Finishes

Yet another month has flown by and it's time to display May

I also have finished stitching October and have started November.

I changed the colors of the October cottage to an all-white one as the original shade was the exact shade of my fabric.

May completed just in time

I stitched this last year, but just needed to finish it. I did that today with one day to spare!
I changed the colors to a brighter palette. I had a button that matched perfectly so I placed it over a stitched flower. 
 I have June stitched too, just need another couple hours to finish that one properly. September and October are the only ones left I haven't stitched yet. Here's a couple photos and what it looks like on my calendar.

April!!

Though a bit late, here's my April all done up

 I found the trimmings at our local crafts supplies store. 

I am currently almost done with October. Have 2 more to stitch up. The cottages SAL is absolutely great fun. Thank you Vonna for putting this together :)

Finished! on 3-20-13

Hello, I am so happy to share with you my cottages - all finished stitching last night!  I loved stitching this so much, I only side-tracked with two small Christmas ornaments, other than that, I've been stitching faithfully since last June when I first discovered these charming darlings.  I should admit I loved it so much that I started slowing down at the end because I guess I didn't want it to end!  (Of course, I immediately started on my next project within minutes!)  Here it is, please let me know what you think.  My daughter loves it.  So do I! 

I'll add more photos on my blog, I havn't been posting lately since I've had technical problems, but hopefully will work those out soon.  I keep checking this lovely blog regularily to see your finishes.  Blessings, Shari in KY

Septmeber finish

Yes, presenting September Cottage

I skipped the little bees that were next to September, as I thought that might get a little cluttered.

April finished by Nancy M

I stitched this last year, but never got around to the finishing part. Since this year has gone by so fast I decided I better get going on it! I have May stitched too, but not finished, so that's up next on my finishing table!

Nancy M, My Blog

May and June... in Feb and March

Well... it's March of the wrong year to be working on these cottages, but alas such is how it goes. :)

I've completed May and June recently. I really like both, did tweak them a bit with some krenik added to the sky items as well as removed some of the 'clutter' around the house. Just wasn't working for me.
Glad to see others are still stitching away at this project as well. I'm not the only one that fell behind! :)

Working on September...

I haven't posted in many months...life became incredibly busy, and then for the past four months I've been very ill.  I couldn't even stitch for about three months!  It was torture.  Thankfully, I am on the mend and doing much better!  Here's an explanation of my illness, on my blog, in case anyone is interested.  

I also got behind on the cottages because I stitched other pieces in August/September (but all were CCN designs!)  This post on my blog talks about those.

I am back to stitching like a crazy lady.  I actually finished the June and July cottages over the summer, back in July/August -- I just haven't "finished" them up nicely yet.  I didn't make any changes, except that they are stitched on 32-ct Lambswool instead of 28-ct:

And I've finished "August", though I don't have a photo to show you -- what fun that was to stitch!  I loved the colors and made no changes to that, either.

Now I'm working on September and enjoying that, too.  Also no color changes.  Hopefully next time I post I'll have a real "finished" finish to show you.  Though yesterday and today I've been working on "Still Waters" by Plum Street Samplers.  I have to rotate projects around, or else I get bored!

August finished

Yay, I have completed my version of August

I replaced the red with orange - fragrant cloves from sampler threads. Also skipped the fireworks on the sides.

I am pretty thrilled with the way the Indian flag has turned out, my first attempt at changing a chart :)

Here is Feb

That's right, already into the 2nd month of the year!! Feel like Jan has been up and out for a very short time.

So, here is Feb

For the first time, I used seed beads on a finish

I am pretty thrilled with how it has turned out. I have learnt from the mistakes I made in the previous finishes and gaining confidence with each. Hope to come up with a different kind of finish for the next one.

Jan finish

Firstly, here's an update of where I stand with the cottages

Yay, am half way through!!

I have finally "finished" Jan in it's true sense.

I definitely wanted a calendar, but was not very sure how to assemble one. I wanted one with the least hassle. So, here's an ornament that is accompanied by a calendar on a memory board!! Wow, that's so many-in-one

Hello everyone, thanks Vonna for letting me join this! I am Shari, I live in Covington, KY.  I just love cross stitch and like to stitch every night before bed.  I have been working on the CCN Cottages since I discovered them in June, so I'm about half-way now.  I have not really been working on them in exact order, just as I have the floss for them.  I need to make a new floss run this coming weekend!  Here is what I have so far:

I am stitching on 14ct white aida, so I have had to make a few changes.  I did June first and couldn't use white for the cottage so my daughter chose this coral pink for me.  I'm using DMC.  My favorite change is in the month of April, my daughter's birth month, she is named Robin so I changed the bluebirds to Robins! 

More to come...Blessings, Shari

 

July finish

While everybody is reporting their November/December finishes, here I am showing off my July cottage :)

Before I actually show the finish, let me give you a little background. I did a "cottage swap" here between July and August. That's because I wanted a flag in August, as the Indian Independence day falls in August. July had a flag in it. So I just did a swap between the months.

