Espritpatch

A quick post to wish you all the best for 2010. Thanks for stopping by in 2009 and I hope you'll come back again next year. I have been moderately busy, needle-wise during the Christmas holidays, finished one table runner, started 2 new Shabby Roses blocks, etc but I am not at home now so I can't post pictures yet. I'll tell you about our epic adventure as well soon. Celine

My bag is finished and I have even used it already. My Maisy book is finished as well, needs to be wrapped now. I haven't managed to take a picture of either yet. sorry you'll have to wait... Tonight I decided to bake some biscuits when I came home for work. I want to give handmade at Christmas and did some Lebkuchen that I cut with fancy Christmassy cookies cutters. They look nice and taste nice as well. I didn't have any almonds anymore so I used hazelnuts instead. I have made just over 100 so I should be able to give a few bags away. I also managed to sit at the sewing machine to quilt the table runner with the cats that I pieced in October. Do you remember this picture? Well it hadn't change since I took the picture over 2 months ago. I want to give it as a Christmas present so tonight I quilted it and prepared the binding that I will sew on tomorrow night hopefully. I am also trying to decide which hand sewing projects I could take with me on holidays because f

At long last a quiet week-end with nobody ill in the household and some full nights sleep undisturbed. It felt like it hasn't been "normal" routine for so long... So this week-end I decided to take it easy and do some sewing. I worked on the Maisy book that I want to finish for baby daughter for Christmas and I am getting there. One more page to make and then I will have to put it together securely. I also started to play with some fabric I bought during my last "fabric buying trip" a few week-ends ago. I think it is called Butterfly by Makower but it reminds me of liquorice. I am making a bag for myself with it. It will be my "sweetie" bag. The more I am playing with this fabric, the more I like it. I wish I had bought a few yards really. Here is a peak at the fabric, I'll show you the finished bag tomorrow. Yes, I have finished it tonight! Talking about bags, I have also made 2 more foldable bags which will be Christmas presents. It is simila

Finally the pictures of the siggies I have received and the ones I am sending as well. I have created the photo collage with Photovisi which seems really easy to use. Celine

Ireland has been struck by terrible floods lately. Quilters are joining effort to make quilts for the victims. You can read more about it on the site of the Irish Quilting magazine here . If you want to help by sending some warmth and love, please do so. You can send finished quilts like this one or any other of your choice. If a quilt is too much at this busy time of year, you can send Disappering Nine Patch blocks. These are fun to make, I made some for a swap in the summer. You can find a tutorial for the blocks here . Once you're done, send your donations to: Irish Quilting Flood Relief in Action Berowra Djouce Roundwood County Wicklow Ireland Spread the word, give some warmth and love for Christmas. Good night! Celine

Can't believe I have posted anything in nearly 2 weeks! I am still around but life has been a bit busy lately. We weren't back to France last week-end for the week-end and lovely son was ill over there. Had to take him to the doctor's at 2 am when he kept complaining about his head and his temperature hadn't really gone down that much for 36 hours. Turns out it was an ear infection and Croup, not the dreaded flu. But the week-end was tiring as we didn't get much sleep... Came back for a crazy week at work with loads to complete by yesterday. Was so much looking forward to a good night sleep yesterday evening. But... baby daughter started to develop temperature and was sick at midnight. The emergency doctor asked if we wanted to give her Tamiflu , not knowing whether it was really the flu or not anyway. Difficult decision, even more for a 9-month old baby. The temperature seems to be slightly lower now, hopefully she is on the mend. And after all of that, I have been

Busy week-end when I managed to do little bits and pieces. I had planned to participate to the WBHQ challenge so I finally made one rosette this week-end that will be on its way to Australia tomorrow. Yesterday I went to the Fabric Guild in Leicester to buy the lovely Maisy panel. I bought two and am planning to make baby books with them. One for baby daughter and one as a present for a friend's little boy. I bought more fabric that just the panel of course but didn't go to mad. I found a lovely flannel with cats for the backing of one of my table runner and some dots fabrics (similar to the one I bought for baby booties and the pot luck hexies ) in lilac and soft green. And I got the new Clover Mini-Iron II - that I haven't managed to try yet - for free! :-))) I had collected enough vouchers to get the iron. We then went shopping to a few places but it was already Christmas madness everywhere, not nice. :-(( Today we have been busy starting to write a letter to Santa. W

