Espritpatch

This year I decided to pick up my Farmer's Wife book again and make some good progress. So I set myself a goal of trying to make blocks every month. This first month was helped by the Lazy Bums virtual retreat where I managed to complete 12 blocks, taking my grand total to 15 blocks! And to help me keep motivated, I thought it would be more fun to ask others to play with me so I created a flicker group here for all who want to farm with me in 2014, feel free to join us, it is a very relaxed approach as there isn't any set number of blocks to be made etc. And I thought it would be nice to encourage each others at the end of the month with a linky party. Now this is my first linky party so apologies if there is any teething problems! Now don't be shy, come and share your Farmer's Wife progress with me. And if you can go and visit the others and leave them a little comment, I am sure they'll be happy. Now let see how many blocks we have made. Celine

Another catch up session for my bee and swap blocks happened while I had a quiet week-end! I managed to finish off all my Granny Square blocks for Jan and Jeanne The bee is now over. I didn't start it but inherited it when the lady who created withdraw from it and I must say it has been very difficult to run, lots of people dropped out after a few months (some of them after receiving their month blocks) which I find really frustrating and unfair on the other members of the bee. We were all supposed to receive 46 blocks but I don't think anyone got 46 and towards the end to the bee, I guess people would have been lucky to get more than 30. It seems to happen more often these days and I find that quite sad. I know I have been/am late with some of my blocks but I always make them in the end. Anyway, enough of a moan! I made my first block for the Stash Bee , Sara had picked this gorgeous star that looks very completed to make but is actually not that bad, thanks to

I have plenty of time to play with fabric with no computer available to take me away from my sewing machine. So I have been very busy with some paper piecing blocks. I showed you last week the first New York Beauty block I made for my Sew Sew Modern partner, well I completed 2 more blocks so I only need one more now! And my 3 blocks together I am using Rain fabric, I really like this line, the colour are lovely and bright and the pattern is so subtle. While I was paper piecing, I also started my Midnight in the Oasis quilt with a bundle of micro-mod fabric from Cloud 9 Fabrics. This was my NewFO Challenge for January so I am glad I kept to it! I made 3 triangles for the centre, I only need one more now. And this one is one for the me, me, me Bee too Linking to WIP Wednesday , WOW and the NewFO party .

Long time no see, because I managed to trip over the computer cable, send it flying and break the power supply so we had to order a new one and wait for it to arrive before the computer was usable again, hence over a week without blogging, which means plenty of sewing time on the other hand! After my last post showing my Doll Quilt Swap in progress, I can report that it is now finished and on its way to my partner. I added a border of flying geese (what else?) around my circle of geese and quilted the centre of the circle and around it to give it some volume.  I used the brighter green fabric from the geese for the binding. I hope my partner likes it! I liked how it turned out and could have kept it really! It has also given me an idea on how to use the circle of geese I made from my scraps a few years back... on of these days of course! Anyway this is my first OPAM for January and for this year and this is also my first Finish Along for Quarter 1 . And today, in the pos

The Doll Quilt Swap is coming to its deadline and although I had an idea for my partner for a while, I didn't get to the point of starting until recently. I decided on a Circle of Geese block to be framed with more flying geese and this week-end I was chain paper-piecing my geese for the circle until I had my block completed. I raided my batik stash to find a selection of greens for the circle of geese and used a Klona cream from Backstitch for the background. I really like the softness of the cream for this block. I made my block using the template from piece by number . So the central block is finished, I have also made all my geese for the border, I just need to add the borders and get onto the quilting to finish it this week. I hope my partner will like it! And of course because I like working on more than one project at once, I did more paper piecing to try out a New York Beauty block that I am planning to use for my Sew Sew Modern 4 swap partner. I ordered a lovely ra

Before my farming day, I managed to catch up on a few bee blocks. I first finished some teacups for Di for Sew Euro Bee an , which were... well let's say overdue. This is I guess the power of social media. I was about to start the blocks when a few of the ladies in the group mentioned on Instagram that they were having some problems with the triangles for the saucer. That scared me a little and I left in on the side for later! I was a bit frightened that I might mess it up. So I picked it up with a refreshed mind last week, and the blocks were not that difficult in the end! Here are my tea cups and also with the filler blocks And I also finished my first Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Cross block on Sunday night while catching up on the Christmas special episode of Downton Abbey. and the second one was finished on the train! This one is a on-the-go block as it has all be done in the car or on the train! I also made my Nuts and Bolts blocks for the Siblings Tog

I never participated before in the Finish Along but I am quite motivated to get things finished lately, even more so if they are UFOs. So hopefully by committing to a few finishes on my blog and sharing it with the other players, I should get motivated to finish a few of the items on my list. The finish-along is organised by Katy at The Little Thistle this year and you can find all the details here . So for Q1 2014, I would really like to finish 1 Cat Quilt - a few more blocks are needed to complete the top and then quilting and binding 2 Doll Quilt Swap - fabric cut 3 Sew Sew Modern Swap - pattern picked and fabric selected 4 Heart Quilt/cushion - need quilting (UFO) 5 Work bag for myself - started years ago but stopped because of a zip fear! 6 My Siblings Together 2 Bee quilt - I have most of the blocks, I need to piece the top, quilt and finish it! 7 September in the Hexagon - need to be quilted, top pieced. 8 PE Bag for Miss Strawberry Shortcake - f

On Saturday we had our first virtual sewing retreat with the ladies from the Lazy Bums and it was really fun (and productive too!). Although we were on different timelines, we still manage to chat and keep each others going. I didn't do 24 hours of sewing but I started Saturday about lunch time and squeezed as much sewing time as possible until midnight, while also cooking for the family, overseeing the homework, looking after the 3 kiddos for a while and doing a little bit of cleaning and ironing. Anyway over the 12 hours or so, I managed to redo 12 of my Farmer's Wife blocks. I know it isn't that much when there is 111 to do but I think it is great progress and I was very happy to be able to complete 12 in a day. I unpicked all the blocks I had already made and reused the pieces where possible to make my new blocks. I must say I much prefer the new blocks with a solid background fabric. So here are my original and the newly made blocks (for those that are remakes): [2