The Treehouse

Favourite Things quilt top - finished!

I am so thrilled to have this quilt top finished - and just before the dealine too :D although I think it should have been quilted and bound by the deadline but as I'm not quilting it myself that's not going to happen. I booked it in with Chris for quilting and my name has just arrived at the top of the list so hopefully it won't be too much longer before I can hang it up on the wall - I have just the spot for it :) 

This isn't a brilliant photo, it doesn't really show off the blocks to their best but what it does show is that the top is complete.

It was a lovely, sunny, blue sky morning here so I took it outside for a photo. It was quite hard for me to hold up as it's actually taller than I am! I'll take some more photos when it's back from quilting.

My Favourite Things quilt from the book Some Kind of Wonderful by Anni Downs. I used various different creams for the backgrounds and the coloured fabrics are from the Buttercup range by Fig Tree and Co - with the exception of the fabric for the cat and I'm not sure at all what that was but it made for a lovely kitty :) All of the applique is needle turned and for embroidery I used DMC threads to match the fabrics.

 

Linking with Lyn's BOM's Away and Sinta's BOM Rehab - it definitely works! I'm going to choose another BOM to work on for next week's Rehab now that this one is finished.

Some Kind of Wonderful progress...

Last week I spent the most time working on my monthly cottages project

Finished this one...

and made a start on the next one.

I did get the chance to finish off a couple more blocks for the SKOW quilt.

The kitty cat...

I enjoyed stitching this and it turned out to be quite easy to needle turn.

The next one I made to replace the shoes block in row 4 as I'm not really a fan of high heels. I am a fan of bees though so I made a beehive with some embroidered buzzy bees...

I enjoyed making this one too!

Not a lot of sewing time over the weekend. On Saturday Catherine and I went to see the new Resident Evil film which we've been looking forward to for ages. Lots of Alice in action but the story was quite lacking I thought. On the way home we detoured via Abakhan fabrics (it was a detour too as it's in completely the opposite direction) so that I could pick up a few supplies. I didn't actually go to buy fabric but really - what stitcher is going to walk into a fabric shop and not even take a peek at the fabric? I came out with this...

because I just couldn't leave without it! I have no idea what to use it for but for now I'm enjoying looking at it :) It was a bit pricey compared with Abakhan's normal fabulous prices but I notice that it's actually made by a New Zealand company so perhaps that's the reason. It's called 'A Stitch in Time' by Nutex. I really like it a lot!

 

I am linking up with Sinta's BOM rehab and Lynn's BOM's Away today.

A few strawberries and a tiny blossom

So - I promised myself to start back working on the SKOW quilt once the June/July cottage was finished. Then I thought that I would just make a little start on the July/June cottage as I had all of the stuff to hand and I had tidied the applique away and I could get that out the next day. Well, the next day - yesterday, both Catherine and I were feeling grotty and not a lot got accomplished. I did however manage to finish off the top border and do the name on the July/June cottage - this is actually the June cottage but I'm using it in my July position. 

 

The red thread is lovely and I have fallen in love with the little strawberries! I've put it to one side now until I've completed some more SKOW blocks.

I was procrastinating a little bit on the SKOW blocks, mainly in part due to the tree. I love the tree and I have quite a bit of the block already appliqued with the exception of this part...

This is the top part of the tree. I had everything prepared for it last week - all of the little bits cut out, ready and waiting to be stitched down. I decided to employ an avoidance technique to see if those little blossoms would stitch themselves down while I was looking the other work. This technique was a failure - I can't recommend it at all. I've decided to employ another technique to get the job done - DIY. It seems to be working so far - let's see how I feel after I've done a few of these flowers, I think there are 11 in total :gulp:

Some Kind of Wonderful - BOM Rehab

I spent quite a bit of time working on the blocks for my Some Kind of Wonderful quilt last week and really enjoyed it. I picked blocks at random and managed to finish all of the blocks for the final column. I have 3 more 'on the go' that are almost finished which leaves me just 4 more left to make. It's looking promising that I will finish before my deadline - fingers crossed :)

I designed the windmill block myself (with a little help from a colouring page) to replace the chair block. I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out.

I'm currently putting some stitches into June's cottage - I've actually used the July cottage which had an Independence Day theme and I'm turning it into a Jubilee cottage for the Diamond Jubilee. I'll post an update on that later on in the week.

 

I'm linking up with Sinta's BOM rehab and also with Lynn's BOM's Away.

