Espritpatch

The theme for the Tuesday Archive this week is obviously Hearts and Love, what else? I have made this mini a long time ago (12 years exactly) with some lovely hearts for my cousin's 18th birthday but of course that was pre-blog time. I had hardly started to quilt at the time but I had a lovely pattern and used some fusible to applique the hearts, all in different fabrics (including organza). All the hearts were machine applique, some with metallic threads, and then I tried free-motion quilting around the hearts, how daring for a beginner! Linking to Tuesday Archive . Celine

Another week-end and another large number of hours spent in the car as we drove back from our lovely holidays in the Alps. Once we were down the twisty, tiny roads from the mountain, I got all my supplies out ready for another few hours of sewing, interrupted of course by all sorts of demands from the 3 munchkins at the back, but I still managed quite a bit. I finished my Patchwork of the Cross block for Jan in shabby chic floral and I also worked on my Midnight in the Oasis quilt. The first border is made of squares with melons or orange peels applique in a flower shape. There are 20 of those squares (or 80 shapes to applique!) and I decided that I would needle turn applique by hand (by far my preferred applique method). I have applique a melon for a very very long time but I have done quite a few in the past on my Dear Jane blocks. I prepared my shapes with freezer paper on top before we left, gathered my favorite YLI silk thread for the applique and I was ready for the task ahea

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

It is that time again when the lovely Amy from Amy's Creative Side is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Although this is the 9th festival, it will be my 6th time! I really like the virtual festival, even more at the moment when everyone seems to be having a fantastic time at Quilt Market in Portland and I am here in the cold and grey weather of the UK! Blog hopping to marvel at wonderful quilts should cheer me up! It is always packed with gorgeous quilts and wonderful story. And although I am not making award winning quilts, I like participating and showing the world my own creations! It is a great way to reach out to people you would have never met otherwise and to discover some wonderful blogs that you didn't know were at the reach of your computer!

One of this month theme for the BBC swap was monsters. So I took inspiration from one of Mr Cars pyjama who is covered in monsters and aliens to make my 4-legs, 1-eye bitty block: I really like the rounded body and 4 legs so I made an army of monsters in an assortment of bright colours.

I have a lot less time that I would like to sew at the moment but at least the house is slowly getting back to some sort of normality. Miss Strawberry Shortcake finally moved into her pink princess room last week-end. She still needs some curtains but that will come in time! Our kitchen and bathroom have finally been tiled. Slowly, things are getting finished, which is nice. I just wish it was all done already!

Little sewing progress this past few weeks, the house remodelling is taking all my time and energy at the moment. We are sloooowly getting there but there is still so much to do... And of course there is also the Christmas biscuits to make for the teachers (4 bags this year!), little vanilla biscuits that seem to be appreciated at home too... And if you are here for the swap, sign ups for the Simply Solids FQ swap are here ! Now back to my sewing

It is that time again when the lovely Amy from Amy's creative side is hosting her Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival . It is always packed with gorgeous quilts and wonderful story. And although I am not making award winning quilts, I like participating and showing the world my own creations! It is a great way to reach out to people you would have never met otherwise and to discover some wonderful blogs that you didn't where at the reach of your computer!

It is the time now... to share with you where my little witch went on her journey. You might remember that she started here before I sent her off on her way to Diane  who took her on point and added this lovely paper-pieced blocks While Diane worked on my block, I added a border to her witch with 2 sides in orange and 2 sides with pumpkins and scary cats   When I got my witch back, I decided to turn her back again as I felt this was the way I saw her flying off and added a printed fabric that I bought years ago. But I didn't have quite enough of fabric (just a FQ) so I had to calculate carefully to be able to cut out 4 triangles. I then added a border to the top and bottom of the square to get to a rectangle shape with fabric from the same line.  She was ready to fly back to Diane who added some lovely flying geese borders while I added eyes on orange and lime and some pumpkins to 2 sides to her top. I then applique some pumpkins cut with my Sizzix die at the

I received my Halloween See Saw from Diane a loooooong time ago (early August) but I have only finished adding my border now. Sorry Diane I am so late. Diane had added 2 gorgeous flying geese borders on her round, a green one at the top and an orange one at the bottom. I bought a lovely little Sizzix die while in Birmingham at the Festival of Quilts with 2 pumpkins. I knew I add to use it for my Halloween wall hanging. I added a plain Kona black border at the bottom of my wall hanging and cut some cute pumpkins from an all-over pumpkin fabric that I had in my stash. I added the pumpkins in a row on my plain black border and stitched over them with black thread. My witch is flying over to Diane, I wonder what she will come up with this time! Celine

