Espritpatch

Ok so I did very little sewing this week-end but at least I tried to catch up with my bee blocks since I am in so many bees! This month see the start of a new year for the  Bee Europa   it is now the fourth round and my third time. I am ashamed to say that none of my previous 2 sets of blocks have made it to a finish quilt yet. My first year block (Maisy) are made into a flimsy ready to be quilted, my second year of blocks are also made into a flimsy but I need a few more blocks to make my top bigger. So I started with Miriam's blocks after I was finally able to locate her envelope of fabric that I had temporarily lost in my sewing room. When I opened her package and saw that she wanted tumbling blocks, I almost put it away for later because I HATE Y-seams but Muriel pointing us to a great youtube tutorial by Kaye West , which works very well making Y-seams a breeze. So in the end, the 5 tumbling blocks got finished quickly. Next month is my turn to be queen bee, so of ...

So this week-end, I had planned to do a lot of sewing and of course, that didn't happen. But I did lots of other things too! First I tried out to make some macaroons, and this time it worked well! They won't have time to go mouldy that's for sure! DH decided to clear the garage today so I helped a little before re-organising a part of the office/sewing room. I uncovered so many UFOs in the process, I am almost ashamed! If only I could finish one this year, that would be so good. I haven't finished a UFOs for months. I also uncovered so many bee blocks in piles, waiting to be put together... Another task on the to-do list!

OK I hear you! Yes I am joining yet another bee! But this one is VERY special. This is a bee for me! Really for me. The idea is to make something for yourself. Couldn't be any nicer really. Plus there is no deadline, no pressure... etc. Well let's hope it works for me and I do get something done! Want to play too? Hop over to the Flicker group or to this blog for more details. Celine

I am this month Queen Bee in the Bee White Black . As per the name we are making blocks with black and white fabrics. As usual when it is my turn, I change ideas about what I want to make quicker than I type it! But when I saw  Amy Ellis' Digital Pinwheels quilt  from her new book Modern Neutrals, I really like the design and thought it would look good in graphic fabric (hope I am right here!) So last week, I cut A LOT of black and white, white and black, plain white and plain black fabric to try out fabric combination. I first thought of having black on white for the pinwheel and white on black for the background but it looked too busy and the design was almost lost. So I made a block with a black pinwheel and plain white background (Makower white) that is the Positive and because I hate wasting fabric and I had cut some black on white fabric too, I decided to try a white pinwheel on a black background, my Negative block Of course Amy's quilt is a lot more subtle with ...

So finally I can add something to my OPAM list, which is not that I have finished a curtain or more. Nothing better than a swap deadline to keep me on my toes! I showed you last week the wonderful treasures I received from Liz for the FLiRTS swap , well last week it was my turn to send some treasures too. My partner had on her wish list a travel/sewing bag so I went back to the Zakka style book to make her the travel kit with the pincushion.

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The nice thing about being a swap addict is that when you come home from holidays, in the huge pile of mail that has gathered while you were away, there are always a few treasures to droll over once you have got rid of the rest, spam or "important" mail. And our last holidays was no exception. I got home to lovely blocks from all over the world!

Last week while we were away, I managed little sewing time, very little compared to my plans but still! And that meant that I finished one more bee block. I finished a hexie sewing machine for Jennie for Get Your Hex On! This is Jennie 's own design and it is gorgeous. I just love it. And as a bonus today was sunny so almost for the first time this year, I took my pictures outside! Jennie also sent us some 1/4 cardboard hexies to make tiny flowers. She asked that we had a try and I must say they were quite fiddly but doable. I made the 2 flowers in the car on our way back home and I didn't even lose a tiny teeny little hexie! Linking to Annabella for  Let's Get Acquainted Monday  (and you want to check her post and gorgeous pictures) and Building Blocks Tuesday . Celine

After a lovely week off with the kiddies in Centre Parcs in Belgium, it is back to the UK today where we were greeted by the SUN! How incredible and how nice. It was a nice ending to the school holidays really. We had a great and busy week, taking full advantage of all the facilities Centre Parcs has to offer. And despite a bad tonsillitis with high temperature for Miss Baby, we had a great time. Miss Strawberry Shortcake even won a pizza maker at the bingo night! I have found some time for little hand sewing during the week, but a lot less than I was hoping for. Never mind, I should be back on the train soon for the work commute where I will have plenty of time for hand sewing. Anyway today is the day to review May and link up with Lilly's Quilt for Fresh Sewing Day. Once again, there are plenty of bee/swap blocks (I think Royal Mail should offer a special rate to quilters/swap addicts really) and one top that is almost finished, still need a few blocks. Celine