This was one of my favourite cottages to stitch. I love October colours and I love pumpkins so I was looking forward to seeing what this one was going to be like.
I picked a darker fabric for this one. It’s a greeny colour, which isn’t showing up too well on my laptop. There are orangey dots in it, which I think look good with the stitching.
Just two to go now.
This cottage was one of my least favourites when I originally stitched it, but I like it a lot more now it’s got its frame around it. I think it was too red before and I prefer it with more brown.
I’m getting through these quite fast now. It’s helped a lot doing prep on them such as cutting all the batting to size and ironing on all the interfacing. All I have to do is pull out each one and the fabric is sitting with it, with the backing cut to size. All I have to do is cut the linen and the Honey Bun and put it all together.
The poles they’re on are looking good now. I’ll take a final photo of them all hanging up once I have the last three finished.
It was quite difficult to find a fabric in the Honey Bun to match this one as it’s so pastel, but I think this one does the job ok. Once again the bottom looks much more wonky than it actually is. My camera has such a sense of humour…
Eight down, four to go.
I think this is one of my favourites. It’s the one that I tweaked quite a lot to make it more British as it was a 4th July theme in the original design.
I’m really happy with how that fabric goes with the design. It’s like little stars to match the fireworks.
That’s seven down, just five to go.
June is finished and hanging which makes me half way done. I quite like the fabric I used for this one. I’m loving this range of designs in the Honey Bun. That was definitely one of my better ideas to get that. I’m looking forward to finishing the cottages so I can have a play with what’s left over too.
I’ve done a bit more to get the other six cottages ready. They’re all now backed with interfacing and the batting is cut to size. I’ve also cut all the backing pieces and selected which strips from the Honey Bun will be used with each one. The next half will go much faster than the first, I’m thinking 🙂
This is what the first rail looks like with six hanging on it.
Looks like I’ll be needing to move that map of Vancouver and the menu from Ghirardelli soon.
I finished this a few weeks ago but forgot about uploading it. I rather like this one in the lighter fabric but I’m a bit worried about how wonky it looks in the photo. The bottom of this does look much better than that in real life. Honest.
I did have one problem with this one. I don’t know how, but I managed to make the hanging straps too short. I’ve sewed the studs onto the back of the straps, just above the body of it, to try to make them a bit longer but this one is still going to sit a bit higher than the others.
Note to self: check length of straps before sewing them into the top in the future.
I used some of the buttons that I got at the NEC a few months ago. I like how they look on this, but I’ve been thinking about how to finish off some of the other months. I may do something a bit different to buttons. I’m not quite sure what yet, but I have a few ideas rattling about.
June’s Cottage is about finished. I just need to tweak it and then I can upload that one too.
April has been sitting on my desk for a few weeks waiting for me to cut the fabric and assemble it. I had got around to choosing which fabric, but that was as far as I got last time I looked at it. It didn’t take long to cut and assemble it once I did sit down to do it, and I’ve cut some extra 9″ squares for the backs while I was at it, ready for the next few.
I’ve used the Kansas Troubles Sandhill Plums fabric again, this time using a dark purple for the front. I’ve pulled a lighter colour for May’s edging to break it up a bit on the rail.
This is how the first four look now.
I’ve got buttons to add to them and I really must get February back down to alter the one stud so that it sits evenly. The fabric is all cut for May so I might do that when I assemble that one.
I used the dark green fabric to frame March, as none of the other colours really looked good. I’m not sure it’s the best shade of green to match the greens in the cottage, but it looks ok. This one went quicker than the other two. I’m getting into a rhythm, I think.
This is the finished March Cottage.
I used some of the pretty buttons that I got at the NEC. I’d have put them nearer to the corners but there was a bit on one of the seams that needed covering up. I may have tried to be too economical with the fabric strip used for the front of the frame. Instead of cutting off the end with the tiny holes in, I used it all and it showed slightly. I’ve got more buttons that are intended for February and January but I haven’t attached them yet.
These are the ones that I’ve completed so far hanging on the rail.
Three down, nine to go.
January looked lonely swinging on that pole all on its own so I sorted out the fabric for February. It’s the same range – Sandhill Plums by Kansas Troubles, but to match the colours in February I chose the brown strip from the Honey Bun with the matching yardage to back it.
I followed the same procedure as I did for January’s cottage and it turned out just as nicely. I do like it with the brown fabric. It matches those little flower pots so well.
This is the back. I used the plastic poppers to fasten the hangers again. I like that technique. It’s much easier to make and it’s also easier to attach to the pole. I think this one may be slightly wonky but it’ll be easy enough to move one of the poppers down a bit.
And this is what it looks like hanging next to January. Next up is March which is mostly greens.
It’s taken me a while to start finishing off these monthly cottages but I’ve finally made a start. I bought the fabric a while ago and tested it on a different project. I’ve done this one slightly differently based on what I learnt from the first one.
This time I started by ironing interfacing onto the back of the trimmed cottage to firm it up a little. I also just stitched one of the ends of the hanger into the top, and left the other end free. Then I sewed poppers on it so that it’s easier to fasten to the pole without taking everything off, and it was also easier to assemble as it wasn’t so thick.
The thing that’s got me finally working on these is that I finally have something to hang them on. I have two poles on the wall with plenty of room on them for all twelve cottages plus maybe a couple of other projects. The poles look a bit bare so that was my incentive to get the fabric out.
I’m using a Honey Bun plus some yardage from the Sandhill Plums range by Kansas Troubles. The colours are lovely muted blues, browns and greens and go very nicely with the cottages.
This is the fabric that I chose for January’s cottage, all cut and ready to go.
Once the cross stitch was backed with interfacing I did much the same as I did with the first one. I sewed the short strips to the top and bottom and then added the side pieces. Then I attached the back, sandwiching the hangers in as I went. I left a nice big gap at the bottom to turn it the right way out. Once it was turned I slipped the batting inside and slip stitched the bottom closed. Then I just had to sew on the poppers. This is what it looks like from the back.
Although I was pleased with the first one that I did, I’m glad I practised on something that didn’t matter quite as much as this one came out much better. It’s slightly more rigid thanks to the interfacing and my stitching was neater. Considering that the most adventurous thing I’d done with my sewing machine before this was turning up some curtains, I’m happy with the way these are turning out.
This is what January looks like on its pole. I think it may need some company soon so I’d better get sewing again.
A slight obsession with books 