So, here's my July now

As you see this is the August design for July.

I am now getting ready to finish up the months to put them up in time. Will post a picture of January finish soon.

December's Finish

I wanted to share my December Cottage finish with you...

And the back...

I am very happy with how it turned out, and the candy cane fabric is perfect...I can smell the peppermint!

I just love the entire series of cottages, and look forward to starting out 2013 with an adorable and festive pillow to display, one for each month....

Thanks again, to our fearless leader Vonna...kiss! I love everyone's Cottages and salute you all for both your beautiful stitching and awesome finishes.

Hugs

December Done- Nancy M

I just had to get this month done for the holidays! I only received the pattern on Saturday. But I worked on it the last few days and then did the finishing tonight.

I didn't have the recommended flosses, but I used the closest I could find in my stash. I liked this months colors so I didn't want to do any changing. I have really enjoyed the series. I have 3 that I stitched, but not "finished" and I have 2 that I still need to stitch. Not too bad! I finished the MAY cottage too, but I'm not going to post a photo of it until it's "officially finished".
Nancy M

December Finish

I finished up December over the weekend - here's a very crooked snaperoo...

The only floss changes I made were "Brandied Pears" instead of "Swiss Chocolate" and "Pelican" instead of "Seagull" - this was a super piece to stitch - can't wait for Santa's Village to start!!
______________


 I forgot to mention I have been stitching these as a single piece and here
is a snap of the entire piece....

_______________

November Complete!

At the beginning of the year, I had grand plans to complete a cottage every month.  I did January, February....and now, I present my November! We all know how life can get in the way of stitching, don't we? 

I stitched the November Cottage on 28ct Antique Ivory linen, with threads as charted, with the exception of replacing DMC436 with Weeks Bright Leaf, and stitching the middle pair of leaves on the top and bottom in Bright Leaf instead of the recommended Harvest Moon like the rest.   I loved the colors this month - the bright orange/red of the Grapefruit Weeks thread just popped!  It's not properly framed yet, I just placed it in the lovely frame for the photo.  It's the Family Tree Michele frame in Icing, 6.5 inches, by the way.

I love seeing everyone's cottages! Now on to the lovely December Cottage, in time for December I hope!

Happy Stitching,
Rina

Here's November

This is another cottage that I wasn't sure about when Nikki first released it.  But now I really love it!  I don't think it shows in the picture but I did the cottage in one shade darker than Nikki indicated and I did the roof one shade lighter than she called for.  Just those 2 small changes gave it a little something.  And the best part is that I got it done in time to enjoy the whole month! 

November Cottage- Nancy M

I've had this one done since early October, I just need a push to get it "finished" so it can hang on my calendar.. I finally got around to adding the material and it's now ready for next week. It is stitched on PTP 32 ct Legacy and I used a variety of hand dyed thread I had on hand. I outlined the acorns since they didn't stand out enough. I'm not up to date on the cottages, but hope to do December this year and then catch up on May, June, August, Sept and Oct next year before those months roll around. I've enjoyed seeing each month be released and I've tried to "finish" each month slightly differently for my calendar..

My blog

November Cottage

I finished up November Cottage over the weekend - making quite a few changes and frogging out numerous colours....

I did away with all the pink tones and made this a yellow and gold month.  Over on my Blog I'll talk about the changes in more detail.....  can't wait for December!!!

Hi Everyone,

Here's my September finish.  I don't think I ever posted August, and I skipped July because I was a little behind.  I'm skipping Oct. too, so I can get Nov. finished in November. 

 

 

Happy Fall Y'all,  Wade

 

September Cottage Finish

Here is my September Cottage, quite a bit later than it should be but I think it came out cute. I made color changes and design changes to this one to make it more of a school theme than an apple them. More details on my blog.

June cottage

Here's my June cottage finish

I loved the colors in this, so bright and fresh. I was not very comfortable with the french knots. So, I did a half-straight stitch. I think it's still ok and brings out the seedy effect

may

May Cottage, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Now that I'm caught up on my monthly desserts, I figured it's time to try to make some progress on my monthly cottages. Here's May, with some cute bumblebees buzzing around.

Cottage Progress, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

I'm really loving seeing the progression of the months in this stitch-along. This is going to look pretty great when it's done!

October is done!

Put the last stiches in last night & will drop off at the framers today.  Hope I get it back in a couple of days because I love this one & want to have it my home to enjoy as soon as possible.  I used a varigated thread for the tree and I really like how it turned out.

October's Finish...

I finished my October pillow...

CCN October Cottage

I stitched this one on the same (yawn) Tea Dyed Monaco, using the charted floss.

Looove it!

October Cottage

I finished up October over the weekend... here's a snap - 

I loved working on this cottage and made lots of changes - those I'll talk about over on my Blog - 

September Cottage

I finished up September over the weekend and here's a snap with my changes...

