Espritpatch

  The open wide pouches that I started last weekend are finished and gifted! They were meant to be end of year gifts for my middle daughter's main teacher who has been very good at helping her settle in school in France. Her last school day was Thursday so there was no other option but to finish them on Wednesday night, which I duly did!  A big massive pouch and a tiny one Both with a UK-themed lining I didn't have 2 identical zips so the smaller one is pink, the larger one is beige with tabs of assorted colour.  I hope her teacher likes them and find a use for them! It felt very good to be seeing again and to use a little bit of this massive stash we've moved... It has been such a long time since I didn't finish something! 2 this month feels great.  Linking to  Brag about your Beauties ,   Off the wall Friday ,   Finished or Not Finished Friday ,   Put your foot down ,  Peacock Party ,   Patchwork and Quil t Celine

It shouldn't really need a blog post in itself but... I've turned on my sewing machine! First time in over 2 months that I've finally sat down and sew on my machine. It is an event in itself really! My sewing room is not yet fully set up but at least there was enough space to sew and just enough for cutting too. On Sunday, I digged into my various stash (some still scattered in different place) to find some vinyl, some thicker cotton, some interfacing and quilting cotton, my plan was to make an old favourite that I haven't made for quite a while: the Open Wide Pouch by Noodlehead. I managed to find all I needed and to cut a small one and a big one.  Celine

School started back today! The summer holidays have disappeared so quickly, I can't believe it's over already. Anyway no big school bags this year but just some accessories. I finally finished my daughter's pencil case.  All it needed was to neaten the raw edge inside which I did with a little bias binding, I could have just serged them but I thought it would be nicer with some binding. As for the pencil roll, she started sewing it in the summer but the bobbin ran out and after that she lost interest.  Anyway she at least made a start on it and I finished it for her, a collaborative work!  She went in happily this morning and showed her friend her new stuff! 2 OPAMs in the bag for September already and 2 finishes for my Q3 FAL list ! Linking to Q3 FAL ,  Wednesday Wait Loss ,  Midweek Makers . Celine

I have really been inspired by Ester's little pouch and made 5 more this week-end to be gifted at or around Christmas, I made a flat Star Wars one for hubby and 4 with boxed corners with some lovely Cotton and Steel fabric. I used pieces of fabric 5 x 6.5' and a 6' zip for each pouch. I used 2 rectanglse 1.5 x 3' for the tabs for the zip. I like how these came out, all in a Sunday afternoon's work! And that makes it 5 more OPAMs, I am on a roll! Linking to Sew Cute Tuesday. Celine

I sent my last swap for this month, which was the It's so Kawaii swap. For once, this wasn't a secret swap and Mara asked me to make items for her 4-year old daughter. I like the Open Wide Pouch I made for the Sweet and Salty Easter swap so I decided to make one with some mini charm Kawaii squares that I had in my stash and I paired with a lovely emerald happy bee fabric that I bought years ago because it was happy and fun :-) One good thing about re-organising my sewing room and my ever-growing stash (an on-going project since January) is that I rediscover fabrics that I had completely forgotten about. Some are nice surprises, some not so nice ;-) Next I made a little hand-bag from a pattern by Rachel called the friendship bag with again some Kawaii fabric pieces I had in my stash and some yummy strawberries Nice, fun and easy mini handbag perfect for a little girl, which made me think that I really ought to make one for my mini girl too... maybe one day! And fi...

This week has been good to finish some WIP. The deadline for the Sweet and Salty Easter Swap was approaching fast so I concentrated on my Open Wide Pouch by Noodlehead , a very good pattern that I will for sure use again. I also made my favorite sewing kit with a cute little sheep fabric that I have had in my stash forever! And I collected a few goodies for my partner too! I received my pouch from Sue, it's lovely and bright. And she had filled it with so many gorgeous goodies, my youngest already had her eye on the chocolate rabbit! While I was making a sewing kit, I thought I could make another one for my 2015 IG Secret Pal partner. I had this cute babuchka fabric in my stash that I paired with a lovely turquoise. I also finished a pillow case for Big Boy. It was supposed to be for his birthday and I tried to finish it for his birthday, but I get doing it wrong... so I unpicked a few times and finally finished it this week. And earlier in the month I h...

I don't blog much these days, and I don't sew much either actually... Our house extension is still not finished, far from it since we still don't have a kitchen or a main bathroom at the moment. I have finished packing my sewing room last week-end so that the wall could come down on Saturday. So all my sewing stuff is now scattered in the house - wherever there is some space left. It is still chaos and it is getting quite annoying I must say. The kids have had enough and we finally did put the tree up last night, they were delighted. I had promised we would as soon as the floor had been laid down so I couldn't come back on my promise! If you are looking for the sign-ups for the FQ solids swap, please go there .