Espritpatch

October is already nearly over and it will be Christmas time before we know it. Scary thought! I guess I better get started on Miss Baby Advent Calendar, but for now, I am working on my bee block, to finish catching up and not get behind again! And last night I made this block for Bee White Black  Suzy sent us some solid black and white + one colour asking us to make a strip or rectangle block. I had a vision in my head for a pink wave block which I thought would work quite well with a bargello type design so this is what I went for. I hope Suzy likes it! Linking to Needle and Thread Thursday  and Thursday Threads . Celine

When I go to the office, I usually travel by train and I really like spending some of the journey hand sewing. I usually have some hexagons to make for a swap or another. And this week I finished my 2 hexies for Irene for Inchy Hexie Swap I also discovered a new bee starting in November based on Lucy Boston 's Patchwork of the Cross quilt.  (I took this picture from the official Hemmingford Grey Manor website, this is not my quilt unfortunately!) It is made of elongated hexagons (honeycombs) and the quilt is really beautiful I think. And Lucy Boston lived quite close to where I am at the moment, so really I couldn't resist, could I? You can read more here  where I took the picture below So of course I couldn't resist it and signed up for the bee. I don't think it is full yet so if you too are interested, go over here to sign up but be quick as it is starting soon! Hope to see you there Celine

I didn't think it would take me that long to catch up, but then I suppose I am in quite a few bees! Anyway, this week I have been trying to finish off the half-string blocks that Leah asked us to do for the Siblings Together 2 Bee . The blocks are really easy to make and quite effective I think. And I am now up to date with this bee, October is my month as a Queen Bee so I am not making any more block than my test pixelated block I showed you before. Linking to Building Blocks Tuesday Celine

I am not normally very confident with improv block but Amy set the challenge for her Simply Solids Bee blocks. While I was catching up on Ange's blocks and making my test blocks, I had cut a variety of pieces in solids both in terms of size/shapes and colours. It was ideal to make Amy's block as I didn't have to cut pieces purposefully, which would probably have been all too similar in size/shape. I decided to try and use my cut-offs as much as possible, balancing the colours and the shapes. And I must say little by little my block grew bigger until I had about 3 units ready to be put together. And if I can say so myself, I really like how Amy's block has turned out. So even if it is very late, I hope she likes it too! Celine

Yesterday I finished my daughter's Maisy quilt. I only had a little length of binding to sew by hand to have it all done. So because we stayed over, I thought it would be great to enjoy the warmth of a quilt after lunch, while the weather was awful outside. The binding didn't take long. But the "tidy up" afterwards took forever. I had lots and lots of thread tails to finish off for the quilt and it seems to have taken me hours to do just that. But at least, it was on Miss Strawberry Shortcake's bed last night! So this one less UFO and one OPAM (and a big one) this month. It also means that I have completed my Lazy Bums challenge for October, how nice! While I was finishing the quilt, I thought I could enter this one too in the Blogger's Quilt Festival organised by Amy, 2 quilts in one festival, that's so unlike me! So just a little bit about the quilt if you are here via the festival and don't already know the story! I bought a Maisy panel a...

It is finally half-term here in the UK and we should have been going back home to take the kids to my Mum for the week but plans have had to change. It seems that we have had bugs in the house constantly since September and that at least one of the kids is ill at any one point. Anyway, we decided against travelling with ill children and are still waiting to see whether we can take them there soon or not. That has meant that instead of being stuck in traffic last night, I had time to play in my sewing machine and I finished my test blocks for Simply Solids Bee . I am queen Bee in November! After changing my mind about 20 times I decided to go for the Pyramid Log Cabin blocks from Lady Harvatine's quilt-along I will ask my fellow bee members to make one block with warm colours and one block with cold colours if they are happy to, of course! The block in itself is quite simple to make, it is constructed like a normal log cabin but starts with a triangle instead of a squa...

It is that time again when the lovely Amy from  Amy's Creative Side  is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Although this is the 10th festival, it will be my 7th time!  The virtual festival is great when you live far enough from other quilters and also when you know lots of quilters are having a blast in Houston for Quilt Market.  There is always a great display of breathtaking work and great stories attached to the quilts presented. And you can browse at your leisure, it never closes. Even though I don't make any prize winning quilts, I like to participate from the comfort of my home and present one particular quilt I have made. I also like to browse and discover people and quilts I would have known about otherwise. They are great prizes too for the more successful ones! This time, I have picked my latest quilt, my Autumn Quilt Plus. Of course if you read my blog, you have seen this quilt a lot lately and you have probably had enough by n...

I commute to work by train every day so I always try to get off my phone (!) at some point and enjoy the free time to do some hand sewing, usually some hexies (that's only if I can have a seat in the train of course). Anywa this week, I finished my blocks for Get Your Hex On ! Amanda sent us some Christmas fabric and asked us to make some snowflakes for her. She is planning a tree skirt I believe. How cute is this? I love how these blocks fit together. Linking to Thursday Threads  and to Needle and Thread Thursday . Celine