Espritpatch

Once again I have spent a relatively big amount of time in the car as we drove to our spring break and although we have shared the driving with DH, I still had some time for some hand sewing, I prepared my piec for my English Paper Piecing bee blocks. And my Sewtogether bag is perfect to hold all my supplies together: templates, pieces of fabric, pins, thread and scissors. All my pieces are prepared for my Patchwork of the Cross block for Jan who wanted a shabby chic block and I have nearly 3 hexies flowers ready for the Inchy Hexie Swap Linking to Building Blocks Tuesday and a new-to-me linky party but really fitting for today Hexie Week-end . Celine

You might remember that I showed you earlier in the week the hexies I had started while on holidays. One of the flower, I couldn't complete because I was missing a petal. Well, I am happy to report that it is now finished. My 2 blocks for Irene for Get Your Hex On! are finished. And it is only the first half of April. It feels so good! Celine

We had a lovely Easter week in Spain. It was so nice to feel the warmth, see the sun and the blue sky after such a loooooong winter here in the UK. We left the UK with a stomach bug (Mr Cars) and came back with it (Miss Strawberry Shortcake) so the holidays program was slightly modified but it was just great to relax and have some time and some fun with the kids. The resort we stayed in had a laundry but the washing machine were broken :-( not great with sick children but anyway, that was just a small inconvenience!

Just to brighten the grey skies we have here, I received 2 lovely flowers from Ana in Portugal. I love the fabric she has picked! Thank you Ana.  I still need to finish my February and March flowers for my partners - working on them. And I am missing December and February flowers from my partners... Celine

Last week I finished a framed hexie for Jeanette. She asked for pastel colours and I have already swapped a few times with Jeanette so I wasn't sure what to do this time. I got my inspiration when I finished my teacup coasters and decided to make her a teacup too. I hope she likes it. It will be flying to Australia very soon. I also received my lovely coasters on Saturday made with some beautiful oriental fabrics. Look at the bow tie blocks and the lovely quilting. They look lovely on the front and on the back! Celine

I received this lovely flower from Jeanette for our October/November hexie flower swap on the Craft Forum. It is lovely and will go very well with all my other dotty flowers. Celine

This month I have been playing with stripes to make these interesting looking flowers for my partner on the Inchy Hexie Swap. I love the look of them, I hope she likes them too! Celine

After finishing my little cups this week-end, I also finished my (overdue) framed hexie that is now flying over to Geniene. She wanted a boy theme with blue fabric so I decided on a rocket. Hope it goes with the rest of her collection! Celine

It was Baby Girl's turn to be ill this week-end so the nights have been disturbed and short and as a result my energy levels were quite low. But I did manage to finish a few swaps. I signed up for PotHolder Pass #9 organised by Amy but decided to only do the coasters this time. I had an idea early on and then kind of went off it so I browsed Flickr yesterday to find something else. I looked at my partner mosaic and used one of the idea that I modified slightly to make a set of cups for my partner. I hope she likes them, I was happy with the results if I can say so myself! I think I might reuse the idea for gifts as it easy enough to make, use a few scraps and come out quite nice.  I alo worked on my little  hexies and I finished the flower for Gloria that I will be able to send tomorrow and started on my flowers for the Inchy Hexie Swap. Celine

Yesterday I got a lovely package from the USA with not 2 but 3 lovely dotty flowers from Debra from the Inchy Hexie Swap. She had posted them such a while ago that I was worried they might have got lost in the post, which would have been a real shame. In addition, she spoilt me with a lovely piece of dotty fabric, well worth the wait! Thanks Debra. I thought I had make more progress on my projects this week or even add an other OPAM to my list but unfortunately not. The weather has been extraordinarily warm for Autumn here and I have been really tired again. I had a lot of work as well so I didn't have the energy to do anything in the evening. Hopefully I'll find some time to sew this week-end. Celine

I haven't done much progress this past week. I was trying to finish the bathrobe I started for Big Boy but I kept doing it wrong and having to rip it off, what a pain... Anyway, I managed to finish my second hexie for Natalie that will be in the post tomorrow, finally! The end of the month is fast approaching so it is about time. Anyway, I hope she likes both the pink and the green hexies I made for her. Yesterday evening, I watched the second episode of Downton Abbey and once I had finished the ironing, I picked up my Little Birdie block from August to continue the stitching.  I haven't made much progress yet but maybe I can finish it by next week-end when October block will be released. Celine

