The Treehouse

One lonely little bow tie...

is all that I managed for FNSI. Things didn't quite turn out as I planned for my Friday night of sewing. I have big plans for Sunday though - everybody else is going to mess about in boats all day. The house will be empty except for me and the kitty so hopefully we can get down to some serious sewing!

I like making these blocks - I made one for the Farmer's Wife quilt a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to making more - perhaps on Sunday!

We are driving up to the Lake District today to first of all visit the exhibition at Fobbles  I sent along some of my own stitching to be displayed and am looking forward to seeing what others have been making...may fit in a little shopping on the side :grin: Then we're off to Coniston so that the water babies can get their boating fix...I'll be the one on the shore, in the chair, with the stitching and the good book! 

Friday Night Sew In - March

Last night was March's Friday Night Sew In and I managed to cross a couple of things off my 'to-do' list :D First of all I made last week's block for the Civil War quilt - I like this one a lot, especially the fabrics.

Then I caught up with the Consider the Lilies BOM and made parts 2 and 3 of block one. I stitched those to the first part which has the lilies on it (completed last month). I've just the stitchery designs to trace onto parts 2 and 3 and 2 applique hearts to make. I'm taking this with me to stitch when we have our weekend away next weekend.

After that I settled down in front of the tv to watch some Comic Relief with my Vignette In Stitches part one. I'm enjoying the stitching on this but it's quite slow going - the pink flowers take quite a while to stitch!

It could benefit from a visit with the iron I think, it looks terribly crumpled here :o My issue two hasn't arrived at the LQS as yet so I'm not counting myself as behind for now, lol!
Earlier in the week I made March's Henrietta Whiskers block but I've saved the hand stitching on that for my weekend away...and forgotten to take a photo of it!

Lincoln's Platform and a Bunch of Blooms

I've been working on my Vignette In Stitches quilt since finishing My Garden the other day - I should have had the first part completed before now really but I'm almost there now. I'm hoping to be able to go and collect Issue 2 soon, I know it's en route to Patchwork Chicks so hopefully not long before it lands...the sneak peaks all over blog land are wetting my appetite! No pic of my Vignette yet I'm afraid I forgot :o

Today I made last week's Civil War block - Lincoln's Platform. I enjoy making these on a Friday morning just in time for the next one to appear!

 

I think a plain red would have been better in hindsight...but that's always such a wonderful thing!

I've been making a flower a day this month as well, here's the most recent bunch of blooms...

The purple and green are my favourite colours in this line of fabric.

I managed to slice the top of my thumb while making coleslaw this evening - I'm hoping it's not going to slow down my stitching too much!

 

Next Friday is the March Friday Night Sew In - not sure what I'll be sewing yet but I've a few things on my list! It's not too late to sign yourself up for a night of lovely sewing :)

 

Friday Night Sew In - February

I had a lovely FNSI and got up to date with the courthouse steps part of the My Garden blocks. I had only put the steps onto two of them...and on one of those I had started on the wrong side! I contemplated leaving it but I knew that once it was on the wall it would stand out (to me) like a sore thumb. So...I cut out all the bits for the other blocks and undid that one. After that was all done I traced the latest block and prepared the applique for it so I'm ready to get that stitched next. Didn't get around to doing any cross stitch - I was ready for a glass of wine and a few chapters of my book. 

I've laid the blocks out here more or less as Lynette has them on her blog - only one block left now and I think it won't be too long before that one arrives. I'm looking forward to seeing this on the wall but need to think about some quilting ideas...not my favourite part of the process! I wasn't going to do the next button club - I may even have said that on here somewhere but...I like getting the little surprise parcel with the button in each month so I signed up again. I'll just have to get John to build more house for all the Christmas things I keep making to display on the walls!

The Library and Friday Night Sew In

On Monday the guilt finally got to me!

Last year I bought the pattern and supplies to stitch The Library by Little House Needleworks...I thought this to be the perfect stitch for me and was so excited to get stitching, I even signed up for a SAL on the LHN group. Everybody else has long since finished stitching their Library and probably had it framed by now. Where was mine? Sitting in the corner glaring at me. What went wrong? Well, it's a wide design so I thought it best to put it on a frame - huge mistake for me. Once seated behind the frame in my regular stitching spot I was trapped...couldn't exit without assistance :o I found it cumbersome to have to take my arm so far round the back of the frame to stitch. It took me ages to get everything in position and the stitching was going so slowly and the result was - abandonment! The poor Library was banished to the corner where it would every once in a while attract my attention and cause me feelings of great guilt. 

