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.