Yesterday morning was karate grading and Big Boy did very well getting his full grade and a new red and black belt. During the grading (which last for 2 hours as it is all color belts at the same time - up to brown), I managed to finish one of my hexies for Natalie for the Inchy Hexie Swap. I need to do the second one before I can ship them to Australia. I also picked up my "Life is Beautiful" block to do some more stitching. When we got back in the afternoon I was so tired - again :-( that I slept for 2 hours so the afternoon went by very quickly. In the evening I watched a (new to me) series as Downtown Abbey season 2 was starting. I haven't watched season 1 so it was a bit hard to understand the relationship at times but it was an interesting series. I think I will carry on watching it over the next Sundays. At the moment it is featuring the Battle of the Somme with its enormous casualties, sad as this is the place I am originally from and it is mostly known for thes...

Today was my lucky day! I got 2 swap packages through the door, both from Australia. I got a lovely welcome pack to the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap. This was version 2 of the welcome pack as Jane originally sent me one in August which never made it to me. She very kindly made another dotty hexagon for me and send it again with a pack of templates from Joanne. In the other package, I received not one but two gorgeous framed hexie from Diane. Diane was my partner for August and kindly made me 2 hexies to replace the one I never received from another partner in April. This is so kind of her. Swaps are as good as the people who swap and occasionally it can happen that you don't get a return gift for the one you sent. I didn't expect somebody else to make it up for me. This is very generous and I am really spoilt because Diane's hexie are just gorgeous. I also sent a package across to Australia this morning with my Mug Rug and a flower hexie to Shirley. Hope she likes both! ...

Last week I received this gorgeous, yummy hexie from Lyn in Australia and I just love it. The little girl is so lovely. Celine

I have received this lovely flower from Jude last week to add to my collection of dotty hexie flowers. Celine

I have finished my first 2 flowers for the Inchy Hexie Flower Swap. They are now flying to Canada to Natasha. She didn't have any preferences for the colours so used some fabric from my stash. I finished the second flower on our way back to France so had to take the picture in the car with my jeans as background while we were stuck in traffic. I posted my enveloppe in Dover just before boarding the ferry a few days ago. Celine

I have been catching up with my swap lately and have been sewing some hexies. First I sent this little cat to Ondrea for the July framed hexie swap. And I received this wonderful "Good luck" hexie from Jeanette Then I sent this flower to Robynne  and finally today I finished this cat and butterflies hexie for Doris and it will fly over to Australia very soon. I am now trying to finish off my first 2 flowers for the Inchy Hexie Swap to send to Canada. One done, one more to do! See you soon! Celine

Although I haven't been sewing much in the last month, I have received some lovely hexies from the forum swap. I received a framed hexie made of tiny hexies from Ondrea for my oriental collection,lovely: and 2 beautiful dotty flowers from Joanne, I love the colours, very summery when the weather here is more often autumn-like despite being July. and a delicate pink one from Penny: This week, I also sent - late - my hexie flower to Elly, her theme is black centre and bright petals: If you are still wondering whether to join the "Inchy Hexie Flower Swap" that I told you about here , this post will have convinced you! But be quick, run! See you soon, Celine

If you love hexie flowers and would like to see your garden grow bigger with the help of friends around the world, read on as you might be interested! I have just discovered the "Inchie Hexagon Flower swap" held by Jane on this blog . Although registration is currently closed, Jane has very nicely accepted me to join from August onwards and she is looking for 3 more "hex.a.cul.tur.ist" to join in the fun. So if you have ever wanted to join a swap for hexagon flowers, now is your time, but we quick as August is fast approaching. All you'll have to do is to make 2 flowers a month for your partner and very soon you'll see your garden getting bigger and bigger - with a little help from your friends. And if you need a little bit more persuasion, make sure you go and browse at all the growing gardens on flickr . If you are interested, please email Jane the swap coordinator at: hexagonswap at gmail dot com. I hope to see you there! If you don't manage to get ...

This week I have been working on curtains for the lounge. I have bought the fabric over a year ago and we decorated the room in August last year but I never got around to actually sew the curtains. We have visitors next week so I decided it would be great if I could hang the curtains before they arrived. I have also worked on my little birdie block and finally finished stitching the block for May on Friday. I still have to put the squares around it but at least the stitching is done. Maybe I'll be able to start stitching the June block before the end of the month. I now next block will be published on Friday but I am slowly catching up. I used a former birdie (March one) for my framed hexie for this month and my bird is ready to fly to Australia tomorrow. Celine