Espritpatch

  A quilting related little project, it had been a long time! I seem to be spending all my sewing time on dressmaking lately! Maybe the appeal of this particular project was that it is a fast and fun make? Anyway I joined more or less after the party, the rainbow scrappy basket quilt along organised by the Crafty Nomad last week-end. I picked my green scrap box for my first basket  The quilt as you go piece is quite fun to make and goes together quickly. The trickiest part is sewing the base to the side piece.  I had the perfect piece for the lining in my pile of larger scraps.  With the binding on, the basket is ready to be filled! Next on my list was a raid through my powder blue scraps to make a little basket for lit l my friend.  I had to use 2 different fabrics for the lining as I didn't have enough of the first one I selected.  Ready to be gifted! With those baskets, I've spent at least 15 minutes sewing most days last week, encouraged by  Kate'...

The last 2 weeks have been school holidays for the kids and the original plan was to travel back to France. Sadly, with Covid cases on the rise in France, it just hasn't been possible. Regardless, I had a week off just before Easter and lots of plans for hours of sewing. Well, it didn't quite work out on the hours of sewing and cutting, I hardly did any in the end. Thinking about it I am not sure what I did! Anyway, once the Super Mario quilt top was ready for quilting, I got my quilting frame out and set up. Again I was planning to have it put away before Easter but in the end that didn't work out either.... Anyway, the first top on the frame was Super Mario, which is rather big the sashing and borders, and took 11 bobbins to quilt!  The second one was my snowflake top that I finished last December. I had planned to quilt that one before Christmas but that was when my machine decided to stop working so it had to wait until the next quilting session. This one only took 3 bo...

During my quilting marathon last month, I quilted this "lockdown rainbow" quilt made up from a stash of blocks that had resurfaced after over 10 or 15 years at the bottom of a draw... I quilted clouds on the blue squares and various rainbows or other designs on the coloured squares. For the binding, I used left over strips that I found in my scrap baskets.Finally this month I finished sewing the binding by hand at the back.  All that was left to do, was my least favorite job, to bury the thread ends. But I am happy that is all done now. A true UFO and also a stash buster since I have used left over fabric for the backing and binding as well as very old blocks lying around.  Rainbow was my  One monthly goal   for June. Quilt stats: blocks from pre-2010 and left-over from Scrappy trip quilt made in 2019 assembled 7x7 in April 2020 backing and binding from my stash quilted in May 2020 (during lockdown) with King Tut # Size: 56' square O...

While life is quieter, getting my quilting frame out felt like a good idea. Just when I should have been cooking up a storm for my youngest daughter's First Holy Communion, instead I've been free- motion quilting some quilt tops/blocks that have been languishing around.  I started by the strips top that was finished a few years ago and patiently waited to be picked up. I then moved to the blue top that I'm planning to gift this month Followed by the Theradology top that I finished not that long ago The Vintage Kitchen top  And finally the blue and rainbow top. After that, the frame was duly put away, quilts squared and now I have a few hundred meters of binding to sew on! Linking to   M onday Design Wall ,   Wednesday Wait Loss ,  Midweek Makers ,    Needle and Thread Thursday Celine

Last week I got the quilting frame out for my Seeing Stars quilt top that I finished piecing in October. I am making this quilt as a 40th birthday present and I would really like to gift it to the lovely lady when I'll see her at Christmas time. Because the top is to big to fit on my frame I kept it as 4 big blocks to be quilted then assembled. To make things simple and fast, I thought it would be such a good idea to use a different quilting pattern for each star 😁🤔, including some pebbles... what was I thinking? It took me all my sewing time (which is rather limited at the moment) to finish quilting all 4 pieces.... So now I have these 4 pieces that I need to trim carefully and of course quilting might have shrunk them a little. Then I need to pieced the top together, add the backing and finally bind it... let's hope I can manage that soon. Celine

I had planned to finish this long standing UFO this month, but it won't be. The binding is still missing. I am not sure why it took me nearly a whole week to quilt it on the frame, but anyway. quilting is done now. And of course, all it needs now is a scrappy binding, hopefully for September. This was my goal for August so this is a fail :-( Linking to  Sew Cute Tuesday  and  Let's Bee Social. Celine

Of course, I have recovered my sewing machine at the weekend, which obviously means that the last quilt is off the frame! My Stems and Stones quilt, pattern by Kelly Young is all quilted and ready for binding. Love the pattern and love the fabric, I wasn't sure of the mix originally but I think it works! I used a Flower Power pattern from The Inbox Jaunt for an all-over quilting and I really like the effect it gives to the quilt. lots of great texture. I used quite a bright variegated thread King Tut by Superior Threads and it worked well with the multi-colour fabric.  Now only the binding to sew on and hopefully it will be ready on time to be gifted on Saturday night to my friend. Linking to Needle and Thread Thursday. Celine

As I mentioned in my previous post, the quilting frame is out, and the idea is to make the most of it so next on the list was Hello Kitty . After finishing the top last month, I knew I didn't want to wait for ever to get it quilted, although I had no idea how to quilt it and I have found quite a few quilt tops but not many quilted ones. Bearing in mind that I made mine a lot smaller with 1' finished squares, there are a lot of close seams in my top. Anyway, deep breath and here we go! It probably took longer to set it up on the frame than to quilt it as it was done in probably less than an hour! I quilted only the white squares and used a white thread by Superior Threads King Tut. And I must admit, I am in love (and so is my little princess!) Binding and a love message and it will be hers, soon I hope! So overall, it felt like a productive week/week-end, despite the dreadful weather the kids had during half-term. And now, I have another all cut up (but for the...

After making blocks after blocks, I have taken a break from my normal routine to play with some quilting for a while. Hubby installed my frame as the tops are pilling up for the next step of quilting! I started with my son's massive top that I finished piecing in April. I choose a "box / integrated circuits" pattern to quilt this top and used Superior Thread King Tut 937 which is a light variegated thread for the quilting. For some reasons, I had a couple of "messy spots" on the back and broke 2 needles but all in all the quilting was completed over 2 evenings and finished on Saturday morning. Now the top is squared up and I only need to add the binding and a love message on the label! It will be nice to have this long standing UFO off my list! Linking to Let's Bee Social  and Whoop Whoop Friday Celine

There is always too much going on in December and this year is no exception....  I have been very very busy with work and everything else on top. I have also worked a lot on one of my WIP and I am so pleased that I am nearly there. Our lovely childminder is sadly retiring this week (she had told us about 18 months ago but I have been in denial until really recently just because she is brilliant). Anyway, when I started the Farm Girl Quilt in the spring, I knew I wanted to make it for her. And I initially did well with the first few blocks and then completely fell off track. With 6 blocks when I needed 30 for the quilt I wanted to make, there was some serious catch up to do! So I worked through the blocks in the last few weeks and finally made my last block this week-end. The quilt top was assembled by Monday night and I quilted it yesterday with a lovely flower pattern inspired by The Inbox Jaunt . So here it is a WIP that I need to turn into a finish this week.... Just the...

This is why I love quilting. I love how a flat block turns into a lovely textured piece once it is quilted. I did simple stippling on my Unicorn block and I really love how it has turned out. (I am seriously thinking I will not want to send it on!) Love the back too and how you can read the pattern almost. Now it only needs its binding before it can fly away. Linking to WIP Wednesday , WOW  and I Quilt . Celine