Espritpatch

This week has been heavily disrupted in our house. First I spent Monday night in A&E with Miss Strawberry Shortcake but all is well and we eventually came home in the small hours of the night. And on Tuesday I received the call I feared from my brother to tell me that my Grand-Dad passed away. So we packed and went home for the week-end to say our last Good-Bye and be there for the funerals. My Grand-Dad turned 88 last Sunday so he has been blessed with a long and happy life but regardless, it was very emotional and hard to let him go one last time. Needless to say that all the plans for this week have gone through the window and little got done. Today is Mother's Day in England and I must say it has been a slow day for me, I have been feeling physically exhausted, I guess this is the consequence of the last week. I have spent a considerable amount of time in the car to travel back and forth to France, which has helped to work on my Once Upon a Time sampler for the 30/30 Se

Another pre-blog quilt today for Val's Tuesday Archives . I started quilting in 2002 with a project far too difficult for a beginner, an applique quilt based on a traditional French Game called Jeu de l'Oie.  I found the pattern in a French magazine and the instructions were not very detailed onto how to make it. But with no fear, I went ahead, started shopping for red and white fabric and started applique (by hand) all the little squares that were required for the quilt. I didn't know anything about needle turn applique or reverse applique or even fusible applique or machine applique at the time so I used a straight running stitch on each of the pieces (I discovered needle turn applique a couple of years later while working on my Dear Jane blocks).  I made all the blocks and assembled the top over several months and I eventually went to a quilting class at my local quilting shop to discover how to quilt. I kept my quilting quite basic for a first quilt but then it w

This week has been good I think, I was hoping to get caught up with all my bee blocks, well that doesn't quite work as I caught side tracked. The only block ready to go is my block for Bee Europa and one more block for the 350-blocks challenge But this is what I spent most of my time on: I picked up my cat quilt in-progress to try and finish the top. This is my chosen project for the March Lovely Year of Finishes and the end of the month is coming quickly. Most of the blocks I had were made by my fellow bees last year for Bee Europa but I decided that the top was not big enough and I needed to have it 6 x 6 rather than 5 x 5. I made one extra block last year but I still needed 10 more. So I made 10 more blocks this week (and that's 10 blocks more for the 350 blocks challenge!), Miss Strawberry Shortcake arranged them yesterday and I finished the top. Now I am planning to quilt it next week-end. 350-blocks challenge: 17 this month, just about one week to make 13 mo

As usual I had great plans for the week ahead and the week-end last Monday but most of them went out of the window. On Tuesday evening about dinner time, Miss Strawberry Shortcake announced that she needed a PE kit for...tomorrow. Of course I had some fabric to make drawstring bag but I hadn't made it yet as it hadn't been required. So after my exercise class, I did set off to make her bag. In all honesty, it didn't take long, probably about 30 minutes in total but that wasn't on my to-do list! But anyway this is another OPAM for March and another one off my Finish Along list . And then after a long week at work and also emotionally, my Mum called to say my Grand-Dad wasn't well so we decided to make a flying visit to the family in France over the week-end. My Mum and Grand-Mum were cheered up a little by the kids' company and could go to hospital and spend time with my Grand-Dad. I am not sure whether he knew I was there with him but anyway, I sat by his be

I am a queen of last-minute, nothing new here, but I have been particularly last-minute for the Sewing Room Swap. I am not sure how it happened, but it did happened. Anyway, before the week-end started, I hardly had anything done (I knew what I was making - pattern, fabric etc) but my progress was ridiculous. I picked a mini from my partner's mosaic as inspiration and decided to make a similar one. The mini is made of 4 Arkansas Stars from Lee's tutorial here in the Summer Sampler series. I didn't cut out the diamonds for my blocks but used strips that I sew together before cutting the diamonds out. I used 2 5/8' strips but next time I would use 2 3/4' or even 3' strips as some were slightly on the shorter side. So by Thursday evening all I had done was my diamonds, I paper pieced half of the blocks on Friday night and the second half on Saturday. Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day here, sunny and warm, and I guess that's what gave me some energy to ge

