The Treehouse

Henrietta Whiskers finished...

Poor Henrietta Whiskers has been languishing in my sewing basket for quite a lot of months now. I was inspired to get her finished by Sinta's BOM rehab and so once Catherine's new school bag was completed I dug her out and set about putting the finishing touches on her. 

This is how she looked back in March

which is the last time I did any work on her. All of the blocks were stitched together with block no. 9 needing to have the applique stitched down on it. At the time, I was debating whether or not to leave out the birds in the border and instead of making a decision I procrastinated for 6 months! I had all of the borders cut out and ready to stitch on and had even traced the applique for the border but...just couldn't decide whether to put it on or not.

On Thursday I made my decision - I wanted to put the applique on the borders. I set too and stitched the borders on and cut out the applique shapes and soon had them glued down. Since then, I've spent my evenings happily whip stitching the wool pieces and blind stitching the birds wings and I am delighted to have finished the top. I've decided to send this to be long arm quilted as I'd like a good job to be done of the quilting after all the hours spent handstitching and I'm just not capable of doing it justice. I emailed last week and Henrietta is booked in to be quilted by Chris at the end of October - I can't wait to see her once she's all quilted up.

Next I intend to work on finishing off my version of Anni Downs' 'My Favourite Things' from the book Some Kind of Wonderful - especially as I bought her new book over the summer holidays and would like to make the quilt in that too! 

 

Linking with BOMs Away Mondays 

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!!!

Sunday Sewing

The rest of the family have been out splashing about in boats today so I've had plenty of lovely sewing time. Yesterday while they were splashing about in Coniston I made a couple of GFG flowers and did a little bit of stitching on the sunflower wall hanging. I made another GFG flower this afternoon when it was too hot to be in my sewing room and did a little more stitching of the poem on the sunflower.

I've not stitched any of these for quite a while and it was lovely to get back into the swing of things with them. I'm going to try again with the one-a-day and see if I can get them finished off...then it'll be onto the next ring and then the diamonds. No pic of the sunflower just yet, I'll wait until I've finished stitching the poem.

I made another 3 Summer Bow Ties this morning and stitched them together with the one that I made on Friday - I really like the look. I saw this layout on Jodi's Pleasant Home blog and it convinced me that I needed to make some bow ties!

I did quite a bit of cutting out for the bow ties as well so that I can sneak in the making of one now and again during the week :)

Finally, I made this month's Henrietta Whiskers block and it's another very sweet one - I'm getting spoilt for choice for a favourite block now!

The applique is only stuck down at the moment so I've the treat of stitching that to come as well as the little bit of embroidery that's on the block.

On Friday I picked up my two cross stitches that I'd taken for framing and I'm very pleased with both of them.

 

The teacups are my favourite stitch so far this year, it's a shame I can't get a better picture of them.

I'm itching to get the next block for the Designer BOM sewn, it looks lovely - hopefully I'll fit it in over the course of the week. I had thought I might get it made today but a Henrietta Whiskers block takes quite a well to prepare. I'm away to enjoy some of the evening sunshine with a glass of wine now and then perhaps some stitching on the Library later on.

June Stitching - overdue update!

June has flown by in a flurry of cricket, netball, bowling and various other activities. The sunshine has finally arrived and we've spent this weekend enjoying the garden and bbqing. It was a little quiet on the stitching front in June but I did manage to squeeze in plenty of work on Vignette - part one is now finished and part two is halfway complete. I think this may be a long term project as I can't seem to keep up with the pace...that has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of projects that are on the go of course :grin: 

I've finally managed to complete the blocks for the Pennsylvania Dutch quilt - here are the final two...

This is block number 7, called Field Furrows and below is block number 12 which is called Journey's End.

I like both of them - now to sew it all together and catch up on some Civil War blocks.

I have managed to stay on track with the Henrietta Whiskers block of the month - here is June's block and then a picture of the first two rows sewn together.

I'm really enjoying stitching this quilt, it's an absolute pleasure.

I also stitched the first block of the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Block of the Month which is called Sweetpea. I wasn't going to join this BOM as I really have enough going on but...it's made with Fig Tree Strawberry Fields fabrics and Joanna of Fig Tree is my favourite fabric designer of all. 

While in the garden this weekend I spent some time with my current cross stitch project which is Once Upon a Time...an Owl and I accomplished quite a lot. I just have a few leaves, the rest of the owl and the moon to stitch and then this will be ready for framing.

No photos of the last two projects or Vignette just yet as my little gadget for transferring from camera to computer has gone on strike! Hopefully my in house expert will be able to persuade it to co-operate when he gets in tonight :)

I spotted a QAL for the Farmer's Wife quilt early on in the month and was sorely tempted to join in. So tempted that I dug out some favourite Fig Tree fabrics and put them to one side ready to get going. I did promise myself that I wouldn't begin until the PD blocks were completed and as they're now all done I can get started with a little farming!