Meanwhile, I was busily accumulating more exciting charts to stitch. Was I stitching them? No! The Library was there glaring at me and I was telling myself no more new starts until you've done something on that Library (with the exception of that Thistle that I began which doesn't count as it's not 'just' cross stitches so therefore not a cross stitch project iyswim!). 

Finally on Monday I could stand it no longer and decided to pay some attention to it. I pulled the frame and stand out of the corner and tried for over an hour. Progress was slow, very slow. In the end I decided the situation was ridiculous and removed the fabric from the frame and got out my trusty hoop. I was happy as anything all of a sudden and many stitches were made. Here's the progress so far - it's a big project, I expect I'll be a while stitching it but at least things are on the move now...

Just the grass to finish and some little blue flowers (and a leaf that I noticed I've missed off the right hand tree) and this little section is complete.

Tonight is Friday Night Sew In night, to join in the fun you can sign up here and craft away to your heart's content. I'm going to finish off the last few crosses on this Library section and then set to work on this month's My Garden block - can't wait to see this finished, I'm aiming for it to be my March finish.

This Friday...

it's time for the first Friday Night Sew In of the New Year hosted by Heidi and Bobbi. I like these evenings - I think I'll be working on an Aunt Grace block this week. You can join in the fun here and maybe win a little prize :)

Friday Night Sew In

Tonight's the night!

I've been contemplating what to sew tonight for the last few days - I've plenty of things that I'm working on at the moment to choose from however, I was struck by the knitting bug last Sunday...it usually hits me in the Autumn. I've already finished knitting a pair of socks this week and I had another ball of sock wool so started knitting that up straight away...it's a gorgeous green. I'm going to start knitting a cardigan tonight though - I think it will be quite quick to knit and the wool is very, very pretty - it only arrived in the post yesterday and I can't wait to start knitting it up. Yesterday at Thursday Threads I saw another wool that I liked very much in very autumny shades so I shall be on the lookout for some of that once I've finished playing with this pretty wool.

I couldn't find this anywhere locally so bought it off the internet, from a shop that's new to me but which provided excellent service - Woodland Yarns. I ordered the wool late on Tuesday night, it was posted on Wednesday and when I got in yesterday lunchtime I had a card to go and collect it from the Sorting Office. 

 

Friday Night Sew In - September

I had a bit more than a Friday Night Sew In - I had a whole Friday Sew In :o I had booked a class at Patchwork Chicks - the quilt was so pretty, I couldn't resist and part two is on my birthday so it was meant to be, lol! I had the tricky job of choosing fabric for the quilt before I set off for the class of course, always a nail biting experience for me. I had been tempted to buy some Park Avenue...I have a couple of fat quarters already (they're destined to become a cushion) and really like the fabric but...I was looking at my stash of French General and it looked a bit neglected - I've only made a bag from it so far, and so I decided it was time to cut it up! 

Yesterday in the class we got started on the centre applique panel and I managed to fussy cut the bird for the centre of the design...here's the progress so far (I'm itching to do more)

 

I managed to put together everything from stash for this quilt except for the large outer border, it finishes at about 54"x54" I think. The rest of the quilt is made up of 4.5" squares some of which have stitcheries of quilt block designs in them. I did make a start on a stitchery yesterday but there isn't really enough done to show just yet. I did buy a metre of the beautiful blue bird print from Rural Jardin for the outer border - it's my absolute favourite from that line of fabric.

When I got home John and Catherine had an evening of kayaking planned and Matthew was communing with his friends on Xbox live so I was all set to carry on sewing :D

I had brought a couple of little bundles of wool felt home with me - needed for Lynette Anderson's Beehive Sewing book. Patchwork Chicks sell great little bundles of felt for £2.50 which is much more affordable for projects that need only a little bit of felt than buying great huge pieces. I was eager to play with the felt so I did...

 

and these were the result!

I had already appliqued the beehive onto the front of the book and done the stitchery on it - I'd come to a full stop though because of the lack of felt. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out - I would have carried on to finish it off last night but a) I was shattered and b) I had forgotten to buy a magnetic clasp!

I'll be slipping off to the market while Catherine's having her hair cut to get one so that I can finish this off later on. Since I stitched the My Little Heart block for August I seem to have added a bumble bee obsession to my bird obsession  -  I have a few more bumble bee things in my stash to make at some point!

So that's my Whole Friday Sew In - I had a fabulous day, it was a lovely treat and I'm already looking forward to the next one and seeing what everybody else got up to with their needles and thread last night. 

 

 

September Friday Night Sew In

 

is this Friday - 17th September. The timing couldn't be more perfect - I'm taking a class at Patchwork Chicks on Friday and there will be lots of homework ready for part two of the class in October.