I changed up the house colour from red's to a Harvest gold  (CC Queen Bee),  i really liked Paula's use of the gold!! All the red was way too much for this square - I also changed up the window in the attic as it was just a bit big, I added a bird and left off the floating flowers.  I have started on October and it is slow going with the changes I am making.

July Cottage - Canadian Conversion

Here is the long awaited conversion for the Country Cottage Monthly Cottages series; July. 

I have always shied away from doing a "monthly series" like this because of the "july issue". It just didn't seem appropriate to have US flag and colors when July commemorates Canada Day (July 1, the day Canada become independent from GB, however we are still a member of the Commonwealth and pay respects to the Queen) here and I've never been anything but a Calgarian nevermind a different nationality. (Yep I'm boring and have even only lived in 3 houses in my entire life.)

So my solution?
I'd start the cute cottage series, and tackle July when I got to it. Was a small piece of me hoping that maybe it'd be a "simple enough" change? Yeah, I'll admit it. But I'm soooo glad it wasn't just a "change a color here or there" because I am in love with how it turned out and feel like this was a good step towards my goal of "designing some patterns" someday. But time to get to it!
Let's start from the end result and work our way backwards:

 The "Canada conversion" of the July Cottage of the Month
from Country Cottages. Conversions & changes by Mel @ Epic Stitching 

The biggest change?
Of course the flag!

As promised I have charted the Canadian flag out for everyone to see and work from.
I know there were a few other flags people wanted for other countries, if you email me or indicate in the comments which countries you'd like then I will do them up for you and post them in the coming weeks. (figuring out the Canadian flag took some time but after many pencil sketches and blocking it at last 20 times by hand I am happy with the final result, that was recharted after stitching as I changed it a final time!) <- this is why I only have the one flag for right now, but please do let me know if you'd like a specific country and I will see what I can do.

The colours?
Alright, starting at the top.
All the little flowers (with yellow in them), the word July, the window & house frames are in "Ruby Slippers" from Crescent Colors.
The other red (big flowers, flag, flower pot flowers) are a lighter, brighter red from Carrie's Creations called "Crimson".
The fireworks have an added Kreinik to them. I did this with all my months, this is entirely optional.
The other colors all stayed exactly the same as on the original pattern.

The modifications besides the flag?
There are other changes as you've likely noticed.
The flowers have left the white line in the middle and the rest is the Crimson red (regardless of symbol, unless green for the leaves).
The house has a "one line" thinner border, instead of having 3 layers and colors.
The windows have been brought down to one pane instead of with the "shutters". All I did was replace the shutters with white and do the outline of the windows in Ruby Slippers red. The little window at the top "peak" of the house was just added in as a 10x10 block. I did this because all the other houses had something in that space when shown on their sides and I didn't feel that another maple leaf was needed (seemed like overkill to me).
The bird is yellow. Why? good question. Because I couldn't decide on a "Canada" color for a bird besides more red, and I was feeling red overload when I got to the bird, so yellow was already in the design, hey there are canaries in Canada somewhere I'm sure. (just not where I live, lol!)

That's it in a nutshell.
Nothing too fancy or challenging (not including that darn maple leaf).
If you have any questions or concerns or what not please feel free to ask and I'll answer to the best of my ability

My June Cottage

Slow as molasses with these houses and I'm all out of order!  Here's June:

 

 

Left out the floating flowers by the clouds and too lazy to do the French knots.  I'm moving on!

 

I'm jumping ahead to October's cottage.  I ordered it today and look forward to slipping some stitches into my fabric when it gets here!

My Blog

My September Cottage

Hello all, I wanted to share my September Cottage finish with ya...

I stitched this sweetie on my usual Tea Dyed Monaco, using the charted floss and finished it using fabric that I had bought last Fall and that worked so perfect for the school house cottage theme.

I just loooove the shades of red and those cute apples!

I have been drooling over everyone's variations and finishes, you are all amazing :)

On to October...

Hugs

Some finishes to share

I finally picked out a frame so I've got a couple of finishes to share with y'all.  First up is July which is not shown in the new frame but I wanted to share it because I really think it is my favorite.  I absolutely love the fireworks!  And I think the colors are just perfect for this month:

Now here is August in the new frame.  I love it too which is sort of a pleasant surprise.  It wasn't one of my favorites until I got it stitched up.  It definitely looked better in person than it did on the computer.  Isn't that funny how that works sometimes?

The frame is simple but I like it because that way all the focus is on the cottage.

Finally, here is September.  Please let me know what y'all think of the yellow cottage.  Stitching it as Nikki designed it was too much red for my taste.  I first thought of changing the apples to yellow but they didn't look right.  Then my husband, of all people, suggested yellow for the house!  Most of the time he hates to "play cross stitch" with me but this time he was a great helper.  I can't decide whether to do the bottom border.  I probably will since I've done it in all the others.



September Cottage progress

Here is my September Cottage progress so far. I recharted the schoolhouse to add a tower and I changed a few colors so far. It's been super hot here in Southern Oregon so my stitching has slowed down. I hope to get it finished about when October gets sent off in the mail to me.