seeing them come together. I started this while away with friends for a weekend of crafting and made quite a good bit of progress there. Unfortunately I also managed to stitch the letters in the wrong colour and didn't realise until I started stitching again last Friday so there was quite a bit of unpicking going on!

The letters are actually in a variegated blue thread some of which is quite bright compared to the dark parts - it looks very well with all the other lovely threads in this piece. 

I have done a little work on my sewing machine but not a lot. I'm keeping up with the Blogger's BOM blocks and will take a photo of my latest block soon. I've also been playing with my new embroidery machine which my lovely husband treated me to on my birthday last month. I've not been able to give it a thorough workout as yet but am looking forward to using it more very soon. I'll be back soon with an update on the Some Kind of Wonderful quilt blocks too - again, not much done on that yet but I don't plan on being behind come the end of December!

Coffee Menu by LHN

Last night I put the final stitches into Little House Needleworks' Coffee Menu. I've been stitching along on this one with Carole - it's the first in a series of charts that we decided to stitch together. I think I enjoyed every stitch on this - well, maybe not the ones that I had to unstitch but it has been a lovely design to stitch and the colours are lovely. I corrected the mistake that I mentioned last time - I had stitched Dark Roast one stitch to the right. I suppose I could have left it as was but it would have been screaming out to me from behind the glass once it was framed so I took it out and restitched it! 

Our next stitch is going to be Wildflower by SamSarah Designs. I've not stitched anything by this designer yet and I'm looking forward to starting this with Carole in November...it has some very sweet buttons on it and the colours are lovely.

I am also going to be joining in with the Some Kind of Wonderful Stitch a Long on the Stitch a long blog I'm so glad to have been given a place on this. I bought the book back in July and there are so many lovely things in it that I didn't want it to sit on the shelf waiting forever! I'm going to use some of my Fig Tree stash for the quilt and have begun cutting out the cream backgrounds into strips. Next job is to cut the cream backgrounds for the applique blocks.

I'm hoping to prepare the first blocks and start sewing on them soon and perhaps take some away with me in November when my friends and I have our second crafting weekend of the year.

I noticed this morning that the sign ups are ready now for this month's Friday Night Sew In. I wasn't able to join in for the last few months but hopefully I'll manage to do so this month - it's the day before my birthday! You can click on the link in my sidebar to join in with the fun.

The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark

 

Not having read many fiction stories about India and having studied India at university I was keen to dive into this book. As with many books, the story is divided into two time periods and the book begins during 1947 and the lead up to Partition in India. Evie Mitchell has travelled to India with her young son Billy and historian husband Martin whose job it is to record the last days of British rule in India. Martin is a man much changed by his experiences in the Second World War and as a result their marriage is suffering and they are growing apart. Finding the disintegration of her marriage impossible to deal with, Evie throughs herself into endless bouts of cleaning and in doing so discovers a bundle of letters which have been hiding in the house since the nineteenth century, just shortly before the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

The letters were written by a young Victorian girl named Adela to her friend Felicity. the discovery of them plunges Evie into an obsessive search for the truth of the girls' story and what happened to them. Evie discovers little pieces of the story in various places - the local church, the local British club and hidden diaries of Adela's that she discovers. As she continues to search out the story of Felicity and Adela her own world continues to disintegrate as her husband becomes less able to cope with his war nightmares and reluctant to confide in her and as the days of British rule draw ever more swiftly to a close. 

Elle Newmark describes the sights and sounds of India both in the nineteenth and twentieth century in a wonderfully rich fashion. This, in addition to the mystery of Adela's and Felicity's lives and the closed book of Marin's war experiences and its effect on his marriage make this a compelling story which will satisfy fans of historical fiction. 

This book was provided by Transworld as part of their Book Club and is my 20th read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

 

Coffee Menu update and a new start...

Carole pointed out earlier on today that I hadn't updated my progress on Coffee Menu for a while and shouldn't I do so before I'd gone and finished it altogether! After a few days rest for the arm, I set off on the words last night and this lunchtime I started on the green borders and finished off Dark Roast. Just as I was crowing to Carole that I'd got this far I had the misfortune of noticing a mistake :sigh: I'm not pointing it out yet as I'm in two minds whether to remove it or not. It all depends upon how much it bugs me and whether or not I can live it. Eventually though - I will probably remove it, lol!

 

I wasn't really in the market for making any new starts just now until Carole came along with a temptation the other day. Over the past year I've made a tentative start at learning different counted stitches and when Carole showed me the Tree of Life design by Abi Gurden I was a lost cause! Abi runs a Yahoo group called the Stitch Specialists and the design is available for members only. Without further ado I joined the group and found a lovely warm welcome and knowledge a plenty. Most of my cross stitching is done on some shade of cream/brown fabric so I decided to go out on a limb and use a green background for the tree project and a shade of Threadworx called limestone - that way I don't have to worry about choosing colours and I can concentrate on learning the stitches. My fabric arrived this morning and I've made a small start this afternoon.

The design begins at the roots of the tree with cross stitch. The next part is comrpised of either French or Colonial knots. As I can do French knots I'm going to try the Colonial on this design. I did say it was a small start, the picture is really so that Carole can see the colour of my fabric!

There is a second stitch a long available to the group called The Great Escape. It features an owl - how could I resist! I've bought some fabric for that in a shade of blue but at the moment I'm not convinced that it's the right shade of blue - it's lovely but maybe not quite the right thing, we'll see.

I've not achieved much on the sewing machine at all this week so nothing to show there I'm sorry to say - hopefully next week :)