The Treehouse

Summer Stitching

I didn't get around to blogging during the summer so this is going to be a bit of a catch up post.

 

My intention was to get up to date with the cottage stitching but...that didn't happen. Instead, I was overwhelmed with a desire to finish off the stitching of The Library by Little House Needleworks. I had had this on the go for way too long and get dipping in and out of it. It's finally finished and framed and I am thrilled to bits with it. I'm also excited about the new charts with book themes that Diane is designing and am looking forward to stitching Around the World in 80 Days with Carole next year.

I think a wall of book related cross stitching will look marvellous :)

I spent quite a bit of time preparing hexagons for the Fat Quarterly Hexy MF quilt along and enjoyed piecing the flowers together. I am almost halfway done with those. This is the latest photo that I have of them - the colours look nothing like this in real life, the photo does them no justice at all.

I'm thinking of putting them onto a rich purple background - probably an Oakshott one.

I made a few Great Granny Squares for Lori Holts quilt a long but getting time on the machine during the holidays isn't easy so a few is as far as I got!

They are really quick, easy and fun to make - I will be making more very soon.

When the recent issue of Fat Quarterly came out I immediately wanted to make the Keep Calm quilt and dove into the stash in search of red fabrics. I had enough and got them all ironed and ready to cut into. Then I showed the quilt to Catherine who is a huge fan (particularly around exam time) of the 'Now Panic and Freak Out' saying. A request was made and I found myself diving back into the stash for blue fabrics! Here's the result...

It's been washed since this pic and has crinkled up beautifully and has already been on a trip to France and had plenty of snuggle time! The Keep Calm quilt will happen eventually :)

Back to School time means new bag time and while the cupcake bag that I made earlier in the year is still going strong it was a little small and definitely not waterproof. Another request was made and the result was this gigantic, waterproof bag...

I bought a yard of two different Kokka laminates a while ago when they were on sale. I've never sewn with laminate before and was a little nervous of it to be honest until I read a very useful blog post by Kathy of Pink Chalk Fabrics which encouraged me to at least have a go. Kathy has a few posts on laminates and this post led me to her Pinterest board for laminated projects which led me to this tutorial by Cheryl of Sew Can Do for a large bag. It turned out a bit bigger than I thought but Catherine is thrilled with it and it even fits an A4 lever arch file inside so she doesn't have to carry two bags anymore! The laminate was easy peasy to sew with - I will definitely sew with it again (if only to use up the other yard to make myself one of these bags).

Finally, my stitch a long with the crop girls was completed - a bit late but better late than never. I just picked it up from my framer this afternoon and I think he did a great job...

Outrageous Owls by Glendon Place.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far, that was quite a long post. I'm currently in the mood for 'finishing off' things and so, inspired by Sinta's BOM rehab I am working on finishing my neglected Henrietta Whiskers quilt - I'm hoping to finish before the weekend is done :)

 

Coffee and Grandmother's Flower Garden

I started stitching on the LHN Coffee at the weekend - this is a SAL that I'm doing along with Carole following the shopathon that I reported on a little while ago (I think we'll have to do it again, it was good fun!). I had wanted to get all of the word stitched but my eyes were demanding some that I close them last night - we had a busy day out at a bowling competition and a football match. Otherwise, I'm pleased with the progress I managed to make and it's a very enjoyable stitch - I'm looking forward to stitching the friends taking coffee together this week :)

I'm using the recommended threads and some lovely fabric that I had sitting in my stash from a previous (still underway!) project - Vintage Country Mocha.

Last week I did quite a bit of stitching on my GFG flowers  -  I made 11 and started to put the outer rings on. I've dragged this project out for quite a while now and I would like to get some serious progress made on it - wrist/elbow permitting - I need to move onto machine stitching this week to give them a rest.

I had been going to surround all of the flowers with the blue fabric but last week I happened across some of the plain green and plain rust coloured fabric and decided that it would look better with more than just the blue colour so I'm awaiting the arrival of these fabrics so that I can print up some hexagons and try them out. It was a lucky find I think as it's quite some time since Harvest Home was first released. Whatever is leftover I intend to use to piece the back of the quilt.

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.

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 :)

 

Oops - a garden of flowers!

I've been waiting to post until I had finished the first fifth of the library. I've not yet finished it. Why? I got a little bit sidetracked - nothing new there! I was feeling the need to stitch a few GFG flowers as I've not done any in a while - so I gave in to the urge and stitched 6 more flowers. It was immensely enjoyable and satisfying. I laid out all of my flowers to date so I could see my garden.

All made using Inklingo I love this method. So, you would think that having got that out of my system I would then have pressed on to finish the cross stitch wouldn't you? Hmm, no that didn't happen! Recently there have been several new Inklingo releases and I wasn't able to resist a couple of them...especially the Rainbow Flower design. I've been itching to make one since I downloaded and I could stand it no longer! Not sure where I'm going with this and how big it will turn out to be eventually but here's what I played with this afternoon...

