The Treehouse

Now Panic and Freak Out

I completed a couple of quick projects on Friday evening and yesterday. The first was a simple pillow case for an old friend. I've had this pillow forever and it was time to make a new, snuggly pillowcase for it - it's always been clothed in flannel. I used a piece of gorgeous floral flannel from Bonny and Camille's Ruby collection. I think this is my favourite fabric out of the entire collection. No complicated sewing involved once I'd worked out the measurements - I did use French seams which have turned out beautifully.

After I'd made the pillow case I started on a quick cross stitch for Catherine whose current favourite post exam saying is "Now Panci and Freak Out"! While we were away on our little Winnie break she bought a mug with the words on and we spotted this cross stitch pattern while perusing Etsy one evening. Luckily I had this blue linen in my stash and some variegated Anchor floss (1302 I think but not 100% sure) looked just right against it.

Next up is to start the huge pillow out the Fat Quarterly book - my ginormous insert arrived yesterday morning, it really is ginormous!

5 little owls...

I've been working on catching up with some cross stitching this week. I'm now up to date with my monthly owl stitch a long that I've been doing with my friends. Just one owl left to stitch and this will be ready for framing :excited:

The chart is Outrageous Owls by Glendon Place, this has been a really fun stitch to do each month. The colour of the background fabric doesn't show too well in the photo - it's a delicate blue colour, really pretty.

It seems that I am incapable of NOT starting new projects. I had the Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop book on pre-order at Amazon and when it arrived I drooled extensively at the blocks and projects. I was restraining myself from starting something new until 2 things happened. Allegory @ SewAllegorical suggested a quilt a long for the Orange Soda Pop quilt - I resisted for a little while and then gave in to the inevitable! There is a link in my sidebar to the details of the quilt a long. I will be using the fabrics below...

Terrain by Kate Spain :love: The bright pink is the colour that I'm using for the applique melon shapes.

Then yesterday, just as I'd finished telling myself NO MORE, Katy posted her version of the twinkling star cushion from the book. Before I knew it I was asking her where to get the HUGE cushion from which was all that had been holding me back from the making it. Of course, Katy was super helpful and next thing you know I have ebayed myself a gigantic enormous cushion. Oh for more hours in the day (because I want to do the Hexy MF quilt a long too!).

I am just having a little break from the owl stitching and doing a super quick stitch for my poor exam beaten up daughter. She chose it herself while we were perusing Etsy a few evenings ago. In case you don't want to click the link, it's along the lines of Keep Calm and Carry On but instead it says - Now Panic and Freak Out! She loves this quote and has a mug with it on. I'm stitching it with a variegated cream Anchor thread on a royal blue background. I've only got a few rows of the crown done so far but enough to see that the colours look good :) 

Tomorrow is the montly meet up with the girls, I'm really looking forward to a good chat and stitch - haven't decided what to stitch yet, maybe a cottage - they could surely use some stitching doing on them!

 

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 :)

 

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.

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.