Espritpatch

The 100 days are over already. Can I cross everything off my list? Of course not! But of course, I did disgress from my list too... So here is a recap of the last 3 months against my list.

First of all, I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas. I hope you will have a fantastic time with your loved ones and I hope Santa won't forget you! Finally, finally we have a kitchen (not completely finished yet but at least not far off!) so I have been baking with the kids: shortbread chocolate truffles Christmas yule log, mini mince pies covered in marzipan

A little over a week ago I received a nice email from Fons and Porter asking me if I would review one of their ebook. I was surprised and flattered I must say! When I read further and realised that the ebook was called Log Cabin Quilts, I decided to jump at the opportunity. Log cabin has always been one of my favourite blocks, maybe because this is the first patchwork block I have discovered. The ebook is available for free on the Fons and Porter website http://www.fonsandporter.com/landing/free-log-cabin-quilt-patterns  so I encourage you all to go and download it. Your own Christmas present and for free too!

Little sewing progress this past few weeks, the house remodelling is taking all my time and energy at the moment. We are sloooowly getting there but there is still so much to do... And of course there is also the Christmas biscuits to make for the teachers (4 bags this year!), little vanilla biscuits that seem to be appreciated at home too... And if you are here for the swap, sign ups for the Simply Solids FQ swap are here ! Now back to my sewing

I don't blog much these days, and I don't sew much either actually... Our house extension is still not finished, far from it since we still don't have a kitchen or a main bathroom at the moment. I have finished packing my sewing room last week-end so that the wall could come down on Saturday. So all my sewing stuff is now scattered in the house - wherever there is some space left. It is still chaos and it is getting quite annoying I must say. The kids have had enough and we finally did put the tree up last night, they were delighted. I had promised we would as soon as the floor had been laid down so I couldn't come back on my promise! If you are looking for the sign-ups for the FQ solids swap, please go there .

Hi all! Rachel from Sew Happily Ever After and Erin from  Sew at Home Mummy  have decided to organise a fat quarter swap in honour of our upcoming Bee, Simply Solids: a modern {bee}. And because swapping with the US when you are not in the US can be difficult with postage costs, I have proposed to run the UK/Mainland Europe chapter for the swap. The Bee has international/regional groupings, and Erin is still looking to fill the Mainland Europe and Australasia groupings...but she is still accepting applications from all regions until December 31, 2012 here .

If you read my blog regularly, you probably know that I like swapping and taking part into Bees. I am sure lots of new bees are springing up all over the internet but there is one starting in February 2013 that I thought was too good to miss Simply Solids: a {modern} Bee. Sign up for the bee are running until 31 December, you need to hop over to Erin's blog here to sign up.

I am still playing catch up with my Bee blocks so this week I finished another one. Barbara asked us for a Mini Bow Tie block for her month in the Bee Europa . She sent all the lovely fabric she wanted us to use for her block. The block is not very difficult to make and I think it looks very nice, especially at this time of year! It reminds me of a wreath. Of course the block is square but a little foot was trying to approach as I was taking a picture...Another block ready to go back home, yeah!

The house building work has probably reached its worst now as they are knocking the walls between the old and new build down. And of course it is very cold here, we even had snow last night. Still no kitchen or main bathroom in view at the moment. It looks like we will be without a kitchen for a third week-end. So in the evening, once we have gone over everything that need planning, ordering, sorting out, I try to sew a bit... to keep sane!

A little Christmas tree to brighten up the house and make me feel like Christmas is coming! Yesterday I sent my mug rug to my partner in the USA for the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap. I must admit when I received my partner details I was quite intimidated to be paired with such a talented and prolific lady that I nearly wished I hadn't signed up...

Wow, I can't believe it is nearly a week since I last posted. I don't know where the time goes, maybe in trying to keep sane leaving in a building site! In the last few weeks, I received quite a few lovely goodies and sent some away too. Let's have a look at what have been flying in and out of our house! First I received a lovely wall hanging from Karin in Sweden from the Modern She Made Swap . I asked for a wintry theme in blues and white so her mini quilt was perfect. Look at the gorgeous star quilting too! She also made me a lovely placemat with the remaining fabric and sent me some lovely scraps. I have been spoilt!

Well not really where I am. It is pouring down with rain and it is very windy too. But it has been snowing in my sewing room! If you have arrived from the Holiday Lane Pillow  blog hop , welcome! Today is day my stop on the hop. I first saw Jill's design last year and saved it on my computer to make it one day! So when Madam Samm announced the blog hop run by Pauline, I thought this was the perfect occasion and signed up for it. Thanks to you for the motivation and the encouragement to get going!

Busy week this week, even if my blogging has been kept to a minimum. We are now without a kitchen and the main bathroom is out of action too. We have spent quite a lot of time trying to cram about all of our possessions in half of the house! And of course there has been the planning for electrics sockets etc. Fun games which have eaten a lot in my relaxing sewing time! Anyway, today is the deadline to send our [4x5] Modern Quilt Bee . I was in a hexagon hive this quarter and found this great tutorial from Lee for a Log Cabin Hexie which I really liked.

