Espritpatch

This week has been heavily disrupted in our house. First I spent Monday night in A&E with Miss Strawberry Shortcake but all is well and we eventually came home in the small hours of the night. And on Tuesday I received the call I feared from my brother to tell me that my Grand-Dad passed away. So we packed and went home for the week-end to say our last Good-Bye and be there for the funerals. My Grand-Dad turned 88 last Sunday so he has been blessed with a long and happy life but regardless, it was very emotional and hard to let him go one last time. Needless to say that all the plans for this week have gone through the window and little got done. Today is Mother's Day in England and I must say it has been a slow day for me, I have been feeling physically exhausted, I guess this is the consequence of the last week. I have spent a considerable amount of time in the car to travel back and forth to France, which has helped to work on my Once Upon a Time sampler for the 30/30 Se...

This week has been good I think, I was hoping to get caught up with all my bee blocks, well that doesn't quite work as I caught side tracked. The only block ready to go is my block for Bee Europa and one more block for the 350-blocks challenge But this is what I spent most of my time on: I picked up my cat quilt in-progress to try and finish the top. This is my chosen project for the March Lovely Year of Finishes and the end of the month is coming quickly. Most of the blocks I had were made by my fellow bees last year for Bee Europa but I decided that the top was not big enough and I needed to have it 6 x 6 rather than 5 x 5. I made one extra block last year but I still needed 10 more. So I made 10 more blocks this week (and that's 10 blocks more for the 350 blocks challenge!), Miss Strawberry Shortcake arranged them yesterday and I finished the top. Now I am planning to quilt it next week-end. 350-blocks challenge: 17 this month, just about one week to make 13 mo...

I am a queen of last-minute, nothing new here, but I have been particularly last-minute for the Sewing Room Swap. I am not sure how it happened, but it did happened. Anyway, before the week-end started, I hardly had anything done (I knew what I was making - pattern, fabric etc) but my progress was ridiculous. I picked a mini from my partner's mosaic as inspiration and decided to make a similar one. The mini is made of 4 Arkansas Stars from Lee's tutorial here in the Summer Sampler series. I didn't cut out the diamonds for my blocks but used strips that I sew together before cutting the diamonds out. I used 2 5/8' strips but next time I would use 2 3/4' or even 3' strips as some were slightly on the shorter side. So by Thursday evening all I had done was my diamonds, I paper pieced half of the blocks on Friday night and the second half on Saturday. Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day here, sunny and warm, and I guess that's what gave me some energy to ge...

Yesterday was a great day... The postman brought me a parcel at lunch time that I *had to* tear apart! I open the box to reveal this lovely wrapped present... and then unwrapped it carefully to find the most beautiful Hoop and some lovely goodies from Ivy I absolutely love what she has created for me, she used all the clues from my mosaic to create a wonderful hoop. Look at those gorgeous hexies... I must say her hoop was my favourite from the photostream and I was secretly hooping it would come my way... so I couldn't hide my delight when I found it in my box yesterday. It was the most perfect birthday present. The girls noticed it and commented on how lovely it is, so I am glad Ivy embroidered my name on it... just in case! Thank you very much Ivy for a perfect great swap, I have been spoilt and the timing was so good to receive it on my birthday! Celine

Another lovely little swap on Flicker , another swap I couldn't resist of course. I had seen some beautiful hoops before (including in the Zakka quilt along) so I knew I NEEDED one too of course! Well my partner asked for bright colours so I thought a dark background with a funky tape measure fabric should work well.

The last few days have been quite productive for me, which always makes me feel good! and I have some finished things to show too, another feel good factor in the midst of the house extension project which has almost taken over our lives really. I finished Miss Strawberry Shortcake ballet bag yesterday evening and she proudly showed it off this morning to her baby sister, after using it for her dance class.

Back to normal? Well maybe... I haven't posted for a while because we were away on holidays. We spent a week in Center Parcs in Belgium where the kids and us had a great time. Miss Strawberry Shortcake really came out of her shell during the week and has become so much braver when it comes to jumping and swimming. Nothing better than playing with other kids to be motivated to overcome your fears. Now we are back, school has started yesterday so we are again trying to get into the routine of school/activities etc. At the same time, we have started an extension at the back of the house so our garden looks like a minefield at the moment... I guess it has to get worse to get better eventually. When I return from the holidays, it was really nice to find in my huge pile of mails a couple of little jewels. First I received my mini quilt for the British Mini Quilt Swap - Round 3 . I got a gorgeous hexagon mini quilt from Sarah that I just love. Sarah has made some hexagon wheels for me i...

Today was last of school here. Mr Cars went in with 2 little presents for the teacher and assistant. I used my BigShot to cut out the labels for the present. I really like how they turned out. I should remember to use my Sizzix more often really! Now what was inside the presents? Well I made some little pouches following the Orchard Tweed Pouch tutorial from the Zakka Sewing book. I had bought some lovely vintage linen a little while ago and thought that would be perfect for the pouch. Because the fabric was patterned, I used plain fabric for the corners and didn't applique any hexagons. I used the tutorial by Kelly to cover the ends of the zip. As you can see I made a pink version and a black one. Well I hope the teachers liked it! Celine

Today was our quilting group annual exhibition. I have hardly gone to any of the meetings this year because I am a little bit busy at home so I didn't have anything to contribute for the actual exhibition. I finished my Linus quilt last night and gave it away this morning but I'll show you in another dedicated post! We also have a sale table at the exhibition and for that I contributed a few items including those lovely leaves. I used some of my scraps that I had sewn together for a block swap I never managed to be ready for. This time I used an old pair of jeans for the backing and a lovely piece of ribbons rather than the eyelet. I have sold a few but not all so I will probably list the few left in my Etsy shop which has been empty for far too long! Another good month for my OPAM too. Celine

Sunday is Father's Day here in the UK. School and pre-school offer for the kids to buy their Dad a present as a fundraising activity so of course both of the eldest wanted to buy a gift for Daddy and had to take money with them. I made Mr Cars a purse last year but it is far too big for a couple of coins really. When we did the mosaic for the RATZ swap on Flicker , I spied a few little things that I thought were gorgeous and one of them was this  tutorial by Erin for a earbud pouch . I thought that could be perfect size for a kid's purse. On Monday night I made this one for Miss Strawberry Shortcake, perfect with Hello Kitty fabric on the outside and Maisy as the lining. The pattern and tutorials are great. It takes less than one hour to make from start to finish. Miss Strawberry Shortcake loved her new purse so much that she insisted on going to bed with it last night! And yesterday night, I made this London one for Mr Cars. He picked the fabrics himself. Lining is ...

On our return at the week-end, I had a lovely package waiting for me. I received a lovely initial key-fob from Ellie Bella in the RATZ swap . This is the front with a felted C and the back with a lovely flower. It is hard to see on the picture but Ellie has embellished the flower with embroidery and added a lovely lime green button in the middle. I love the fabric she has used too! Another great swap! Yesterday I sent off these string blocks for the MMBS swap . I only managed to make 9 this time. I was planning about 40 to have enough for a quilt, but time ran out on me. Maybe I'll make another round to complete my pile of blocks. And I also received 2 more Maisy blocks from Ulrike. They are so gorgeous. I can now put together the lower half of the quilt... when I get some time. Celine