Halloween Mail

Back at the beginning of August, I was reading Polly's blog and she was showing off a lovely Halloween project that she had just completed from a Fons and Porter special edition magazine. I was so taken with it that I ordered up the magazine. Then I was so taken with the stand that the project is displayed on that my fingers danced across the keyboard and before I knew it...I had ordered up the stand and the little kit to make the project. Well it must have been very popular because it was immediately back ordered. I wasn't bothered about that due to lack of sewing machine time during summer holidays and impending holiday in France. Yesterday it all arrived...

You can see the stand in this photo and a pic of the lovely mini Halloween quilt. I am a sucker for anything with either an Autumn or Halloween theme - I just love the colours. My secretary husband is getting the pattern enlarged for me today and I am hoping to get to make it at the weekend. Yes, I would like to start making it right now or at least as soon as I have the enlarged pattern in my mitts but I have committed myself to working on my Some Kind of Wonderful quilt this week and I'm sticking with the plan. I'm rather enjoying it too. I have several of the blocks in various stages of production with this sweet little heart block all done and dusted...

I've been working on a couple of personalised blocks this week too as a couple of the blocks weren't favourites of mine. I'm hoping that when it's time to report in for BOM rehab that I will have several more blocks to show.

Some Kind of Wonderful Part 2 and 3

I finished stitching together parts 2 and 3 of the Some Kind of Wonderful Quilt this morning. Also stitched together were the top and bottom borders which were part of these 2 months schedule. 

 

Not brilliant photos. It's so long that it's getting quite difficult to photograph it. I ought to have taken some individual photos of the blocks as I finished them  -  I'll do that with the next blocks that I make. I am itching to start on the house block but I think I'll work on a couple of other things first of all. 

 

Linking up with BOMs Away at Life's a Hoot.

2 new starts and 2+1 WIPs

I started the year off with the intention of NOT starting anymore quilts! I'm determined to work on my WIPs - after all, I started them because I loved the design and I would dearly like to see some of them complete. I did commit myself to a couple of new cross stitching projects.

The first one is Outrageous Owls by Glendon Place. I spotted this last year and when I showed it to the girls at our Cropiday (crafting holiday) in November they were so taken with it that we decided to stitch along together on it. We're stitching an owl per month plus a bit of branch.

This is what the finished stitch will look like...

and here is my progress so far...

Sorry for the terrible photos today, it's a rather dark and dreary day. This was a real treat to stitch - there are quite a few colours in each owl, 6 possibly 7 so I'm glad that we split the threads between us!

My second cross stitch project for the new year is the new series of monthly cottages from Country Cottage Needleworks. These are so pretty that it was just impossible to resist them - Carole also had the same resistance problem so we are stitching along together again :D My only problem was deciding whether to stitch them separately or all on one piece. I liked the idea of individual cottages but then wondered how to display them - I didn't really see myself changing the picture in a frame each month. I had a little sort through my stash and found a rather large piece of the called for fabric in 32 count and that decided me - I'm stitching them all on one piece. I think it will turn out too big to frame but a wall hanging will be lovely. Here's my progress so far...

I would have been futher along but for the quandary over whether to stitch on one piece or many!

Last year I started stitching Leanne Beasley's Vignette mystery quilt. I don't think I've shown a picture of my progress on this at all. I fell way behind with it once my elbow started being a nuisance and then once it was better I was SO behind that I didn't feel inclinded to stitch on it at all - how silly. I was inspired by Sharon at Lilabelle Lane to get going on this beautiful project again. I had already completed the first part...

and made a good start on the second part...

The majority of the stitching on the blocks had already been completed but I hadn't started anything on the border. Last week I dug it out and made a start on that. I have most of the stems stitched now and am taking a little break from them by stitching the teal flowers at the moment - love those, they're in tiny chain stitch. It's my intention to sew the rest of the blocks together this month and mark out the stitchery designs so that I can just keep on stitching when I eventually get to the end of part two. My lovely DH called in at the copy shop on the way home from work last Friday and got the copying done for the centre so I have no excuse now - it's time to catch up! 

Here's a project that I am up to date with - Some Kind of Wonderful. I love this quilt and the fabric that I've chosen to make it in (Fig Tree Buttercup) and I'm really enjoying stitching the blocks. The schedule for this month is two blocks from the second column - the daisy and the chocolates. My daisy is almost complete now - just the leaves to stitch on and I have the chocolates prepared and ready to stitch down. I cut out all of the pieces for this quilt before starting any of the blocks so I decided that I would make up all the little patchwork blocks and stitch them to the top/bottom of the blocks. I worked on that last week and have just two left to complete. 