Thanks to the lovely ladies who entered my first giveaway and left me a comment with a little bit about themselves. It is nice to *meet* you and find out what you like in or not in my blog. Competition wasn't fierce but never mind! So, without further delay, I am pleased to announce that the winner of the "strawberry bag" is SewCalGal who incidentally is having a giveaway now! Contact me so that I can send my bag across the Atlantic to you! Celine

We were away in France at the week-end to spend 2 days with friends 6 adults and 5 under 4-year old! It was so nice to catch up and see the children playing together. We had a fantastic time, even though I fell down one flight of stairs and hurt myself in the exercise. I even managed to fell quietly enough so I didn't wake the children who were having their afternoon nap! When we got back, we exchanged presents (my hubby's birthday is just after mine). Our children's childminder is very imaginative and does wonder with the kids so we each got one hand made card from our son and a lovely ornies with a "M" for " maman " and a "P" for "Papa". This was our son first attempt at sewing, not bad for a 3.5 year old little boy: We also got lovely cards with hand prints of our 9-month old baby daughter: And my wonderful hubby picked those books for me from my amazon wish list. The Farmer's Wife Sample Quilt made of 6' squares: I migh

I haven't posted about my Dear Jane blocks before. It is probably because I haven't done a new block for well over one year, unfortunately :-( I have over 100 blocks done but there are all stored away in a drawer. I have signed up for the Winter Holiday Dear Jane swap on the Dear Jane mailing list . I have worked on my blocks for the swap this week-end and have almost finish my first set L13 Harvest Moon. I have made 5 blocks so far which is enough for one set but I want to make 2 extras: one for the swap Mummy and one for me! I have also received 2 very lovely siggies from the swap that Annelies organises. One from Annelies herself (it is my third siggie from her!) and one from Cuny : I found out about this one on one swap by reading Mary-Ann 's blog and I had also learned about it when I met Marianne Nesse from Norway in Birmingham this summer. I haven't made mine yet. I am planning to screen print my squares and haven't had chance yet. I will post a picture wh

I told you yesterday that I was in celebration mode at the moment so to celebrate I would like to offer my first giveaway. I have picked the prize, it will be foldable bag similar to the one I made for Narelle although the "strawberry" will be a different colour probably: Now I need to pick a winner. One of my reason for celebrating is joining the world of bloggers and getting some visitors who care to read my posts. Now I would like to know more about you too. If you would like to participate in my giveaway, please leave a comment under this post to tell me who you are and where you are from and tell me what you liked or didn't liked during your visit. I will draw a winner on Sunday 22 November. If you want an additional chance to win, blog about it. I look forward to reading all your comments! Celine

My goodies from the Angel swap have now reached Australia and Narelle seems to have enjoyed what I sent. It is always a little bit scary when you send a surprise to someone you don't know but from what is published on the Internet .... Anyway I can now post a few pictures to show you what I made for her. First there was a " foldable shopping bag" that I made from a pattern by Sulky. This is the bag open and when you fold it, you only have a little pouch left that you can easily carry around with you at all time. I think it looks like a strawberry when it is folded. What do you think? Then I made a bookmark inspired from Jenny of Elefantz Shabby Roses BOM . Shabby rose was an indication I had from Narelle as to her taste And finally I made her a flower pincushion with some Laura Ashley fabrics that I thought she might like. Celine

It isn't Christmas yet but there are some other reasons to celebrate and get in a festive spirit when days are shorter and dull! First I have had over 1000 hits on my blog (I know lots of people out there have got more than 50000 but it is great to know that some people have visited and hopefully enjoyed their visit!). Then it will be 6-month since I started this blog very soon. I wasn't sure whether I would be able to keep at it once I get back to work but I enjoy it and I also enjoy blog hopping. And finally, I am getting older this week-end... So stay tuned and hopefully I will post more about this tomorrow! Celine