I need to think about this a little while now and decide on size etc. I only have two fat quarters of that rather fabulous pink tone on tone so yes, some thought and planning required as those petals are quite big.

Here's the poor Library - it has progressed since I last showed it, I was trying to get those bricks finished and the leaves done for the first section before I got distracted! I will get it done before I start my stitch along with Karen - we're going to be stitching Country Cottage Needleworks Bunny Hop - I'd like to finish and frame mine in time for Easter.

(terrible photo of it!)

I'm behind with my book reviewing - I've my Feb reads to write up yet and 2 book reviews for the Historical Fiction challenge to write...one of them being my second Transworld Crime Caper book. Blame it on the hexagons!

One Flower Wednesday

It's been a while since I worked on my flower garden but I got my hexagons out on Friday last week. While I was stitching away I came up with the idea of stitching one a day throughout November. As it was already the 5th I had a little bit of catching up to do so I decided to concentrate on doing just that over the weekend. It's the 10th today and here are my 10 hexagons

Also at the weekend while I was on a roll I finished stitching the triangles and diamonds around one of the flowers and stitched the outer ring on another flower. I think I've added quite a bit of extra work with the diamond path but I think it's going to be so worthwhile and will look lovely in the purple fabric.

 

I may try and fit in stitching the outer ring on a couple of flowers each weekend as well, I'll have to see how it goes timewise. The more flowers I make, the more excited I get about seeing this quilt completed in these lovely fabrics and I could do with snuggling up beneath it at the moment as our weather has turned icy cold this week, definitely hat, scarf and glove weather - especially when watching a lot of sports outside! I did make a single klos on Saturday night as well but I forgot to photograph the poor little thing!

My Garden and Clamshells

Almost missed my posting, have been super busy running around trying to find extra players for tonight's cricket match today and then ferrying boys to the cricket match this evening. Now I'm back home and have managed to iron and photograph this week's creations. 2 flowers for my garden and sadly, in spite of my determination to put an outer ring on each week, the sporting schedule has been so full that I've just not managed it - perhaps I will aim for two next week.

 

On the clamshell front things turned a little peculiar - to say the least! I spent a good portion of time printing and cutting clamshells so I knew I wasn't going to get too many stitched together...and actually, I was a little worried about those curves. Part way through the cutting, I could stand it no longer and had to get started stitching and I was hooked straight away - these little shapes go together unbelievably easily. Unfortunately, I was stitching at not the best time one evening and got a little distracted and before I knew it - I'd stitched a clamshell in the wrong way round. Well, I sort of liked it so I thought I'd keep it like that and see what developed! So - instead of rows of different blue fabrics I ended up with this...

 

It looks a little odd for two reasons - the grass isn't flat and there is an unstitched between the bottom bright blue clamshell and the cream/blue flowers one. I'm not sure whether to right this off as a practice piece or continue as I'm wondering whether this sort of shape requires a little more planning in the placement of colours than rows. The jury is out on the matter now but I need to decide soon because I want to get some more stitching done (when the sporting has calmed down a little!)

Poor klosjes aren't making an appearance this week either - soon though, very soon!

 

 

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.

 

  

 

Klosjes and Grandmother's Garden

We had a super sunny weekend here with plenty of outdoor activities. I did manage to get quite a bit of work done on the Bluebird block and am now on the stitchery part. Also managed to complete 5 more klosjes bringing my total to 7 now. 

 

This morning I spent a lovely morning chatting with Jen while listening to Tim Rice on the radio - we had stitching at the ready but there was no needle action at all :o After a spot of lunch, I've put together this week's flower for my garden :) I like them more with the smaller prints but as I'm using a jellyroll I'm committed to making use of the large prints as well. I have bought some large print with the bird on for a border...I think it will be quite some time before I'm cutting into that though!!!

 

 

  Scans today - it's pouring down outside!

Ready for the weekend...

 I like having a specific project to do on a particular day of the week and tomorrow it's time for Klosjes. I've got my shapes all printed up and ready to go. I also dug out a Bluebird block which has been sitting unfinished for ages. I began making it before I learned to applique the Piece O' Cake way and I'm not happy with how it looks so I abandoned it! This weekend I'm going to fix it and finish - well, that's the intention anyway. The children have a bowling match tomorrow so I can sit and stitch my Klosjes in the sunshine (fingers crossed) while watching them and perhaps on Sunday I can set too and get something done with the pretty Bluebird block.

There's another good reason for getting this block finished - the new Quilt Aid blocks are on Helen Stubbings' blog and in spite of having decided not to do the project this year because I've got enough things going on they're so pretty that I'm extremely tempted and I suspect that I will succumb! Maybe if I finish another couple of last year's blocks I'll allow myself to indulge :grin:

Catherine's birthday is today - she has become a teenager :o Sources have told her that with teenager-dom come bad moods, grumpiness and sarcasm. I've told her there's no need for any of that and to carry on as her usual lovely self :)