Espritpatch

Just finished 5 more blocks for the lotto this month, by the deadline! It is useful to be in Europe with the US deadline I guess as it gives just that little bit more time to finish off and post my blocks before the deadline. I started to randomly sew some strips together during the course of the month to make more blocks after I completed one a little while ago and when I pulled them off yesterday, I realised I had enough started to make an extra 5 blocks. I finished sewing the strips yesterday evening and completed the 5 blocks this morning. Here are my 6 blocks together and each of the 5 blocks I made yesterday. Well I haven't managed to make the full set of 9 to maximise my chances to win the lottery but I will still cross my fingers, hoping I could win a few blocks this month. And this block is definitely one to remember to use some scraps when the scrap bins start to overflow. Fun and easy to make and a lovely random pattern. Today the postman has also brought me som

I started block #4 very early this month but ended up wondering whether I would complete it by the end of the month. We went shopping today with the whole family - most probably my last big shopping trip before Baby arrives as I came home exhausted. At least, we were able to do a big food shopping to fill the freezer for the weeks to come, including Christmas. We found some ideas of gifts to put on Santa's list and managed a tour on the Christmas train and 2 on the carousel so everybody enjoyed their day somehow. On the way to the shops, I managed to put the last stitches on my fourth block for my Life is Beautiful quilt: "Live well, laugh often, love much" I am so glad I am still keeping up with my one block a month target. Of course, that means the quilt will take forever to be finished but at least it is progressing with baby steps. Yesterday I also picked up Miss Strawberry Shortcake's Advent Calendar that I now *need* to finish by Wednesday night... Celine

I must confess that I have been a VERY BAD swapper lately with the International Siggy Swap. I was months behind in sending hexies back but I am so glad that I have finally caught up in the last couple of days. I now have lots of envelopes flying around the world, hopefully they should get to their recipients soon. This is my last siggy design with a pram as I am expecting Baby# 3 in the next few weeks. Here are pictures of some of the lovely siggies I received since I last posted about them. Lots of pretty blocks. I have also signed up for the Siggy Swap on the European DJ list so I should get some more soon. Celine

I have finished this month flowers for Kris for our swap on the Inchy Hexie Swap. She's asked for purple petals and coordinated centres so I made these 2 flowers for her. I also discovered on her blog that she is making a Kaffe garden so went into my stash to find her some scraps of fabrics. I was hoping to be able to sew the hexies for her but I ran out of time. Finally she is also on the International Siggy Swap list so I'll be sending her a siggy while I am trying to catch up with those. See you soon for more, Celine

I have finally finished work last week until Baby #3 decides to arrive. I thought I'd have lots of time to sew but I also want to do plenty in the house that I don't usually have time to do so I have only really started playing with fabric yesterday. I had bought the Mah-Jong fabric  a while ago because I really liked it but I hadn't seem to be able to match it so far. I have been doing big Flying Geese blocks using the no-waste method. It is such a great way of doing geese without fiddling with triangles! I have made an "all-geese" block and a star. I really like the way they came out! Well I think the dark blue fabric worked well with it in the end, what do you think? It is the same fabric in the 2 pictures below but it doesn't really look like the same for some reason. Celine

This month block for the lotto is a Scrappy Trip around the World block from Bonnie Hunter's blog . I finished my first block this week and I really love the checkerboard effect it has. I'll try to make more blocks before the end of the month to maximise my chances to win. It is again a lovely block and I really wouldn't mind winning the lottery this month! Celine

I received an envelope from Australia this morning marked fabric hexies so I had to open it there and then to discover how spoil I am. Geniene was my swap partner in 2 swaps recently so she sent me a lovely framed hexie with a tiny hexie flower: and not one but 3 hexie flowers for my garden, how pretty. But wait that's not all, look at her gorgeous hand made card with a beautiful cross-stitch design. Thanks very much Geniene, it was a lovely surprise and well worth the wait! Celine

This month I was sending a flower to Natalie in Australia and her theme is Christmas fabrics. She's asked for the centre and petals to be the same fabric too. This little flower is now on its was to her, hope it fits in her garden. Celine

I had quite a bit of fabric left over after I made the Swoon Star for Ulrike so I thought I'd tried another star from her gallery and settle on the "Sunburst Star" which I really liked. I decided to go for paper piecing as I didn't fancy cutting all the odd shapes individually. So I pieced 8 triangles and then sew them all together to form the star. It worked relatively well in the end, even though it isn't perfectly matching everywhere. And because I still have enough fabric left, I made this last star that I have seen on quite a few blogs recently. These 2 stars will finish as 6' blocks. Celine

After I did my tree for Johanna, I decided it could be a good idea to concentrate on my November Bee Europa Block . Ulrike had asked for star blocks, any size, any pattern and sent us a sample of what she liked. I received a lovely selection of pink fabrics to use with the grey background which will unify her quilt. So I set my heart on making a Swoon Star. I draw up the star on a piece of paper to work out the size of the pieces I needed to cut as well as how to use the different fabrics together to come up with this block: I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I really like the choice of fabrics that Ulrike sent me to work with and the pink and grey combination. I hope Ulrike likes it! Celine

This week I received 2 lovely flowers from Rosalie for the Inchy Hexie Swap . I have wanted to take a picture of them all week but it has been so grim outside that there was little light in the house. Finally today we had little sunshine so I rushed to take a picture. Here are my flowers, lovely spotty ones and you might not be able to see it but the centre hexie a spotty white fabric! Lovely hexies which will look great in my garden! Thanks Rosalie. Celine

Baby Girl, soon to be known as Miss Strawberry Shortcake, started attending Playgroup last week so Mummy HAD to make her bag for the occasion. I finished the bag just in time on Thursday night, she was starting on Friday morning. This is also my first OPAM for November and hopefully not the last one this month! I had bought this lovely Strawberry Shortcake fabric a while ago with no real purpose in mind so decided it would be much appropriate for the occasion. I used the same design for the bag that I used for Big Boy's one a few years ago before he started school. The outside of the bag is all the same fabric. I used a contrasting "pink bubbles" fabric for the pockets, the lining and the side of the bag. You can see the pockets here slightly hidden by Miss Strawberry Shortcake's favorite friend. and now the front of the bag with the 2 pockets. And finally a Big Girl proudly showing off her bag and happy to have join the Big Kids at Playgroup!  I was lucky

Last week I received some hexies from Erica from the Inchy Hexie Swap . Aren't they just lovely? I am sure they will fit well in my garden! Celine

We had some visitors again this week-end so I couldn't get much sewing done. In addition, Miss Baby Girl decided that night for sleeping on Saturday night so she kept us up from about 1 to 6 am. So I had little energy on Sunday to do anything I must admit. She didn't seem affected much by her lack of sleep though... So good to be young obviously! I did a little stitching on my Birdie Block (October one) but that was about it and the block is not completed yet. Today, I finished my tree block for the Bee Europa for October. Johanna had asked for a forestry theme so I took inspiration from a pattern shared by Jennifer Bosworth on Quilting Gallery for the Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along  but pieced the block rather than applique it. I wasn't sure about the Y-seam but manage to do it by machine quite well! I usually avoid Y-seam altogether because I hate them!. It was a fun and (almost - but for the Y-seam!) easy block to make and I hope it will match the other blocks she h