I had promised you earlier this week that I would post a picture of the lovely goodies I had received from Cristiana in the Angel Swap, well here they are: I am so lucky to have received so wonderful items. Thanks very much Cristiana . I have even used the scissors already. And this is a sneak peek of what I sent, more later... I have noticed yesterday that I have received over 1000 hits to my blog in just under 6 months. When I started this blog I was a bit scared and was wondering if anyone would ever read it. Never did I think that 1000 visitors would stop by, even if it is for a brief moment! This is great, thanks so much for visiting my blog. I will think of some celebration in the next few days, stay tuned. Celine

I have told you before about the free Christmas patterns offered each Monday since the beginning of October on the Among the Gum Tree blog set up by a team of wonderful Aussie designers. Now there is also a group of talented American ladies who will be sharing on their blog a free Christmas pattern, starting from Monday 9 November. Here is the lineup of designers along with the date that they post their project, Nov 9 - Gudrun of GE Designs Nov 10 - Sandy from Pieces of My Heart Nov 11 - Terry of Atkinson Designs Nov 12 - Pat Sloan of Pat Sloan & co Nov 13 - Heather of Anka's Treasures Nov 14 - Pam from Pam Kitty Morning Nov 15 - Kari of New Leaf Stitches Nov 16 - Terri of Whimsicals Nov 17 - Sherri of This 'N' That Nov 18 - Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company Nov 19 - Roseann of Rosebud's Cottage Nov 20 - Linda of Linda Lum DeBono While waiting for the fun to begin, they have posted "Guess the baby" contest on their blog. You have until

I have received my lovely goodies from the Angel Swap on Monday night when I returned from France. The package came from Cristiana in Italy and is absolutely yummy but... you will have to wait to see a picture as I want to do her goodies justice by taking a picture in daylight at the week-end. I have sent my package for the swap all the way to Australia. I don't know how long it will take for it to reach Narelle. I will link to her blog when I post pictures of my goodies once they have arrived to their final home. This week-end, I have also started working on my Dear Jane blocks for the Winter Holidays swap. I am making two sets of blocks and will post a picture later as well. These will be my only Dear Jane blocks this year I believe... Stay tuned for some pictures. Celine

Last month, I finished piecing the top for the BQL challenge on the wire at the last minute (and I made it the wrong size) so this month I started to piece early (first week of October I think). I hadn't posted a picture yet because I thought I would have time to quilt it before the end of the month but... Here we are again, the month will end in a couple of days but I won't have chance to quilt my top by then. So here you are a picture of my "fall 3D pinwheels" for the challenge proposed by Kandy at A break, at home... . Very effective block, I like making it and I like the way it looks. OK time to prepare dinner for the family before I go out for my gym class... Celine

I now know that my little bag for the Friendship Bag Swap that Michele at the Quilting Gallery organised has arrived in the US so I can now post a few pictures. I have also finished quilting the little Christmas panel that I had bought earlier this month. I went for the all machine option by sewing the binding front and back by machine. I really like this panel it is so cute. I am also finishing my Angel Swap goodies that I will probably post abroad at the week-end as we have lots of postal strikes at the moment here... More on my other occupations later... Celine

I have just realised I haven't posted anything since last week, time flies! I suppose I haven't been very productive on the sewing front this week but it has been as usual a very busy week and I am glad I have today off work! Even more since I discovered that I can't even read my favorite blogs during my lunch break at work, access to blogs is sadly now barred :-(( Anyway I sent to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Alexandra Palace last Saturday and had a very enjoyable day once I finally got parked (wasted 2 hours of day for that...) I am proud that I didn't buy too much but still found some lovely things I couldn't resist buying. After my acquisition of the Gingerbread panel last week, I was browsing on the Marcus fabrics website and came across a lovely Teresa Kogut panel that I was so delighted to find on Saturday. So another lovely acquisition! I also bought a lovely pattern from Brenda Walker to make some snowmen/women for the kids and just a little bit of f