The themes for Val's Tuesday Archive linky party today are Applique and Apple. I knew straight away which quilt I would refer to for the applique and really thought it wasn't that long ago since I made it but actually I finished it a few month before I started my blog so I will be twisting the linky party "rules" again this week. I have a picture in this post here  from the blog festival in 2010 and a little bit about the story too but I thought I would write a post about the quilt now. The quilt I am featuring today is made of 40 blocks from the Dutch Treat book . All the blocks are made in blue and white and are inspired from the delft ceramic tiles. My Mum came to visit some time in 2008, while her new house was being built and looked at the book, admiring the quilt and blocks. So after she left, I set to make her a house-warming quilt with some of the blocks. I picked 40 blocks either for their designs or names and made all the blocks by hand using reverse ap

I was planning to post on Saturday my progress on the 30/30 Challenge but with a birthday boy in the house, I never found time to write a blog post. This is one of the thing I did instead on Saturday Now the birthday season is over in our house, back to some sort of normality hopefully! Anyway, during the first week of the challenge, I didn't manage to get started on my new You've Got Mail wall-hanging (also because I was busy finishing a swap) but I did spend my commute time on my cross-stitch sampler. So I know it doesn't look like a lot of progress but I actually made some progress: I started on the border on the left of the stitchery and also added the mirror in the first box and the crown in the second. Let's see what another week of commuting brings! Linking to Berry Barn Design . Celine

So this last month I joined for the first time A lovely Year of Finishes challenge with a (too) long list, let's see how I did 1. Finish off my mini quilt and small item for the  Sew Sew Modern 4  swap - all sent on time 2. Make a mini quilt for the  Super Swap  - sent on time 3. Catch up on my  Simply Solids  blocks (December and January) - January done, December still to do 4. Make my  Siblings Together 2  blocks (January and February)-  January done, February still to do 5.  Inchy Hexie  swap (finish January and February) - January and February done 6. Block for the  Lotto  - 0 block 7. Double chevrons blocks for  Mod Mod Along  - all 4 blocks done 8. Start my Once Upon a Time Sampler for the  New FO challenge  - started 9. Make some pillowcases for the kids -all finished and in their bed 10. Finish my hearts panel (if I can locate it again) - not found again so no progress 11. Catch up on my + and x blocks - none done 12. Make more blocks for my Cats quilt - none do

Only one block completed so far this week, this is my last (belated) block for the Simply Solids bee. This block was for Jo. She asked for a snowflake like the ones you make with paper that you fold and cut out. I finally got around to try and make her this block with a snowflake inspired from a charm on one bracelet I recently bought: That's another bee which is finished and one of my goal for March (#2) completed! If you want to try cutting out a six-pointed snowflake, visit this website for clear and detailed instructions. Linking to Jen at  Building Blocks Tuesday , Sue at Brit Thursday Sewing Linky , Kelly at Needle and Thread Thursday . Celine

Did you see this new Linky Party  Tuesday Archives at Val's Quilting ? The idea is to share all sewing/quilting post based on the theme Val's give on her blog. This first week it is about Alphabet Quilts or Album Quilts. Now I made an Alphabet quilt for my friend's baby girl about 7-8 years ago but that was pre-blogging time. So I'll do a special post about this quilt now! I did each of the little applique square on the train to and from work. It is all needle-turn applique. Here are a few close up of the quilt.  Some of the squares also had some embroidery to complete the design.  It is also a rare (maybe the only one) that I quilted by hand.  No if some of the images don't make sense to you with the letters, it might be because it is in French. It took about 6 months to complete it and it was made and gifted in 2006. Linking to Val's Tuesday Archive Celine

Once again, it is time to set goals for the month! and try to get things finished with so many sources of motivation with  2014 - A lovely year of finishes , as well as the  OPAM  and  Lazy Bums The 350 blocks challenge for March is to make 30 blocks! I was shot of 5 blocks in February so let's hope the 3 extra days this month make it easier to finish 30 blocks. What else can I add to the list? 1. Finish off my items for the Sewing Room  swap 2. Catch up on my  Simply Solids  blocks (December) 3. Make my  Siblings Together 2  blocks (February March) 4.  Inchy Hexie  swap (March) 5. Block for the  Lotto 6. Beads on a string blocks for  Mod Mod Along 7. Start my You've got Mail wall hanging for the NewFO challenge 8. Finish my cat quilt 9. Finish Maud's bag - Lazy Bums challenge for March 10. Catch up on my + and x blocks 11. Make 10 Farmer's Wife blocks 12. Finish the central medaillon of my Midnight in the Oasis 13. I love Lucy international bl