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!