Yesterday evening was the AGM of our patchwork group Log Cabin Quilters . I took some hand sewing projects with me but... I didn't get anything out of my bag because we had a visit from Joanna and her partner Steve who opened a new quilting shop The Crafty Quilter in Barton-Le-Clay at the end of August. They came with some yummy fabrics and lovely threads to tempt us. The sales table was very crowded for most of the evening... I haven't visited her shop yet but I should do so when I will get a bit of time... Anyway, she had a very lovely gingerbread panel: How cute is that? Today I managed to finish piecing my quilt for the BQL october challenge. How early! I still need to quilt it and bind it but at least the top is done long before the deadline. I'll post a picture soon. Tomorrow I have a day out at Alexandra Palace for the Knitting & Stitching show. I don't knit but I am sure it will be a great day regardless. Oh yes and last night before I went to the AGM, I

What can you do when you have no power in the evening? I went to a gym class last night and came back just in time for dinner. After putting the kids in bed, I thought I'd have a nice and relaxing bath when bang! No more electricity, all is black and quiet. The whole street and further was affected. I didn't think it would be lasting for too long but here you are no electricity from about 8.30 pm until 10.30 pm. That means no computer, no blogging, no sewing, no reading, nothing really but an early night for a change... How do people cope when they don't have the basics, we take so much for granted these days it's almost frightening! Celine

As I hinted in my previous post, yesterday was a lovely and busy day. I managed to piece 2 table runners: a Christmas one for us. The squares I used in the centre are the same one that I used for the Scrappy Christmas blocks swap I did in August. and a close-up at the fabric: and a Cat one, which will probably be a Christmas present for my mother-in-law. I bought the cat fabric a few years back to use the square to make postcards and I have made... one card to date! and a close-up at the fabric: Of course there are not finished but I enjoyed making the tops AND I used all fabrics from my stash which is quite nice. Today I went to an exhibition held by the Icknield Quilters Group . It was really nice with a good variety of lovely quilts. I was very impressed by a quilt made with Dear Jane blocks from 4' to 1' (no, it isn't a typo). Can you see the 4 blocks in the center of star, they are 1' each. I am sorry I can't remember the name of the lady who made it

This week was also the deadline for the BQL challenge. To get the next password a picture of the finished quilt (at least the top) has to be posted on the BQL website by 30th of the month. So on Monday I started planning how I was going to do this month one, which was a play on dark and light with log cabin blocks. I choose blue and brown colours and decided to do 4 triangles in my square: 2 blue (1 dark, 1 light) and 2 brown (1 dark, 1 light). I frantically sew my blocks Monday and Tuesday night before bed time to meet the deadline. The finished quilt is a 12' square but unfortunately when I calculated the sizes of my logs, I forgot to take into account that there are some on each side of the center square so my quilt has come out about 18' square. I might use it as a cushion I think... Anyway, here is a picture of my quilt top (it is not quilted yet) And I am some glad I made this one on time as this month challenge is awesome. Hopefully I'll be able to get it started soo

Laurel has received my hugs so I can share a few pictures now: Thanks to Jenny at Elefantz and Paula at Sew Little Fabric for the original designs. Celine

I have a few pictures saved on my computer that I haven't had time to share with you yet. Where do I start? Maybe with the lovely swaps I have received lately. First I received my hugs from Laurel and they are so cute. She had emailed me to ask if I was more a tea or a coffee person and that made me wonder why such a question? Look below for the answer. Thanks so much Laurel I am really pleased with my giftie . Then today when I came back from work was a lovely package from the USA waiting for me. Inside I discover a very pretty Friendship Bag from the swap organised by Michele at Q uilting Gallery . I love the colour combination that Becca has used. Plus she sent me some goodies including a lovely scissor charm that she made me. I am so lucky! Can you see the charm hanging out of the bag? I am guilty of not having finished my bag to send away yet but it will be ready very shortly. I have chosen a different color combination than Becca. Hope the bag I am making will be as nice as