I think that will be a big time saver and I am thinking of stitching together the borders so that they're ready to stitch on when I get to the end of each column but that will be after I've done some more stitching for Vignette. 

Another project that I'm slowly plugging along on is Gail Pan's Berries and Bluebirds. I'm still on the first block - there are a lot of pieces to applique!

So worth the effort though, it's a gorgeous quilt and I have my eye on her new design once this one is completed.

I've seen a lot of lovely new projects around blogland this last week or so, they're all so tempting but I really want to make some progress on my WIPs. I have given in to purchasing the Full House pattern for A Year of Schnibbles as it's one that I've wanted to make for a while. Whether it gets completed this month or even started is another matter entirely! The pattern hasn't arrived yet so I don't have any distraction from my current plan just yet!

 

I've linked this post with Lynn at What a Hoot and her BOMs Away Monday.

Some Kind of Wonderful and Autumn

I finally finished the backstitching on the last block of the first part of the Some Kind of Wonderful stitch a long. Part one is now all stitching together and it's looking very nice indeed. Here's the little suitcase block...

and here are is the first column stitched together with its border on...

I've also been working on the Autumn part of the Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers mystery - it's just as lovely as Summer and I'm enjoying stitching it. Not quite sure why I started stitching the bird from the bottom up - must have been that my hoop was down there and I couldn't be bothered to move it, lol! I'll be reattaching my hoop at the top when I do some more on this - hopefully over the holidays. I'm hoping that the postman will visit today with my order for CCN January cottage. I've been stitching again on my Berries and Bluebirds applique by Gail Pan - haven't a picture to show yet, I keep forgetting to take one so that's definitely a job for the new year!

 

I doubt that I'll get chance to post again before Christmas now so I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very happy, healthy and stitchy New Year :)

 

 

Some Kind of Wonderful - part 1

I decided to take a little break from stitching Wildflower and carry on with my blocks for the Some Kind of Wonderful stitch a long. I had stitched the first two blocks a little while ago and had only 3 blocks to stitch to be up to date with the schedule. These little blocks are hard to stop stitching - very addictive indeed! Here are the first four completed blocks - the fifth one, the suitcase, is almost done I'm in the middle of stitching the words on it.

  

I'm stitching the little patchwork sections on as I go and then stitching the blocks together - just the suitcase to finish and I'll have the first column complete and can stitch on the first two borders.

Here's where I'm up to with Wildflower...I've two large flowers left to do, a couple of words and the coloured stitches in the large leaf. Might stitch on this at the weekend at our crop but then again, I might stitch some of the Autumn Blackbird Designs instead :)

 

I mentioned to Carole about the new CCN monthly cottages. Looks like we'll be having a little shopping spree sometime soon :grin: I asked yesterday and Karla at Patchwork Rabbit has the January chart just waiting to be ordered up!

Coffee Menu by LHN

Last night I put the final stitches into Little House Needleworks' Coffee Menu. I've been stitching along on this one with Carole - it's the first in a series of charts that we decided to stitch together. I think I enjoyed every stitch on this - well, maybe not the ones that I had to unstitch but it has been a lovely design to stitch and the colours are lovely. I corrected the mistake that I mentioned last time - I had stitched Dark Roast one stitch to the right. I suppose I could have left it as was but it would have been screaming out to me from behind the glass once it was framed so I took it out and restitched it! 

Our next stitch is going to be Wildflower by SamSarah Designs. I've not stitched anything by this designer yet and I'm looking forward to starting this with Carole in November...it has some very sweet buttons on it and the colours are lovely.

I am also going to be joining in with the Some Kind of Wonderful Stitch a Long on the Stitch a long blog I'm so glad to have been given a place on this. I bought the book back in July and there are so many lovely things in it that I didn't want it to sit on the shelf waiting forever! I'm going to use some of my Fig Tree stash for the quilt and have begun cutting out the cream backgrounds into strips. Next job is to cut the cream backgrounds for the applique blocks.

I'm hoping to prepare the first blocks and start sewing on them soon and perhaps take some away with me in November when my friends and I have our second crafting weekend of the year.

I noticed this morning that the sign ups are ready now for this month's Friday Night Sew In. I wasn't able to join in for the last few months but hopefully I'll manage to do so this month - it's the day before my birthday! You can click on the link in my sidebar to join in with the fun.