The Treehouse

Merry Christmas

Poor neglected blog! Some serious family illness and Christmas preparations have meant that my blog and blog reading has taken a back seat lately. I have a couple of finishes to show off though so made the effort to take some pictures while it was light enough the other day. I was determined to have these two quilts hanging on the wall this year as I thoroughly enjoyed making both of them.

This first one is from a pattern by Jennifer Reynolds  and is called Christmas Story. I have shown the finished top before but now it's all quilted and bound and has been hanging up for the last week or so.

I love it and was rather pleased that I managed to use all stash fabric to make it!

The second quilt is Frosty Flakes, a design by Dawn Hays Dawn offered the blocks and finishing instructions for no cost - what a wonderful treat. It was a pleasure to make and I thoroughly enjoyed every single stitch. The snowflakes I made from my scrap basket, the red border fabric had been languishing in my stash for several years and the squares are from a Basic Grey Fruitcake charm pack that I bought recently.

I have almost finished making my Tail Feathers quilt - it's been a long time in the making but I am determined to finish it off very soon as I have a couple of Leanne Beasley's quilts that I would like to start making...I have the fabric to get going too so plenty of incentive for me to finish up the birdies!

Wishing everyone who stops by here a wonderful Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. We're looking forward to our Christmas celebrations which will be a little quieter than usual but hopefully still enjoyable.

 

Christmas Story

I finished the stitchery on these blocks during the summer holidays - I thoroughly enjoyed stitching them. Apart from the lovely designs themselves, I enjoyed the variety of stitches that Jenny used - the stitches used are blanket stitch, stem stitch, backstitch, chain stitch - it was very refreshing not to be using the same stitch all of the time. The fabrics for this quilt all came from my stash :gasp: I'm quite pleased with that little achievement! Although I may have to purchase something for the binding, I'm not sure yet. I saved the sewing machine work until the children were back at school and last night I stitched the last border on.

   

Taking a photograph of it this morning has been something of a challenge. It's pouring with rain and the light is terrible...and I have nobody to hold it up for me either, lol! This gives a little bit of an idea of the finished quilt top though.

Just needs quilting now!

 

Christmas Star

After a simply wonderful weather day on Sunday when we bowled (and even won a game) and boated on the canal, Monday was a very wet day today so after some much needed housework and a trip to the library we decided an afternoon on the settee was in order - we had planned on cycling but we're not sufficiently committed to do it in the rain. We chose a film to watch - it was terrible, thank goodness I was stitching along while it was playing! It gave us something to laugh about when it was finished, lol! 

This is the last stitchery block for the Elefantz Christmas Story quilt. I'm really pleased with the way these blocks have turned out - especially as I struck out and chose vastly different fabrics to the original. I'm looking forward to sewing them altogether but I'll wait to do that until after the children have started back at school. This holiday has passed by much too quickly, we'd like more holiday please!

 

We're off to the market tomorrow for a little school bag shopping expedition and then maybe a trip to the pictures afterwards - I hear that the sun isn't going to shine again until Wednesday now :sigh:

 

Friday Night Sew In

I stitched quite a bit yesterday. We're still on our official holiday and the weather yesterday was just terrible - thunder, lightning and lots and lots of rain! We cancelled any outdoor plans and stayed indoors so I started stitching a bit earlier than I would otherwise have done. 

I was going to work on Badger Cottage from my couple of days with Lynette Anderson but these sweet snowflakes of Dawn's were calling to me instead. I managed to complete two of them - the third just needs stitching onto its background and then the stitchery completing. This is a free BOM called Frosty Flakes that Dawn is offering. It is one snowflake per week for 9 weeks and there are 3 already available to stitch.

 

 I finished off one of my blocks for the Christmas Story quilt as well - there wasn't a lot of stitching left to do on it...just the star, the cute sheep and most of the houses, so it didn't take very long at all. I've just the star left to stitch for this now, my plan was to have it all stitched by the end of the summer holidays so I'm on track there :)

 

I'll be finishing off that third hexagon snowflake this evening and maybe a little of Badger Cottage. Usually I stitch my hexagons together using the Inklingo method so there are no papers involved. For the snowflakes, as they were to be appliqued onto the background I printed off some 1/2" papers and did them that way. I was also given a tip to glue the fabric to the papers instead of basting. I wasn't sure about that really but thought I'd give it a go just to see how it works as I have 3/4" papers to make the Badger Cottage pencil case (I don't have the 3/4" Inklingo hexagons). I used the tiniest bit of glue - the Sewline glue, thinking that it would make it easier to get the papers out. It was rather tricky to remove the papers and I think it quite possible that any time saved by glueing was lost while trying to remove the papers and restore the hexagons to their proper shape. The glue was so determined to hang onto the fabric in a couple of instances that it ripped it. Maybe it's because they're such tiny hexagons? I don't know but I certainly wouldn't like to struggle as I did with a quilt's worth of papers to remove so I think the hexagons for the pencil case will get basted on as normal...I wish I had the 3/4" Inklingo !