Today is the big day where finally all the mini quilts that travelled all the way around the world in the last few  months are revealed! Michele organised the Round Robin for us all and did a brilliant job at keeping everyone on track.

In 5 days, we will be without a kitchen... and I don't know how long for. Hopefully as little time as possible, but who knows.... So yesterday afternoon our kitchen was transformed into a restaurant's one. I managed to cook about 12 meals to put in the freezer for the next few weeks when we will be left with just a microwave and a toaster more or less. Industrious cooking was and still is on the agenda before we pack up the whole kitchen ready for the new one to be put in. I am starting to run out of space in the freezer though so I think I am reaching the limits of what I can prepare. Anyway enough of that for now, let's get back to some fabric play!

Yesterday was a great day... The postman brought me a parcel at lunch time that I *had to* tear apart! I open the box to reveal this lovely wrapped present... and then unwrapped it carefully to find the most beautiful Hoop and some lovely goodies from Ivy I absolutely love what she has created for me, she used all the clues from my mosaic to create a wonderful hoop. Look at those gorgeous hexies... I must say her hoop was my favourite from the photostream and I was secretly hooping it would come my way... so I couldn't hide my delight when I found it in my box yesterday. It was the most perfect birthday present. The girls noticed it and commented on how lovely it is, so I am glad Ivy embroidered my name on it... just in case! Thank you very much Ivy for a perfect great swap, I have been spoilt and the timing was so good to receive it on my birthday! Celine

Well, another week of sewing in different directions, progressing various projects! I have finally made a start on my panel for the Holiday Lane Christmas Pillow blog hop starting soon over at Sew we Quilt  but... I will only show you a very small peak and keep the surprise for my stop on the hop in 2 weeks time. Sorry just teasing with this one!

I am slowly catching up with my Bee blocks for October. I don't know where the month disappeared but I didn't finish all my blocks in time... In the Modern Minx Beginner Bee  we are making blocks from the Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks book. October was Amelie's month and she picked Set Sail to make a quilt for her toddler daughter, asking for soft colours.

Another lovely little swap on Flicker , another swap I couldn't resist of course. I had seen some beautiful hoops before (including in the Zakka quilt along) so I knew I NEEDED one too of course! Well my partner asked for bright colours so I thought a dark background with a funky tape measure fabric should work well.

Can you believe that 50 days have gone since we started the challenge! Only 50 days until the end of 2012. Now where am I in my (long) list? Read on to find out what I can cross off...

Angela at Cut to Pieces is organising a linky party for the Super Mario quilt-along now that she has released all her 12 patterns. Check her blog or the Flicker pool for some great blocks and quilts. Of course, I am behind making the blocks but I have finished a few that I have shown in the past. If you are new to my blog, I will present them again now and tell you how I did mine!

Welcome to England and thanks for stopping by! Make yourself comfortable while I share with you my little purse. I saw the lovely picture above for the blog hop and decided that I *NEEDED* one of this beauty too!

5 days since I haven't posted anything.... a break after a daily blog post for Blogoktober fest I guess. We have been away for a long week-end with friends. We had a great time but I have to say the warmth was only inside our hearts. We had terrible weather with lots of rain, hailstorm and thunderstorms... in November. Anyway it was nice to catch up and spend time together. I did some hand-sewing in the car but not enough to share anything interesting at this stage!

It was first time this year I took part in Blogoktober fest and I must say it has been a great experience. I wasn't sure whether I would be able to keep up, but well I did it!

Again this week, I have managed to finish a few of my WIP from last week. My Happy Cloud and my Modern Mini RR are all finished now. My Halloween Witch is brightening the living room.

My witch wall-hanging, from the Halloween See-Saw with Diane, is finished. I am so proud to have been able to finish it this month before it turned into a UFO! I showed you some of the quilting last Wednesday.

Teddy is now nice and comfy with two cosy cushions holding him up in Miss Strawberry Shortcake's room.

Let's have a look at my original list that I posted in September to see how far (or not) I have gone. Have I managed to cross off 1/3 of my (ever-growing) list in about 35 days? 1. Finish Maisy quilt - top pieced, need quilting and binding - still the same. Although I have now received the wadding I want to use. But now that I am ready to quilt, I can't put up my quilting frame because the building work in the house. :-(

Have you heard of  ThreadBias ? I hadn't until very recently. How to describe it? It is a free online community focusing on quilting/sewing, similar I guess to the knitters' Ravelry. It seems fairly new but I am sure it will grow big quickly. I signed up earlier this week. If you are doing the weekender bag by Amy Butler via the Long Week-end group on Flicker , you might have joined Threadbias too.

It is that time again when the lovely Amy from Amy's creative side is hosting her Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival . It is always packed with gorgeous quilts and wonderful story. And although I am not making award winning quilts, I like participating and showing the world my own creations! It is a great way to reach out to people you would have never met otherwise and to discover some wonderful blogs that you didn't where at the reach of your computer!

