Espritpatch

You probably remember the autumn bag I did last month, that I sent to Australia. Well last week I received my swap back from Narelle and I am very pleased with it. I got a very lovely graphic hand-bag made of lots of black and white fabrics. It is really nice and modern and I love it. Did you notice the lovely embroidery Narelle has done on one of the white square? And what about the lovely red button? I have already started using it. Narelle has made lots of handy pockets inside the bag that will prove very useful I am sure. The bag was well worth the wait! Celine

Today is Mother's Day in France so Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums around the globe. Last year when I went to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham I found a lovely seaside fabric that I thought would be great for a beach bag for my Mum. Of course, although I bought the fabric last August I had never touched it again until I started digging out for it last week. I found it at the week-end and started planning a bag similar to the one I bought last year. I kept a very basic design but made a zippered pocket that is attached inside the bag to keep all the valuable essentials safe. I had bought a dark blue gros grain that I used to make the handles and to cover the side of the front pocket. My bag is finished in time (incredible!) but for the button to close the bag as I didn't find one in my stash that would work. I was looking for a big round red button but don't seem to have a nice one. I'll have to find one next time I'll go shopping. Hope Mum likes it.

My first ever framed hexie was for Jeanette and I decided on a heart. However at the time, I didn't know I didn't have the right size template. So the heart I sent to Jeanette last year was bigger than the other hexies she had in her collection. This month I was doing a framed hexie for Jeanette again (and a flower hexie) so I delayed sending her my package and remade a heart framed hexie similar to the first one I made but with the right size template this time. It is now on its way to Australia, I hope Jeanette likes my hexies to her. See you soon. Celine

Finally I have done my block (for April) for Bee Europa for Miriam. She had seen a painting that she liked and sent us a picture to use as inspiration. She had sent us lots of linen with some cotton fabric to make the ornaments. I decided on 4 ornaments: one rectangle, one inset circle, one leave (made of 2 halves) and one parallelogram. I realised while sewing the circle that it was a very difficult idea... I had to sew it by hand in the hand because I couldn't get it round with the machine. After about 5 tries, I got to this for the circle: the leaf was easier and of course the rectangle was straightforward and so was the parallelogram My final block looked like this I hope Miriam will like it! Celine

This month I have been faster and have already done my flower hexie which is en route to Australia - ash cloud permitting of course. And I have also done my May framed hexie that I haven't sent yet. Jeanette wanted pastel so I used the little bird from this month BOM from Little Miss Shabby and stitched it in blue. This one will be on its way to Australia soon. See you soon for more. Celine

I have finally finished my two anything-but-square potholders on Monday for the PP7. With the sickness bug attacking me most of last week, I never manage to finish them before the week-end. But finally on Sunday and Monday I manage to find some time and energy (at the same time!) and to finish them. As they had to be anything but square, I went for the obvious choice of hexagons of course and played with triangles. My package is now flying on its way to America. Hope my partner likes it. I also finished my hexie flower that I was supposed to send last week to Australia, red and white. And I received this lovely flower from Sandy: I am slowly catching up on the swaps now. I will then be able to pick up some other projects that I have left aside for far too long. See you soon, Celine

Papa My beloved Dad would have turned 60 on 12th May. Unfortunately he isn't with us anymore and I miss him dearly. He would have been so proud of his grand-children and  so  happy to play with them at every occasion. And I would be so glad to be able to share everything with him still, so would be my brother. We all spent the day thinking about him even more than usual. I made a chocolate brownie at home for the kids, telling them it was Grand-Dad favorite cake. A sad day but a day full of cherished memories. Whether this is why I have been sick physically sick all week, who knows? Celine

I finished the handles of my bag before going to bed yesterday and this morning, I have managed to finish assembling the bag while Baby Daughter is playing nicely in and out of the house. It is a gorgeous day again today, summer before summer. Anyway here is my "modern looking" reusable grocery bag from Keyka Lou's pattern. I really liked the way it turned out. I have probbaly enough fabric left for another one. If only I had the time to go with it! This is my second OPAM for this month, see if I can keep up throughout the month! Celine

Yesterday was our monthly meeting with the quilting group, but for a second month in a row, I had to miss it because Baby Daughter has caught chickenpox. Big Boy had it 2 weeks ago so it was hardly surprising that she got it as well. Although she's hardly had temperature so far, she seems to be itching a lot. She has loads of spots. So our night and hers was pretty bad and she is a lot more clingy that she would normally be. So I stayed around for her. I thought I'd still spend some of my day sewing as this was my original program but I haven't done as much as I was hoping, too much catch up to do in the house after having been away for a while. I signed up for PP7 and this round is slightly different from the previous one. We had the option to sign for PP and a grocery bag or only one of the two. Of course I HAD to sign up for both. I already received my gorgeous and generous package from my swap partner while I was away in April and hadn't even started on mine yet.

Last month I received a lovely framed hexie with a cherry blossom branch. I forgot to post a picture of it in my last framed hexie post so here it is for you to enjoy! Celine

About 5 years ago I made a "Jeu de l'Oie" wall hanging from a pattern in "Marie-Claire Idees" for the birth of my friend's daughter. The "Jeu de l'Oie" is a traditional French board game. The quilt took a few months to make as I did all the applique in each individual "square" by hand. She received her present when she was about 6-month old. My friend hanged it in her daughter's bedroom. However they remodelled their house about 2 years ago and the quilt was too big for her new bedroom wall. As there was quite a large "border" around the quilt, my friend asked if I could trim the quilt to a smaller size. Of course I agreed and took the quilt back to reduced its final size. I took the binding off and trimmed the quilt off last year in the Spring. I then sew the binding back on again. Once the binding was on, I realised that I had stitched it to the back of the quilt rather than the front. I hate unpicking so I decided