We're off to shop for school shoes today so I'll need a good stitch later on to recover from that joy, lol!

 

 

 

A couple of missed finishes...

Just getting the camera ready for going away on holiday tomorrow and realised I had missed posting a couple of finishes. I was doing beautifully with my stitching on Christmas Story, I am almost finished stitching the last but one block (Bethlehem, it's just lovely) and then just have the Star to stitch and I can put it all together - I think that will probably wait until school has started though. Here's the Manger - so cute, I think it would make quite a sweet birth sampler type mini quilt if done in different colours.

 

Also sitting waiting in the camera was a picture of this month's My Little Heart - there was a choice this month of either a beehive or a sunflower. Both the designs were fabulous and although I love sunflowers I chose to go with the beehive.

 

I can't believe that we are 8 months into the year and there are now only 4 spaces left to stitch on this lovely little sampler!

We are jetting off on our holidays in the morning and I'm taking some stitching and reading along with me for the evenings and hoping that the weather will be good enough during the daytime for us to get out and about. It seems to have been raining here since the beginning of July and I've had quite enough of it thank you very much - the plants are all happy, the grass is green and we are soggy, lol! 

Better go and get my bags packed!

 

 

Christmas in July

The last two weekends have seen me working on the Christmas Story quilt designed by Jenny of Elefantz. This weekend I completed the stitching on the Angel and Mary blocks and started and finished the Gifts block, I also started and almost finished the Manger block...this is my current favourite, it's so sweet.

 

 

I also completed this month's Pennsylvania Dutch block - I love it...again! John is wondering whether I can make it big enough to fit on our bed, he loves the fabrics and all of the blocks so far...it's intended for one of the children!

 

If there were not so many other lovely quilts that I want to make I could easily see myself making this quilt again, it's a dream to stitch.

Today is yet another grey, overcast, drizzly wet day - I think summer has abandoned us! I'm planning on growing some flowers for my garden as soon as the Manger is complete :)

 

Finishes and New Arrivals

  The postman has been pretty busy delivering to the Treehouse over the last week. As well as the kit for Lynette Anderson's Scandinavian Christmas (I forgot to photograph this), he also brought the next My Garden pattern/button and Electric Quilt 7. I am stitching along on Scandinavian Christmas with Simone  and we are just waiting for her first delivery to arrive so that we can set a date for completing the first block - they are quite large blocks but I'm looking forward to stitching them. 

As for the Electric Quilt - I am itching to start playing with that - I've not owned a copy other than the Dear Jane software before so I'm sure that there will be a learning curve involved...I'm just waiting for the 'technical department' to fix me up with an appropriate version of Windows so that I can get going - I only have an old version on my Mac which I use for Inklingo cds and cross stitch software and it won't do for EQ!

I've been in a finishing off mood this last week or so and have finally finished stitching Geranium House by CCN. It's such a pretty design and I'm pleased with how it turned out...just wish that the fabric had been a little lighter. Its destiny is to become a cushion. I also finished off the little scissor fob from the LHN Needle and Thread pattern - that is super cute, I really like it - I'm not sure that I will bother to make many more scissor fobs although it does look very sweet dangling from the halloween scissors

   

I've made a start on my list for the Everything Austen II challenge in fact, I keep on finding things that I want to add to the list. I've ordered up a 'few' more books from the library and I had a little party over at Amazon and The Book Depository last night. I can see that this is going to be an Austentatious summer! It is certainly the weather for staying indoors and reading and sewing - we have had steady downpours of rain, thunder and lightening and some flooding for just over a week now. Most bizarre weather indeed. 

I'm hoping and hoping that it's going to brighten up and at least remain dry for a while as this has been a very soggy beginning to the school summer holidays. We had planned to get in some bowling practice today which I certainly need as my defeat last night was almost total - I blame it on the wet conditions! I did manage to score 2 points before the end of the match so I wasn't completely embarrassed. Also, we've now booked a week's holiday. We were going to go to France with the tent again but given the precarious situation of my back we thought that would be unwise. We're now going to the Isle of Wight and have booked a lovely little thatched cottage to stay in...I'm really excited about that, I think we're taking the bicycles along as well so plenty of exercise to balance out the time sat reading and sewing :)

I know I've not posted about my Flower Garden for a few weeks - I have fallen behind with it somewhat but I do intend to make some flowers before the end of the month and post about them at the same time I post about my clamshell progress. A new Inklingo collection of 1/2 clamshells and edges has just been released and I will certainly be adding this to my Inklingo library very soon along with the 1" diamond collection which I need for my Flower Garden.

