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 

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!

Henrietta Whiskers block 5

Not much sewing has taken place for the last couple of weeks. I made a great start on the Owl cross stitch and then had to take a rest because of elbow pain. I realised at the weekend that I was in danger of not completing this month's Henrietta Whiskers block if I didn't get some stitching done so I did a little bit each day and managed to finish in time...just a few days until the next block is available. This is the only project that I'm on track with so I don't want to fall behind! Once the school holidays are over I intend to try and catch up on my Civil War blocks - at least that way I'll get a stitching fix but won't irritate my elbow.

Here's this month's Henrietta block...

 

and here are the first 5 blocks together. Row 1 blocks are stitched together already, hopefully by this time next month row 2 will be stitched together and attached to row 1 :)

I forgot to take a photo of the progress on the owl cross stitch - I was getting along nicely before the elbow butted in and demanded I take a break!

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. 

Henrietta Whiskers - January

I finally managed to choose fabrics for Bunny Hill's new free block of the month quilt Henrietta Whiskers. I settled on using a couple of Awesome charm packs supplemented by some other fabrics from my stash. Fortunately I had enough wool to make Henrietta for the first block but will have to buy some more for the rest of the months. In the pattern, the leaves are also done using wool but I didn't have any in the colours that I wanted to use so my leaves are in fabric and needleturned. Henrietta has blanket stitch around her and the stems of the leaves are chain stitch. I thoroughly enjoyed making all of the this block and am looking forward to seeing what Henrietta will be doing on the February block.

The charm pack for the Birdie Stitches quilt finally arrived yesterday and I have almost all of the stitching completed for that so I can cut and sew the borders tonight I hope. There is only one more block of the month that I would like to take part in now and that is Val Laird's 'Consider the Lilies' and I'm just waiting on a little delivery for that so it could be a while before I start it if it takes as long to arrive as the charm packs did! 

I spoke to Chris as Father's Heart Quilting the other day and Tail Feathers should now be in the process of being quilted, I can't wait to see it when it's done.

Tonight is Friday Night Sew In and I've planned to do some piecing. I have an Aunt Grace block for month 1 all cut out and ready to stitch, I already put the pinwheels together. I also have a Pennsylvania Dutch block cut out and ready to stitch as well and I should really get another one of those ready to stitch if only to have a bit more variety in the next Civil War block!