Espritpatch

  I played the lottery with the Block Lotto quite a few times over the years. In 2014, Sophie offered a full quilt pattern on top of the blocks for the lotto. Of course, I started it but ran out of steam half way through the year.... The final quilt should have looked like this .  This abandonned project is my APQS UFO for February so I digged the blocks out and found 47 of them.  Looking at the finished quilt, I would still miss 5 Sunrise blocks , 14 Little Windows blocks, 6 Sweet Dreams blocks , 4 Woven Bar blocks , 8 Easy X blocks , and 3 Big O blocks so another 40 blocks. Now I could make a pretty good quilt from what I have already. But should I make more blocks and have a bigger quilt? One crucial question for this is do I have background fabric left, and if so, where is it? One temptation is to assemble the blocks together and finish the quilt now but equally looking at the picture of the finished quilt, I really like it! But there is a lot of work left in it... ...

I have been trying to do a lot of clearing out and decluterring in the last few months, including in my sewing/craft supplies. And while going through bags, boxes etc, I have of course unearthed some long lost treasures, abandoned projects and all sorts. I stumbled across a pile of Disappearing 4-patch red and white blocks that I had won during the Block Lotto in March 2011 (!) and that had been waiting to be put together... one day. Well the days to do so finally arrived recently and I started to piece the blocks together into a quilt top earlier in the month. While working on this top, I decided that I would make it a "Love Quilt" for my cousin and her boyfriend who invited us to celebrate their 10 years of love yesterday. Once I took that decision, the obvious pattern to quilt over the quilt was of course Love Hearts and took inspiration from the backing fabric The quilt was finally quilted last week and I unforutnately didn't notice that the backing fabric h...

More bee blocks catch up this week. First with these absolutely gorgeous log cabin for Esther. I love log cabin blocks but her twist on them is just brilliant. Her quilt will be stunning. I also finished my bubble for Brandy that I owe her for August, black and white And I also made 3 Barn Door blocks for the Block Lotto Taking my total of blocks to 18 so far. Linking to    Building Blocks Tuesday ,  Sew Cute Tuesday ,   Let's Bee Social  and    Needle and Thread Thursday . Celine

So over 2 weeks have passed since my last post, and I wished I had kept the same rythm, but I haven't! There has been more cake [after all Big Boy turned 10], more travelling [a 20th birthday party for my cousin in France and some work meetings] and also unfortunately lots of time in bed... I caught the flu and it has really struck me down badly. I went to bed at 8pm (unheard for me!) for quite a few nights in a row and spent the whole Sunday in bed with temperature. Of course, all that together meant a lot less time in the company of my sewing machine. And this will also mean that I won't complete all my blocks this month, but I have made a few since last time! I have tried to go through the to-do list and add some for fun! So I have made good progress on my geese blocks, finishing Laurie's Geese in the Forest with 2 more blocks and also Anneliese's 4 geese blocks I now have only one set of blocks left for my #100dayschallenge! I also made my March (and ...

So Shelly is organising the 350-block project again this year. This will be my third year and I haven't hit the 350 blocks mark yet but I have good hopes for this year :-) With the number of new projects I have started this year, surely I have the potential to smash the 350 blocks target, but then we will have to see if I manage to run the distance.... For now, I have made 2 more block lotto blocks, I love those blocks I must say.... I had also caught up with the 365 challenge last week and made blocks #12, 13 and 14 (and I am behind again! I made 2 geese blocks for the #100daychallenge quilts Hello Kitty got started finally with only block 1 so far and I also stitched 2 blocks for the Town and Country quilt So quite a few blocks after all in the last week or so since my total is now 26 blocks this month with hopefully more to come! Linking to    Building Blocks Tuesday ,  WIP Wednesday ,  Sew Cute Tuesday ,  Let's Bee Social . Cel...

I have plenty of these at the moment because as I was saying in a previous post, I got tempted by so many lovely new projects. Never a dull moment really! On top of that, I am currently keeping up with the morning yoga, which I feel is great for my body and mind and also with the decluterring. This week task on Shelly's blog is to declutter/order/back up computer files. I think this is almost like a full time job but I'll try to delete afew! So I have made a few more blocks for the 365 challenge quilt, blocks #9, 10 and 11 are done, which means I still have 3 to catch up with. I worked on my #100days challenge by making a belated Bee block for Bee Europa, and a belated Bee Hive block I have almost made a start on the #hkqal, in that I have laid out the first block, ready for stitching! I have sewn 2 blocks for the Block lotto so far, and I must say I love how they turned out. I'll keep my fingers crossed, I wouldn't mind winning! And I couldn...

In between rushing to finish my swaps on time, I have also tried to catch up with blocks and most particularly bee blocks after being so slack last month. And I had quite some time for hand-sewing as I did spend quite a lot of time watching TV too (catching up with some shows or the Great British Sewing Bee!) First there were 2 #flowersforeleni, my modest contribution to this love quilt for Eleni's family This month I was on time for the Bee Hive block for Britta who had picked the Wanta Fanta block - when you put plenty of those together it looks like an orange peel quilt, very effective Another advantage (or not) of organising my stash is that I have been forced to realise that I have a LOT of fabric so I should really not hesitate to CUT into it, rather than save it all for THAT perfect project which will probably never happen. So I made a bonus block for Britta, a trip around the world block in green that she is currently collecting Next on the list, and again in a...

Finally a few blocks... I have such a long to-do list that I didn't know where to start so I picked some blocks, urgent and less urgent! I started playing with the double 9-patch blocks for the Block Lotto. I really like how these blocks turned out in black and white I also made 2 wonky (although not that much wonky as I find wonky quite  difficult) log cabin blocks for Kate for Bee Europa. And finally I also made a Snowdrop block for the Snowdrop Festival, using Yvonne's free paper piecing pattern And these are 12 blocks for the 350-blocks challenge taking my total to 15. Linking to Building Block Tuesday , WIP Wednesday . Celine

FQR is next week and the plan is to hand over my Siblings Together quilt. So after finishing the top last week, I was hoping to quilt it on my day off on Tuesday but I didn't go further than basting it. So yesterday I decided that I wouldn't go to bed until it was finally quilted. I didn't use any fancy pattern, just straight lines really but I got there. And it is finally quilted. Now the quilt is quite big and in the interest of time, I thought I might try to sew the binding by machine. I normally sew it by machine on the front and by hand on the back but I don't feel I'll have the time by next Saturday so I will give it a try and see. This week I also tried to make a key pouch that I am planning to make as my sample swap items for FQR (yes I know it is next Saturday). But Heidi has written a great tutorial and they are quite easy to make. I was planning the Eiffel Towers at the back too but got confused! Never mind, this one will be mine because ...

Yes indeed! I guess  Adrianne 's one block a day challenge has forced encouraged me to take time to sit at my machine. And I decided that my one block a day would be a block for me, not a bee block or a swap block, not a block that I am doing for someone's quilt but one for me. So for now, I have picked the Mod Mod Along blocks as I have fallen so far behind. I have completed the January, May blocks and one April block and that's all. I need to make 10 Bead on a String (February), 3 Irish Star Chain (March), 11 Diagonal Bars (April), 6 Sunrise (June) and some Spokes (July). So far this week or these first 5 days of July, I have completed 4 Diagonal Bar blocks  and one Bead on a String (and I am hoping to make one more today ;-) ) And while I was working on these blocks, I have also progressed quite a few other projects.  First I have finally finally finished my block for Christa for the Stash Bee and I also finished my last block for Siblings Together 2 qui...