Espritpatch

Happy Easter to you all with 2 lovely hens that the girls have done with their childminder. I am wondering whether the UK will have a white Easter as snow doesn't seem to be so far yet. Hopefully we shouldn't get any in Barcelona. With the very cold and long winter, I am really hoping to get a bit of sunshine and warmth!

April will be my month as a Queen Bee in Sew Euro Bee An. After much thoughts and hesitations over which block to pick, I have set my heart on a scrappy X block inspired by Bonnie Hunter's but with a slight variation as I want the scrappy strips to be bordered by a solid white strip. I am writing a tutorial for the block as I also want it a different size from Bonnie's block. Bonnie is using foundation piecing but I did mine with normal piecing. Ready? Click on read more below for the full tutorial with pictures!

This week, I have started some new Bee Blocks. I have made my test block for the [3x6] Sampler Mini Bee . I choose the Stepping Stairs block in the FQ Shape Workshop book. I made one block in my colour scheme - pink using a solid raspberry for the small squares. I really like how this has turned out and I can't wait to make the others. I have already cut some fabric for my other blocks I haven't made any progress on my EPP block because I have been working from home since last week, so no commute time to do my hand sewing. I am hoping to finish my second block tomorrow or Thursday... Watch this space. I have also worked on my Wonky Stars for Floh in Sew Euro Bee an . I am nearly there so I should be able to send them back soon. I will be linking to Lee for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced . That's all for this week. See you soon! Celine

Soma has posted on Flicker that she is starting a Spring blog hop in April. Well it isn't really spring here, but we can dream! It will all start on 1 April and will go on for a month, with 10 paper pieced patterns. Check it there if you are interested. And while visiting Soma's blog, I wandered around and hop onto this blog where there is a BOM for Lord of the Rings fans , All that is gold does not glitter, Not all who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light form the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. started in January so it isn't too late to catch up if you wish. Something I should add on my list for my hubby... or maybe the previous BOM from 2011 would be better? They fell to talking of their times together, of course, and Bilbo asked how things were ...

We had a very cold snap this week-end again with some snow. There is still some in the garden tonight. My Mum was over for a brief visit this week-end. She hadn't seen our new extension yet so she was impressed! While we were chatting away, I did some of my hems on my curtains. I managed to sew 3 widths worth by hand, finishing one French door curtain, that I can add to my OPAM list... not bad for a week-end! I calculated this week-end, that with the new curtains in the house following our building work, I have 18 widths of fabric to hem by hand... and so far I have finished a grand total of 5! Slowly, I will get there! I also managed to find a little bit of "me" time last night and finished off a few of my Bee blocks. I first finished my " Pinwheel in the Park " block for Leona for Bee White Black ! Leona had cut all the fabrics for us so it was easy to put the block together. And I also caught up with all the Granny Bee Blocks that I hadn't manag...

Today is Miss Strawberry Shortcake leaving concert at pre-school... Where does the time go? Didn't she start just yesterday? I don't know it seems months go by so quickly these days. Anyway, I thought it would be nice for her to have a little token present for the lady who was her key contact. I had wanted to join in the Triple Zip Along on Flicker when Debbie ran it in January/February but of course that never happen. The idea at the time was to make a triple zip pouch during the Zip Along so it would be ready in great time for today. Well, good planning but I forgot to factor it the time or lack of in my case.

Just to brighten the grey skies we have here, I received 2 lovely flowers from Ana in Portugal. I love the fabric she has picked! Thank you Ana.  I still need to finish my February and March flowers for my partners - working on them. And I am missing December and February flowers from my partners... Celine

Welcome to my stop on the hop. I hope you are having fun getting to know everyone's machine. The blog hop started on Sunday so I hope you are having fun! If you are new to my blog, I am located in the United Kingdom and I have been quilting for about 10 years and blogging for nearly 4. My first machine was an Elna 2007 that I bought when I started sewing/quilting. I bought an Elna because my Mum had had an Elna for about 30 years and was very happy with it. My Mum has always sewn lots of clothes etc. Because I was starting I bought a very basic model and I must say things didn't go smoothly at all. I had to send it back a couple of times because the thread was always getting caught when I was sewing giving me a mess underneath... I was told various things, like change your needles every hour, it is too basic for what you want to do, no there isn't any problem, etc... I must have been determined to do patchwork because however frustrating these never ending problems wer...

Since starting back at work earlier this year, I find it a lot more difficult to do everything. I have very little time and energy for sewing, even less time to spend blogging etc but such is life... with 3 kids and a job, a house and... But I can't complain really, I just have to accept this is the way things are at the moment! Recently, I came across Catherine's slow blogger manifesto and I thought that was me currently so I have linked with her for the first time this month. To celebrate Worldwide quilting day this week-end, although I worked on getting my curtains finished I also made a some progress on a few Granny Bee blocks. These are for the Granny Bee Blocks on Flicker . If you are interested we have one or two openings left, but be quick!

Last week we had Mr Cars' birthday party with his friends so of course, Mummy made yet another cake! The ninth one in just over one month. I did a racing car again but covered it in white marzipan this time. Mr Cars was pleased and so were his friends. And me too actually because I can finally take a break from baking birthday cakes!

Another week gone with no much time for sewing. I have found a little bit of spare time on the commute to work to do some hand sewing. I am desperately trying to finish my EPP blocks for Helen which were due...well months ago. I am slowly getting there. At home I have managed only a little sewing. I finished and hanged my first pair of curtains for the dining room. There were the curtains for the French Windows so they are huge. I still need to blind stitch the hem but I'll do that later and today I started a pair for the side windows. I have one curtain hanged tonight, the second one is not sewn yet, maybe tonight! Again the hem needs to be hand stitch too. This week was also Mr Cars' birthday. So there was some birthday preparation and baking to do. I struggled to find an idea for his birthday cake but I finally settled on a racing/formula one car. I really liked it! And now I need to make another one tomorrow for his party with his friends on Tuesday! And that will hav...

Last week, I finally finished my blocks for the [4x5] Modern Mini Bee. I made my interpretation of the Wavy Dresden for my fellow bees. And because I left it to the last minute, I realised too late that I didn't have enough background fabric for 2 of my blocks. So I reorder some fabric that arrived mid-week and finished my blocks to send them off. I missed the deadline by just under a week sadly but at least all my blocks are on their way now! And I have also received all my blocks for this quarter from my fellow bees. I now have to sit out the next quarter, a great opportunity to look at the blocks I have so far and decide whether I need more for my quilt or not... if I get the time, that is! Here are all the blocks together

This week has been really difficult and I am for the first time in months back to working 4 days a week so I was in great need of a relaxing evening last night. What better way of relaxing that sitting in my sewing room and playing with my sewing machine. I was planning a lazy afternoon today, doing more sewing but I got dragged into sorting out the garage while Miss Baby was having a nap. The 2 eldest were playing quietly, maybe too quietly while we were very productive in the garage. I know it is never a good sign when it gets really quiet... Anyway when Miss Baby woke up, DH went to pick her up and HORROR, he quickly discovered why they were so quiet... Mr Cars was trying his hardest to make Miss Strawberry Shortcake prettier than she already is. He dressed her with her new dress (wrong side at the front) and new cardigan that I bought for the few events we have coming up this year and then instead of doing her hair up with as many slides as I can found as he normally does, he dec...