Welcome! Today is my stop on the Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop organised by Laura at Quokka Quilts Make yourself comfortable and less travel together for a little bit.

These last few nights, I have been busy quilting my Halloween See-Saw top that I showed you on Monday as I would really like to have it finished before the end of the month so it doesn't go and join my long list of UFOs. And I am a lucky girl because my DH bought me the free-motion quilting bible from Leah Day. If you read my blog regularly, you will now that I am in admiration with Leah's work and use her blog a lot lately to find inspiration for my quilting. Well I now have her book to marvel at all the design patterns.

I don't want today to be only about depressing, horrible people preventing us to enjoy our hobby so I thought I'd also show you what I finished yesterday. Earlier in the year I had made some peg bags out of a couple of tea towels. Not long after one of my friend was visiting and she liked my new peg bag and asked whether I could make her own or give her the pattern for her Mum. Well I didn't have a pattern so I decided it would be easier to make her one. I are meeting up next week-end with another one of our friend so I decided to make 2, one for each.

I hadn't heard of it either until Vicki posted about it yesterday. Basically, somebody copies one or more of your entire blog post and post them on their own fake blog. So what's the fuss you might think? On these fake blogs, where your own post is replicated, they are adverts on the side bars. It seems that most of these ads are for porn sites or else. So not only money is made out of your work (your post generates some visits and visitors and visitors might click on the ads) but you are also associated with sites you might not want to be related to. I don't think I have personally been a victim of blog scraping, my blog is probably not popular enough but then who knows? I don't want to be associated with sick and horrible people promoting inappropriate content. My blog is where I share what I enjoy doing in my precious free time, what I have enjoyed creating and taking part in and I want it to stay this way only. My blog has also made me "meet" ...

It is the time now... to share with you where my little witch went on her journey. You might remember that she started here before I sent her off on her way to Diane  who took her on point and added this lovely paper-pieced blocks While Diane worked on my block, I added a border to her witch with 2 sides in orange and 2 sides with pumpkins and scary cats   When I got my witch back, I decided to turn her back again as I felt this was the way I saw her flying off and added a printed fabric that I bought years ago. But I didn't have quite enough of fabric (just a FQ) so I had to calculate carefully to be able to cut out 4 triangles. I then added a border to the top and bottom of the square to get to a rectangle shape with fabric from the same line.  She was ready to fly back to Diane who added some lovely flying geese borders while I added eyes on orange and lime and some pumpkins to 2 sides to her top. I then appliqu...

Today I finished assembling my own Modern Minx Beginner Bee block. I was the Queen Bee in September and choose the Diamond Ripple block. I had cut out all the squares and assembled all the HSTs but I hadn't put the block together yet. So yesterday evening I tried a game of sudoku with my HSTs, which wasn't as easy as I thought, to avoid having 2 of the same HSTs in a line or column and after a few attempts, I think I succeeded! I also worked on Johanna's block for Bee Europa 2012 . She has asked us to make some paper-pieced letters, I had "a" and "o". My blocks are done and ready to go to her for her quilt for a little brother. And I also worked on my Happy Cloud for the Super Marion quilt-along but this one is still a WIP. I will be linking this post to Sinta's BOM Rehab tomorrow. Celine

The last few days have been quite productive for me, which always makes me feel good! and I have some finished things to show too, another feel good factor in the midst of the house extension project which has almost taken over our lives really. I finished Miss Strawberry Shortcake ballet bag yesterday evening and she proudly showed it off this morning to her baby sister, after using it for her dance class.

I have finally picked my fabric for the UK Text Addict swap . I bought 3 because I thought my first choice might have been to childish but my swap buddies confirmed it was OK as charm squares. So in the end I am staying with my original idea: Peak Hour by Kelly Wolforn for Riley Blake Designs My fabric is all cut out and I will send it over to Charlotte for swapping very very soon. Celine

And it is finished! I show you the panels yesterday and now I can share the finished tote bag that I have made for my partner for the Mouthy Stitches swap. I hope she likes it. This is the front of the bag and this is the back. I need to make a key fob now, I have a few ideas but I haven't decided which way to go yet! and I will be all ready to send my package early next week. Edited to add: this is my first OPAM for this month. I am hoping for at least another 2! Celine

Another week with lots of project in various stages of advancement as I have fluttered from one to the other this past week again. Yesterday evening, I quilted my 2 panels for the Mouthy Stitches bag I am making. The front and the back I now need to finish assembling the bag to have my first OPAM this month! I still have the log cabin panel I quilted at the week-end to finish into a cushion A couple of days ago I cut some pieces to make a ballet bag for Miss Strawberry Shortcake using this tutorial  from Tiffany. I have also progressed a little on my piranha block for the Super Mario quilt-along. I need to cut more fabric for these blocks. I have Fire Flower and the question mark blocks both started but I have ran out of yellow squares now. I have more on-going projects of course but they haven't progressed this week so I'll keep them for later! I am linking this post to Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wendnesday . Celine