Espritpatch

  Despite a flu-like illness taking most of us down for a good week, December has been a little productive/creative. One long-standing UFO now finished just before Christmas One party dress finished but not worn because the flu got the better of me Some Christmas sewing for a more sustainable festive period with some gift bags and some napkins And a few hours spent on the Cricut to work out how to use it and create some papercraft for Christmas presents. Linking to December Furtle . Céline

  Some last-minute sewing that I had planned for earlier in December but got pushed back because I needed a party dress and then because I was in bed nursing a flu-like illness... I eventually found time for some sewing on the 24th... better late than never really! A few years ago I had made some fabric gift bags that I use every year to wrap some presents. I wanted to make more this year and some bigger ones too for those larger presents that tend to use up a lot of paper. I had the fabric that I had bought last year to make a table cloth before realising that it wasn't wide enough and some left over ribbons too. I just needed the time and energy. Well when time was running out to wrap the presents, I decided it was then or never! I needed 4 larger bags and 2 smaller ones to finish this year wrapping but I ended up cutting one XL bag, 4 large ones and 4 small ones. And because I had some fabric left, I thought it would be nice to make some Christmas/holiday napkins rather than usi

  My company Christmas party was in London just under 2 weeks ago and we were told to dress like in the 1920s. A quick look online made me realise that I had left it too late to order an outfit so I bought the Folkwear 1920s Flapper dress pattern  and I went to Toto tissu to buy some black fabric and some bling to make a dress in the week or so I had left. The pattern is rather simple with 2 identical pieces for the top and 2 identical pieces for the skirt. I cut a size Large qnd lengthened the top pieces by 4''. I could have cut size medium actually as it is quite roomy. I used some French seams on the top and one the skirt for a neater  finish. And I then only needed to add a little bling on the dress. I had found a black sequined trim that I added to the armholes and waistband a wide glittery trim that I added to the hem and the waistband too and a beaded trim that I added to the neckline.  The neckline was by far the most difficult part as somehow my fabric didn't want

  It has been quite a chaotic year really. We had quite a lot of renovation work done on the house, which has seen a lot of disruption. We have had all the ceilings down (yes there has been a lot of dust for a long time) and have had to move furniture around from one room to the other as the work was going on. 95% of the work is completed, most of the stuff is back to where it belongs (but not quite all of it yet). I have also acquired a permanent sewing space in a corner of the new office we have had built, which has been a positive move. But despite this new permanent space, I haven't done very much mainly by lack of time and lack of motivation/energy. And the end of the year has been rather traumatic so not much has happened there either. Now for my top 5: First would be the Super Mario Quilt that has only been finished about a week ago - 10 years after I started it. I really thought for a while that it would still not be finished this year despite needing just the binding. Seco

  It only took 10 years... but it is now finished and ready to be used/enjoyed... I started the Super Mario Quilt during a quilt-along with Angela  in 2012, I made x blocks and cut zillions of little squares and then all was parked for a long long time... Eventually I got all the pieces out again in September 2020 while I was going through my stash, UFOs etc in preparation for the big move, I picked up the pieces again and made the last few blocks I needed to finish the quilt. In April 2021 , I finally finished the top ready for quilting. I quilted this massive top in before we moved and cut the binding too. All that was left since this time was to hand sew the binding and bury the gazillion threads from the quilting. Well it took quite a few evenings (over a few months) but finally it is all done!  This one will no longer be a UFO, one less for 2023! Linking to  Design Wall Monday ,   Midweek Makers ,  Wednesday Wait Loss . Céline

2022 is nearly over and I, for one will be happy to see the end of it. The last part of the year has been and continues to be difficult for us as a family so I guess it might help to set our eyes to the future. Aside from this, it's not been a very productive year in the craft department either, partly because of the renovation work in the house which has seen major disruptions/ move to most of the rooms for a long while, but I guess partly also because of the lack of energy/ motivation when I finally had some time... at least I have a dedicated sewing area again so that's rather helpful.  I like to join Yvonne's Planning Party as it helps me think about what I should like to accomplish or most likely finish in the coming year. But before planning for next year, I like to look back at what I had planned for this year... In 2022, I was hoping to finish 3 quilts (UFO): Super Mario, Flabellum and Impromptu - well I finished the first 2. I was also hoping to progress some othe

  Wishing you a peaceful time for Christmas Céline

  Hopefully this month should be a little quieter than the previous ones, I am even hoping for some real sewing time.... not just 5 minutes one evening! Who knows, it might finally happen. Let's make a list to keep focused, or not! Quilting 1.  Super Mario quilt -  needs binding finished off (not even the full binding! And gazillions of threads buried)  Will it finally be finished this year? 2. Farmer's Wife quilt - about 30 blocks needed still, it would have been so nice to gift it to my mum for Christmas - unrealistic now... 3. Storm at Sea - a small one to quilt but hopefully it will be done before the end of the year.  4. Dear Jane 5. Impromptu quilt - needs quilting. It is a very big quilt so I went to get it professionally quilted. Maybe it will get sent this month... or maybe not still Dressmaking 1 . Forester  coat -   One monthly goal 2.  PJ for A 3. PJ for C 4. Jeans - cut 1 or 2 years ago... 5. Pillow cases Bags 1.  Moonwake bag 2. Open Wide Pouch 3. Wallet for A 4.

Another late review again... the month has been very difficult for our family sadly, we've been trying to get over the traumatic experience but it will take time. With that most of our "free" time and all our energy has been sapped up to be honest so there has been very little sewing.  I caught up with mini sew along blocks, I made 20 in total And I also finished a sewing UFO: the Ultimate Coat which had been over 1 year in the making.  I was hoping/ planning to make a winter coat but I hardly started it in the end... Linking to November Furtle . Celine

  This one was started over a year ago. I joined an online class with Claire's Thread in May 2021 to sew the Ultimate Coat by the Maker's Atelier . I didn't quite manage to finish it during the sew-along but made quite great progress. The Coat was assembled and only needed the finishing touches.  Because this was running quite close to our move and all the end of school year sewing, I left it aside hoping it wouldn't be for too long... well in the end it took me well over a year to pick it up again. I knew one of the step that was left was to sew the drawstring chanel at the waist but somehow my markings didn't align so I wasn't sure how to make sure it would be sewn straight around the waist. That's probably why I wasn't that keen to dig it out again.  At long last, I got everything out last month and decided to sew the channel anyway. With that done, only the addition of the elastic around the wrists remained in terms of sewing. That alone again took

Today is the last day of the Mini blocks sew-along and I finished my last block in the morning. That wasn't the plan but the last 10 days have been particularly awful for our family so there had been no time/ energy or willingness to do anything more than the bare minimum... sewing will help healing I hope.  I finally ca ught up with the blocks on our return from the US, first with the criss-cross The curved log cabin, which I made 2 of: And the rainbow And 2 bonus blocks And one more triangle geese too that I had started a while back A grand total of 20 blocks so far... not sure what I'll do with them or if I'll make more.  Linking to  Design Wall Monday ,   Monday Making ,  Midweek Makers ,  Wednesday Wait Loss ,  Happy Needle and Threa d   Brag about your Beauties ,   Off the wall Friday ,   Finished or Not Finished Friday ,   Put your foot down ,  Peacock Party ,   Patchwork and Quil t