Espritpatch

I showed you the envelopes yesterday, now a pick inside! On Saturday night I used my Sizzix quite a lot to cut squares for my granny bee blocks. I started cutting my squares with my rotary cutter until I remember that I bought the 2.5' square die for my Big Shot in Birmingham after talking with Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey . She recommended it highly saying she uses hers all the time and I must say until now, I had hardly thought about using it. Well granny square blocks are an ideal block for the die since they are made of 25 x 2.5' squares. And I must admit that using the Sizzix die did speed up my cutting considerably and the waste (I hate wasting fabric) was very minimal. I will definitely start using it more! So I made 2 blocks for Liz using a printed ring and 2 coordinating solids. She wanted bright blocks so I hope she likes my choice of fabric Did you recognise the printed fabric? It came from the rainbow Bento block I made and didn't like because i

I am, for sure, keeping the postal services into business lately. I have sent 8 parcels this morning with Bee blocks to my fellow swappers. I prepared all my packages last night while watching TV and they all went in the box this morning! And in the last few weeks, I have replenished my stash (which doesn't really need to be, anyway) but then, do we *NEED* to need fabric to buy more?

Although I showed you my finished blocks for the [4x5] Modern Quilt Bee earlier in the week, I didn't really like the rainbow one I made. It was too busy. So I decided to remake it with a rainbow fabric and Kona Ash. And I think this works much better. What do you think? So now here are all my blocks together, ready to be sent to my fellow bees. And I have taken apart my previous block for other blocks too, I don't like wasting fabric, even so I have enough in my stash to keep me going for decades Celine

In between all the travelling, I have stolen a few instants at my sewing machine here and there in the evenings to make a few bee blocks. I picked one of my favourite blocks for the [4x5] Modern Quilt Bee : The Bento Box block. After collecting pink and purple blocks with white background in the last couple of rounds, I changed my colour combo this round to make a quilt for Mr Cars's bed. His room is green and blue so I asked for green and blue blocks with either texty fabric or low volume fabric or white for the background. I made my test block with texty fabric for him.

Another week-end and another trip to France. I didn't even manage to blog last week, it has been busy at home. Add to that a terrible week at work, which has stressed me far more that I wanted and made me lose sleep for a couple of nights and I am now very tired. We first went back for my niece and God-daughter's Christening and it was a very nice day with the family. The sun was shining and everybody had a great day. Last week-end, we went on an express trip for Mum and her partner's 60th birthday party. Again this was a fantastic day with family and friends. A day full of emotions, with lots of laughter, lots of memories, and also a few tears, especially when thinking of Dad. The girls painted this lovely picture for their grand-ma and we asked all the guests to sign it. Lots of travel has also meant a lot of time in the car, not always during day time though. But I still managed to finally get caught up with my hexie flowers during our last few trips.

I have also finished all my blocks for the [3x6] Sampler Quilt Mini Bee . I picked the Stepping Stairs block from John Adams at Quilt Dad from the Shape Workshop for Quilters Book for this quarter of the swap. I have made 7 variations of the block (including mine) in various colour combination and it is amazing to see how different the block looks. Here is a picture of all the blocks together: And now a close up on each block that I am sending to my fellow bees

You might remember that I showed you earlier in the week the hexies I had started while on holidays. One of the flower, I couldn't complete because I was missing a petal. Well, I am happy to report that it is now finished. My 2 blocks for Irene for Get Your Hex On! are finished. And it is only the first half of April. It feels so good! Celine

This week, I am playing with very basic shapes! I am playing with squares and rectangles and also with 2.5' strips

We had a lovely Easter week in Spain. It was so nice to feel the warmth, see the sun and the blue sky after such a loooooong winter here in the UK. We left the UK with a stomach bug (Mr Cars) and came back with it (Miss Strawberry Shortcake) so the holidays program was slightly modified but it was just great to relax and have some time and some fun with the kids. The resort we stayed in had a laundry but the washing machine were broken :-( not great with sick children but anyway, that was just a small inconvenience!

They are done! I am so overdue with these blocks that I am ashamed to say when they were due back but equally I am so happy to have finished my 2 blocks for Helen. They weren't particularly difficult to make or anything but I just couldn't find the time for some reason or another. Anyway my blocks are now on their way back home. And I hope Helen will like the fabric I choose for her!