Espritpatch

Last minute OPAM for October, a good month for me! I have sent out my potholders and my ornament to America today. Completed the swap on time, just! I went for the Dresden Plate patterns for the potholder using an assortment of red, cream and cream Christmas fabric and leaving a little penguin in the middle of the plate. The ornament is an original creation inspired from some items I saw in a decoration shop in Holland earlier this week. I decided on a garland of Christmas trees in linen type fabric, spelling out NOEL (Christmas in French!). I had bought some lovely ribbons in Alexandra Palace earlier this month and found on perfect for the occasion. I really like the result, and if I manage to find more time (smile!) I might experiment further with the idea.What do you think? Celine

I started piecing this quilt top at the Annual Mystery Night in 2005 at my local Quilting Store. The plan for the night was to arrive at the store around 9pm on a cold November Friday until 7 am on the Saturday morning before heading to the local cafe for a well deserved full English breakfast. My Mum had attended a few of the nights with me but she wasn't there at that particular one. We started with a warm-up project until midnight before switching to the main project until the morning. The night was always well attended and a lot of fun and no, nobody ever fell asleep despite the quilts available to snuggle under. This quilt was the warm-up project. As per the name of the night, we didn't know the pattern until the end. We were sent a list of requirements and then worked through each step until the final design was revealed. I managed to piece the whole top by midnight. I was then pregnant with Big Boy (not knowing he was a boy yet) that we had nicknamed our "L

Next Friday Night Sew-In is on Friday 19 November., you can join on Heidi's blog . Now, this is the indulgence night from pre-school here that I like to attend. Good fundraising opportunity as well as lots of pampering opportunities. So I shall try to get going with some sewing after my pampering. See you soon! Celine

 Just finished my hexie flower for this month. And I'll also show you my progress on the Pot Holder pass 5. See you soon! Celine

Didn't achieve much on Friday for the Sew-In Night. Hubby came back from a couple of days away for work just before the kids went to bed so when it was all quiet and I could have sewn, we had a chat for a while, catching up with the week. So when I eventually sat down to start something it was already quite late. I only started cutting out squares for my candle mat swap. At least I have chosen the colours. Yesterday night, we watched the Apprentice from last Wednesday and after finishing the ironing, I managed just a little bit of hand sewing, enough to finish my second OPAM this month. It might not seem like an OPAM because the quilt was almost finished (and it has been in my blog banner since I started blogging) but it is an OPAM to me. I made "In the Samurai's Steps" for a competition at Hever Castle, Kent (UK) 3 years ago in September. It is all hand applique (needle turn) and hand quilted. To display the quilt I had to sew 3 little velcro strips so since the

I am sure you are bored with this quilt by now, but I am not! I love it, so much so that I entered it in the weekly competition at the Quilting Gallery. If you feel incline to do so, you can go and vote for my quilt here . Fingers crossed! Tomorrow is Friday Night Sew-In so hopefully I should have pictures of other projects to post soon! Celine

This week-end, I finished sewing the binding on Big Boy Hungry Caterpillar quilt. I am really happy about how it turned out and Big Boy loves it, so does Baby Daughter. So Big Boy slept under his quilt for the first time last night and I know that I now need to make a bright quilt for Baby Daughter. That will be Maisy! On Friday I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Alexandra Palace with my friends. It was great (even though we only really had time to browse the shops) and of course I made a few purchase: a rug for my son, some wool to make a frilly scarf for myself and some for my Auntie as a Christmas present, a fingerless gloves kit for my other Auntie as a Christmas present, some Decopatch paper, some yummy ribbons, two patterns from Australia and of course some fabric to make a few clothes for Baby Daughter. Celine

I have finally finished my hexie flower for this month so it will be on its way to Australia on Monday: and yesterday I received not one but two lovely dotty hexie flowers from Joanne. Yummy! Celine

When Baby Girl was really tiny, Cathy came over for the day while she was in transit in Stansted. She brought me some personalised baby bodysuits that she had made. I thought that was a very sweet idea and I have used it a couple of times since. It is great for all this time when you want a baby present but you don't have time/want to make something as big as a quilt. Every Mum that I have given personalised baby bodysuits or pyjamas have been delighted and found the idea very cute. Celine

This week, I had to swap my day off from work so I was at home yesterday. I decided to have a go with my quilting frame again and try to quilt the Hungry Caterpillar quilt. I had decided that I would quilt that top on my frame so it had been folded and put away since I finished piecing it in June. So yesterday hubby installed the frame and I did put the Hungry Caterpillar on it. It took me only 1.5 hours to quilt it (it is a single bed size). I think it might have taken longer to prepare everything that to quilt actually. Today was our quilting group meeting, where we had 2 guest speakers. We first had Baby Girl (never too early to start) attending while her "Spiderman" Big Brother went to a birthday party. Then Spiderman came as he didn't feel good at the party and didn't want to stay. So he spent the rest of his day with our quilting group, playing Lego and drawing. I took advantage of space to square my Hungry Caterpillar quilt and sew the binding on. I now to