Hoping to have the stitching completed on a couple more Christmas story blocks this week...just a few more roses and leaves to go :)

 
 

Last Week's Stitching

I'm a bit behind with showing my stitching off - last week turned into a bit of a yukky migraine type of week unfortunately. The previous weekend though I had managed to get a couple of Christmas blocks stitched and I thoroughly enjoyed the chain stitch on those. I'm glad to have a couple of blocks finished now as I can properly see the colours that I chose and know that I like them :D

 

 

Here's a picture of one of the corner stars again...

 

I also finished my first block for Lynette Anderson's My Garden. I'm stitching along withSimone on this BOM. There was a quite a bit more stitching then at first appeared but I really enjoyed making it - I like the Courthouse Steps arrangement too.

 

Finally, while we were trying to stay up very, very late on Friday - or rather, early into Saturday morning so that we could go and collect Catherine from her trip away (they went to France for a day) I managed to stitch these gorgeous Tulips from a design by Dany and on Saturday evening I turned it into a little pincushion - I love the colours of this design.

 

Not sure what I'll be stitching this week, it's quite a busy week as it's the last week of term for both schools in fact, Matthew's last week at Primary School. I'm a little behind with my flower garden stitching - I didn't manage to make one last week, hopefully I can fit some stitching in between now and Wednesday this week :)

 

 

 

  

Tail Feathers Determination and Lovely Post

First of all I would like to say a big, big thank you to Saskia. Saskia had a giveaway on her blog of some absolutely beautiful Dutch themed fabric and I was the winner :D I also have a cute little Dutch clog keyring...I think I may hang that from some scissors instead though. I have a few ideas of what I would like to make with this fabric, one being a pincushion and maybe a little bag too.

 

This is the fabric and the clog posing amidst my Winston Churchill fuschia the first bloom of which opened over the weekend.

I had made a list for this week last night but when I woke up this morning I awoke with a determination to work towards completing the top of my Tail Feathers quilt. I don't really have that much left to do. I'm half way through stitching block 8 so that leaves only block 9 and the corner blocks for me to stitch. I laid it all out to give myself a bit of encouragement to keep going. It's a bit crinkled and needing a good press but at least I can see where I'm up to and that there's really not much further to go! I'm going to concentrate and this quilt this week doing the machine work when it's cool enough in my sewing room and the hand stitching when it isn't!

 

 

I put together a couple of the star blocks for the Christmas quilt as well but I was melting and just couldn't stitch inside any longer. I'm glad I did it because I can now that I'm happy with my fabric.

 

We spent a really hot day at a bowling competition yesterday and I did a little bit of hexie stitching - I was glad not to be playing as the heat was sizzling, the poor children were melting. Thanks goodness there was a covered shelter or I think we would probably have suffered heat stroke it was so hot! It's another beautiful day here today although I think a bit of rain is forecast for later on - the plants will be mighty glad of that!

 

 

One Flower Wednesday plus a few other bits

Last week I managed to complete my to-do list :D One item was to catch up on the My Little Heart SAL and I had done so by Friday.

 

April

May 

June

This week's to-do list included cutting out all of the fabric for Jenny's Christmas Story quilt - I was bursting to start making this quilt and then was hesitant because I wasn't sure about the fabrics that I'd chosen...I was determined to use only stash fabric and not buy anything new! On Monday I managed cut everything out and also I put together all of the stitchery blocks so that was an excellent start :D

 

Not a brilliant photo...the sun was a little too bright at the time but I'm not grumbling about bright sunshine at all, it's lovely.

I had a good hexagon week this week - I managed to make 3 and I like these ones a lot...I think I'll be combining more of the large patterns with the smaller patterned fabrics. I have 20 blooms in little glassine envelopes ready to stitch. Also this week, I wanted to make sure that my outer fabric choice worked so I decided to stitch the outer hexies onto one of this week's blooms - hadn't realised quite how long that was going to take! It was a good move though as now I'm certain that I like the fabric and I also know that it won't be a good idea to leave this part of the project until all of the flowers are stitched or they may be doomed to UFO-dom :o

 

This week's blooms resting in my lovely peony - it's a massive plant now but only started off as one stalk with one leaf! Poor blooms are so heavy that some of them bend right over to the floor. This is the first year that the rain hasn't destroyed them as soon as they opened so I may get John to give them a little photo shoot :)

I have quite a lot of sheets of clamshells printed out now and am ready to cut and stitch. I've also been washing the fabric that I bought for a Dresden plate quilt and for the Life is Beautiful quilt. Trying to prepare lots of things before the school holidays begin so that I've got plenty of hand stitching to take along when the weather is fine enough to go to the park and on picnics.