Overdue Update!

I was all set to post some pictures on Friday morning only to find that the battery was flat in the camera! I've not had quite as much stitching time as usual lately but am still fitting a little in now and again when my arm permits. 

First picture is the finally framed My Little Heart - I gave up trying to find a frame for it and took it to the framing shop last week, I think it turned out rather well.

I finished off the April block for Henrietta Whiskers last week, I really enjoy making these blocks each month.

and finally, an update on the teacups. I've almost finished these - just a few French knots, some beads and a little more backstitching of words and it will be complete. I love how well the colours blend together on this - the pattern is in Cross Stitch Collection magazine.

I think it would benefit from spending a little time with the iron! 

A few finishes...

Well I seem to have been absent from my blog for quite a while. It's been a busy time on the sporting front for the children and my Dad has been in and out of hospital so any spare time I've had I've spent stitching away. 

My last finish for March was the 3rd Henrietta Whiskers block - these blocks are all so sweet. 

I'm looking forward to this month's block which sees the return of Sophie the blackbird and friend. I need to spend some time with my sewing machine to give my hand a rest from all the hand sewing I've been doing...am suffering from a nasty dose of RSI and I'm hoping that a little time with the machine will give it sufficient rest.

I began my next finish while away with the girls for the first of this year's crafting weekends. I started it together with Karen and we have been stitching along together. I wanted mine completed in time for Easter though so I've zoomed ahead to finish off. I have my DH all lined to construct a frame for it, it's such an unusual size that I think I'm unlikely to find anything in the shops that will do the job.

This is Bunny Hop by Country Cottage Needleworks. It's stitched with recommended threads on the the recommended fabric. It was a lovely easy stitch, I really enjoyed it. Karen and I have all the ingredients for another CCN design called Sheep in the Meadow. I have my eye on a design called April Showers as well but that's way down the list, lol! I'm starting on a pattern from Jardin Prive next which is called Once Upon a Time...an Owl. I've admired these designs since Nathalie Cichon first started to adapt them from the paintings of Spanish artist Raquel Blasco and I could resist no longer. Will be stitching along with Cara on this one. After that I've a rather pretty teacup design lined up from this month's issue of Cross Stitch Collection.

My other finish this month was a candle mat with bunny rabbits on it. This year my friends and I decided to do a little Easter basket exchange. The gift had to include a small handmade item and some chocolate. I had a few things in mind to make but then couldn't resist this candle mat from Bareroots  for obvious reasons!

Photo is courtesy of Sue as I forgot to take a picture of it before I wrapped it up to give to her! I was really pleased with how it turned out. I've not been using wool felt for very long - obtaining a supply of it was difficult but now Karen at Patchwork Chicks has a great selection available so I'm keen to try more projects with it. I have another couple of these candle mat patterns - one with strawberries on and another with one of my favourites on it...beehives, can't seem to get enough bee related things lately for some reason!

I have a great list of things to do before the end of this month. The new button club from Lynette Anderson arrived last week from Fobbles, I really enjoyed making the first one and this one looks to be just as much fun. I also picked up the next Vignette magazine at the beginning of the month and there is a lot of stitching to be done for In Stitches quilt although I've not quite finished the first lot yet! I also have some new Inklingo stitching on the go - a new collection was released called Sunflower and it proved irresistable. The problem is that much of this is hand stitching (which is my favourite) and my poor arm needs a break so I think I will probably take some time to catch up with Civil War blocks and Pennsylvania Dutch blocks on the machine before I get down to any of these other things :) oh to be amidextrous! I read some good books last month too...just need some time to write up my list of those!

Henrietta Whiskers block 2

I finished off block 2 of Bunny Hill Designs Henrietta Whiskers BOM last night - this is Henrietta's friend Sophie. I had planned on a woollen pumpkin buy my piece of orange felt wasn't big enough so I used some Moda orange crackle and I like the result with the subtle tone on tone pattern. I see a lot of patterned wool around on the web, it's lovely but sadly none of it seems to have made its way to these shores yet.

We have borrowed the dvd set of 24 season 2 from the library...need to view it all quickly as somebody else is waiting in line for it so I can't renew it after a week. Not sure how we never got into watching 24 when it was on the television but we're enjoying it now...just need to do a lot of viewing in a short space of time - perfect for some hand sewing :D I've almost finished the first part of the Consider the Lilies BOM and it's turning out beautifully - I went with the same fabric as the original design because I really like the fabric and had been looking for a good excuse to buy some of it! Hopefully I'll finish it tonight with a few more episodes of 24 to watch.