Floh has invited us for tea for her block for the Bee Europa 2012-2013. She has open requirements but wanted something to do with tea, if possible a word to be put on a lovely neutral linen background. I pieced strips of various widths from the fabric she sent and then cut out the letters for "the" - tea in French - before applique to the background (with fusible vilene). I blanket stitched the letters using invisible thread on my machine. I hope it fits in Floh's quilt! Celine

I signed up for (yet another!) swap last month for mug rug. There was no specific theme and my partner's requirements were very open so I had lots of freedom of what to do! I looked at my partner inspiration mosaic and saw a lovely picture that caught my eye, so I used it as a base for my design. I assembled the background of my rug with a selection of random sizes green/lime fabrics that I then sliced off and sew back together. I then draw a flower free-hand and cut all the petals from a bright pink fabric that I fused to the back. I then stitched over the petals with a contrasting black thread, quilted the background with a pebble stitch. I find these little projects a great opportunity to practise my free motion skill. The pebble stitch is fun to try but very onerous in thread, I didn't have enough of one bobbin to stitch this tiny mat. I really like the effect on the front and on the back! I tried a single fold binding for this tiny quilt. I usually use doub

I have finally finished my little quilt for the British Quilt Swap . I made a sewing room for my partner. I hope she likes it! I based my design on the draft I made out of paper about a month ago. I had this lovely fabric with rolls of fabrics that I used on the side walls of the room. For the centre I used a neutral fabric to applique the mannequin and spools of thread on. I made the dress from some selvage strips I had kept and threaded the spool with variegated threads. I then added a wooden floor and dropped a few buttons on it and my tape measure. The buttons, spools and mannequin were all cut with Tim Holtz sewing room die on Sizzix. My block is 12' square so I'll be able to enter it in the "Texting while sewing" competition that Amy is running this month! I used the knit stitch from the free motion quilting blog on the middle part of the my mini-quilt and also it isn't perfect, I really like the effect of it, my hubby said it looks like wall-

Back in 2008 or 2009 (I can't even remember when) I started a wall hanging for a baby present. Well it was never finished. I didn't go further than the applique centre panel.  And by now, the baby is no longer a baby and has received another present. So this little teddy has been abandoned with its pot of honey and a few bees until this week. I finally had an idea on how to use the panel, what about treasure pillow / pyjama tidy / secret cushion /  pocket pillow. I am not sure what is the best name for it! I found in my stash a lovely teddy bear fabric that I had bought a few years ago, perfect for this project! I cut out a square and free-motion quilted it. I then took my applique square and cut the top with a gentle curve, cut a background piece and a wadding piece the same shape and made a pocket for my pillow with my new shaped panel. I really like how it has turned out, don't you think this little bear look happier now that he will be treasured? I was

I had prepared 4 blocks that I was hoping to finish by mid-May but I only have two to show off. The first one I made is D7 Meeting Place, which I finished yesterday with sashing and also attached to D6. This was the BOW on the Dear Jane list a couple of weeks ago. The next block I picked is D8 Dee Dee's Delight. I made this one with reverse applique. I started it yesterday in front of the TV, a rare event for me! and finished it today. I need to add the sashing and sew it to the rest of the blocks in that row. That's 9 blocks in row D and 3 more to go to finish that row. My numbers are now: 119, 7, 0, 2510. Celine

STOP PRESS: I have completed one Dear Jane block yesterday afternoon! OK it was a relatively easy one that I choose to do with reverse applique but it is a milestone for me as I hadn't done a block since 2007. I did 3 triangles in 2010 but that was the extent of my progress in the last 4 to 5 years. I have over 100 blocks done so I am really not that far but equally, there is still lots of work left to finish this quilt that I would really really love to be able to send to Belgium for the exhibition in April 2013 which Brenda is planning to attend. That's a motivating factor I think. Anyway, here is my A3 which will definitely feature in the "Finished is better than Perfect" category! This blocks now bring me to 112 blocks completed and 2415 pieces altogether. I have also started a triangle yesterday TR12 that I am hoping to finish quickly enough. Stay tuned for more I hope! Celine

The Fall 2011 Bloggers' Quilt Festival  organised by Amy at Creative Side, is officially opening today and this time I have chosen to share with you my own and unique entry to a quilt competition that I called Japanese Crests. You have seen this quilt before of course as I used pictures of it for my banner! I did all the applique and quilting by hand (mainly doing the applique on the train to work). I used some of my Japanese fabric, that I love so much on a black background. Once I had finished the 3 panels, I attached them together with fancy thread and beads. I finished this quilt in September 2006 for an exhibition, and unfortunately to this day, it is still not hanging anywhere in the house. Maybe one day, we'll buy a little wood stick to be able to hang it... The wall-hanging looks like this and here are pictures of each of the panels.  Each of the panel represents ancient family crests from Japan. I used patterns from a book called Circles of the East