The Treehouse

My Garden Block 2

I've had this block finished for a while now and should have posted its picture yesterday so I'm a little behind - in my defence, we had a busy day of bowling, football and kayaking yesterday and I just forgot about this picture altogether.

Love the birdhouses on this one. I've got all the bits ready for the next one which I collected from Fobbles last week - the button is a very cute snail.

 

I wasn't well at all last week so I got very little sewing done indeed. I'm on a mission this week to finish some things off - there's a list of course. It's a list that I'm going to plug away at and not allow any new starts until these tops are finished (note :  I didn't say quilted!). The only exception to my 'no new start' rule is the quilt that I'm starting on Friday at Patchwork Chicks :blush: 

 

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 :)

 

 

 

  

My Little Heart - July

Just back from the chiropractor and having a nice cup of relaxing tea so I thought I would quickly post last night's stitching. I felt in need of a finish last night having slogged away all week on Tail Feathers and just in time, the next part of the My Little Heart SAL was there waiting for me. So, without further ado - and no sporting to attend/arrange last night I decided to sit myself upon the sofa and stitch away. To my surprise I got it all finished just before bedtime :D

 

Yesterday the postman brought beautiful post. I am signed up to stitch Lynette Anderson's My Garden BOM and the parcel with month 1 and the fabric was lying on the doormat when I got in from Thursday Threads. I am stitching along with Simone whose kit arrived last week...we seem to like a lot of the same sorts of thing, we're going to work on Scandinavian Christmas together as well and we're already both working on the Fat Quarter Shop Pennsylvania Dutch BOM! Here's a little picture of the beautiful kit that arrived this morning from Bev at Fobbles

 

The photo really doesn't do justice to the fabric at all. It's called Evening Mist and the colours are beautiful soft pinks/lilacs/greys/browns and a very soft black. It doesn't show the block very well in the photo - this month's block is a little wheelbarrow with a bird sitting on it and the little daisy you see stuck to the front of the pattern is in fact a hand painted wooden button.

Anyway, I must away to my jobs so that I can get started making this block later on. I'm still busily making my way around hexagon flower gardens as well, I got a little behind on that this week as I spent most of Wednesday alternately fiddling with Tail Feathers and trying to find some extra cricketers for Wednesday night's match!

oh p.s. I was reading Mary Kathryn's blog with my early morning cup of tea and she has posted about the Everything Austen Challenge II and I think I may just have to join in with that it sounds like such fun. 

*Carole, if you're reading - you need to go and read this challenge it would fit in with so many other challenges...and one could also include a little Austen inspired cross stitch as well :D *