Espritpatch

Another week with hardly any sewing, and this mainly because of work with birthdays added to the mix. And of course, birthdays mean cakes too so I was again in the kitchen making cakes... One black forest cake at the request of the birthday boy, who is growing so fast and another Paddington Bear cake for the party girl! Celine

Lent started early this year and February is a busy month in our house for birthdays. So I have been baking for the birthdays. But I can't say that the baking has taken me away from the sewing, it is more work that has been so busy that I have hardly had time to sit at my machine and sew...  First of all was my middle daughter 9th birthday just before Lent. She went to school with cakes before half-term and then had a party and a "space theme" cakes with cupcakes to give away. And then this week-end is the turn of our youngest, whose official birthday is coming up. She is born on Christmas day so she has an official day in February to celebrate! She is a big Paddington fan so we tried a Paddington cake for her! And of course, there is more to come still. Celine

Today is sweet and sour here, I have made a birthday cake but there is no-one to blew the candles, well the kids could do it for their grand-pa but sadly he is no longer with us to savor this moment or any others. My beloved Dad would have turned 65 today and I am really sad that he has left us so young. Yet he wasn't a sad person and would like us happy so with a yummy cake to celebrate him I try to portray happy memories to my children that he would so much have loved to have the chance to meet . 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 ...

Where does the time disappear, I am sure the days have shrunk in length, I can't believe it is nearly 2 weeks since my last block post. Admittedly we have been quite busy, we have reached this time of year where we celebrate the kids' birthdays, all 3 over about a few weeks. The festivities started last week with a trip back to France to celebrate all 3 birthdays at once with family and friends (also known as extended family!) So of course, I have been busy baking and baking again. And then this week my eldest princess turned 6, so more baking has been and will be involved (one more cake to make tomorrow)! And then stupidly enough I thought it would be such a good idea to make her a Frozen dress for her birthday. Yes such a good idea when you have no experience of sewing clothes. My original plan was to make my skirt with the sew-along in January and then to tackle Frozen but that didn't quite work out. And Frozen dress is so simple with a bodice in 4 parts, a yoke ...

In a flashback to my archive, the quilt I will show you today can fit the 2 categories Val picked for us this week for Tuesday Archive : borders and birthday. The quilt I will show you today (and this is another one of my pre-blog quilt) I made for my sister-in-law's 25th birthday in 2006, hence the birthday quilt.  The centre of the quilt top I made during   the Bramble Patch Mystery Night  in 2006.  The Mystery Night was held for 10 years at the Bramble Patch and run by Barbara Chainey , on the last Friday of November. We would gather to the Bramble Patch at about 9 pm, start working on the warm-up project until midnight. And then we would start our main project at midnight and then sew like mad until 7 am before going for a full English breakfast. Great fun, lots of chocolate and lots of sewing! I attended for 4 years. I finished the 4 warm-up projects reasonably quickly but not the 4 main projects, 3 are still still UFOs to this day and one was f...

I was planning to post on Saturday my progress on the 30/30 Challenge but with a birthday boy in the house, I never found time to write a blog post. This is one of the thing I did instead on Saturday Now the birthday season is over in our house, back to some sort of normality hopefully! Anyway, during the first week of the challenge, I didn't manage to get started on my new You've Got Mail wall-hanging (also because I was busy finishing a swap) but I did spend my commute time on my cross-stitch sampler. So I know it doesn't look like a lot of progress but I actually made some progress: I started on the border on the left of the stitchery and also added the mirror in the first box and the crown in the second. Let's see what another week of commuting brings! Linking to Berry Barn Design . Celine

Another week-end, another birthday cake! This time a delayed birthday cake for Miss Baby since she turned 2 on Christmas day. I made her a teddy bear cake and she had much fun blowing  her candles! We also had Miss Strawberry Shortcake first dance show, we were so proud to watch her perform on stage for the first time ever! And today I completed 2 pillow cases. This is not even UFOs since it wasn't started. I bought the fabric a few years ago and it was just sitting there. So we now have hers and his! 2 more OPAMs and of course this was my challenge for February for a Lovely Year of Finishes. I must admit the only reason I did those today was because they were on that exact list. The power of committing in writing! Linking to the February Finishes Party Celine

I can't believe it is over a week since my last post. I must say it has been very busy with a big birthday party for the kids at the week-end in France and me doing 2 return trips to France in less than a week. Lots of baking, lots of travelling and very little sewing.  I did finish my mini for the Super Swap , that I showed you in-progress last week  and sent it off on Monday all the way to Sweden. And of course, this is another OPAM for February and one item of my list for February. And today I received my mini for the Super Swap from Jan. My first thought when I opened it was that I had hit the jackpot. This is Jan's second mini with that design and I had put her first one in my inspiration mosaic but of course I never thought I'd get the exact same quilt! And I love the fabric she has chosen for me, lots of text prints. Linking to Needle and Thread Thursday , Brit Thursday Sewing Linky and Whoop Whoop Friday . Celine

So we have hit the birthday season in our house - again. Of course, it is a nice time of the year for the kids and it brightens the terrible weather we are enduring at the moment. But it also means I get to spend loooots of time in the kitchen baking cakes and more cakes. I have already 5 for Miss Strawberry Shortcake's 5th birthday this week, so I haven't had that much time for sewing really But I did manage a few things. I made good progress on my mini for my Super Swaps partner (I only have the binding to hand sew now). I used a pattern from the Pretty Patchwork Holidays book for the Harvest Wine table runner. Well, one word of caution if you want to make this pattern, the templates printed in the book are wrong, you need to print the updated templates from the website here . I had already cut all my fabric when I realised so I used what I had cut but it did require some fiddling around with the curves! Anyway, I finished the quilt top last week-end but didn't get...

Last week was my birthday, yes another year has passed! I have been very busy in the kitchen to cook cakes for work, for home and for our childminder the day before but I was spoiled when I came home from work with some lovely presents. My friend gave me a lovely hand-painted mug which I really love and my DH bought me a stack of books which should keep me busy for a while reading for the holidays ideas to keep me busy on the way to the holidays! lovely projects in this one but I am not sure I'll see it often as it seems Miss Strawberry Shortcake has already claimed it as (almost) her own.  and also some Clover templates.  I have never used Clover templates before so I can't wait to try. They should come in handy for fussy cutting. Celine

I can't believe it has been 2 full weeks since I last posted anything, where does the time go? As you can guess it has been pretty busy here, probably why I had disappeared temporarily from my blog. I still trying to find a routine now that I am back at work and I must say it is far from easy to fit everything in, probably another reason why I only blog erratically at the moment. In the last week or so we also had birthday celebrations, which have kept me busy in the kitchen. Miss Strawberry Shortcake turned 4 this month so we had a "at home" party where I road tested my princess castle cake and then a "with friends" celebration at the local indoor play area with a Hello Kitty cake and a "family and friends" joint party back home in France at the week-end where I cooked for 27 and made another "princess castle" cake for Miss Strawberry Shortcake a football for Mr Cars who is turning 7 next month and a teddy bear for Miss Baby who ...