Espritpatch

It is Christmas! and of course it is busy! Baking, working, and a bit of sewing is a short but realistic summary of the month I think.... Hoping for Finishes! 1.     Advent Wreath - finished  2.  M r Snowmen cushion - finished 3.  Farm Vintage Quilt-Along -  This will be my goal for  A lovely year of Finishes  - finished and gifted! Bee Blocks  1. Flower hexies for the Inchy Hexie Swap (Dec ember )   -  started 2.  Flying geese Bee  -  no progress 3. Fat Stash Bee (October)   - done 4. Bee Hive (October  and Dec ember ) - October done 5. Bubble Bee ( November ) - no progress 6. Bee Europa (December)  -  no progress WIP 1.    Quilt for M    2. September in the Hexagon  3.  Elephant Parade  -  my  Lazy Bums  challenge for October was to make 10 blocks    4.   Scrappy X block quilt  - 2 last blocks in progress -  my  Lazy Bums  challenge for November  5.  A very merry Christmas town - some progress 6.  F

I am joining in Cheryl for the Best of 2015 linky party, what a fun idea! Here are my 5 picks for this year: Post with most views was my little Snowman according to Blogger: My oldest UFO was my Lighthouse Quilt My favorite project has to be my Once Upon a Time Sampler My favorite WIP, difficult choice where there a few but just now it has to be another cross-stitch project A very merry Christmas Town that has progressed well in the last few days My favourite selfish sewing will be the Star Plus quilt I finished earlier this month, for us! Linking to  Best of 2015 Celine

I am sure they are plenty of new projects starting with the New Year and temptation is great to sign up and start new projects. I have seen 2 that have particularly caught my eye. First there is the  Hello Kitty sew-along by Amy #HKQAL This one is actually already started and the cutting instructions have been posted. It will yield a massive 90' square quilt if you use 2.5' squares so I am going to use 1.5' squares instead as I would like to make it for my youngest bed. The second one is the Modern HST Sampler by Alyce  which will start on 11 January 2016. This sounds interesting and I can wait to see the blocks. What are your plans for next year? Celine

Last year I tested the star plus pattern for Claudia and went as far as making the quilt with some lovely winter/Christmas fabric. I had left the top aside, hoping I'll finish it quickly in time for Christmas. A year has passed and the top had been languishing, awaiting its chance. So I finally got it out last Monday night to quilt it just before we put the frame away for Christmas. I quickly added the binding on the front and we have been sleeping under the quilt since Tuesday night even though the binding is not sewn on the back. Christmas day was a nice quiet peaceful day and I finished sewing the binding by hand while watching a comedy with the family. First time we sleep under a quilt I have made, hubby was impressed! I have made plenty of quilts, but never one for us yet! Quilted with Aurifil white on the top and variegated grey Superior Thread in the bobbin. Linking to Let's Bee Social , Whoop Whoop Friday . And this will be my final OPAM and

I had high hopes to finish my Advent wreath before Advent started but I simply ran out of time. I made the top in September when I tested the pattern for Jen and hadn't managed to quilt it then. So while I had the frame out for the Farm Vintage quilt I kept it out to quilt my Advent quilt. I choose to draw some ivy leaves all over the backgroung using the same light yellow Aurifil thread that I had used for my Farm Vintage quilt and a variegated Gutterman thread for the back. Binding was added on Tuesday and I finished hand sewing on the back on Christmas Eve. This one wasn't finished for Advent but it was just in time for Christmas. And of course, this is another UFO off the list, one more OPAM and one more on my Q4 Finish Along . Celine

I wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas. I hope you can have a good time with your loved ones. As usual we have been cooking for the occasion making some Buches de Noel and truffes to follow French traditions as well as adding mince pies to the mix. Thanks for reading me and being there with me. Celine

No chance to build a snowman at the moment, it is far too warm but I finished my cushion! It only needed the embellishments after I made the cushion envelope a little while ago. This has been a year long project really. I pieced all the snowmen last winter  quilted the panel in the summer and finished it this winter! And this cushion has got some special #charmpions love with fabric from Esther and buttons from Margaret Quilted with Superior Thread 937 which is a lovely light rainbow. One more OPAM and one from my Q4 Finish Along . Linking to Let's Bee Social . Celine

I have really been inspired by Ester's little pouch and made 5 more this week-end to be gifted at or around Christmas, I made a flat Star Wars one for hubby and 4 with boxed corners with some lovely Cotton and Steel fabric. I used pieces of fabric 5 x 6.5' and a 6' zip for each pouch. I used 2 rectanglse 1.5 x 3' for the tabs for the zip. I like how these came out, all in a Sunday afternoon's work! And that makes it 5 more OPAMs, I am on a roll! Linking to Sew Cute Tuesday. Celine

I had another long due block to do and I am pleased it is finally finished. It was exactly difficult, Rachel wanted a flower but initially I had no idea what to so! and finally when inspiration struck, thanks to the Block lotto blocks from a few months ago, there was no time to do it. Finally I finished it this week-end and it is on its way back home! But of course, that was after the traditional biscuits for the teachers for Christmas and also a little pouch inspired by the lovely one I received from my friend Esther (hers is the Liberty one on the right) that my youngest gifted to her key teacher as she is moving up to bigger school after Christmas. One more block for the 350-blocks project taking me to 10 and also one more OPAM. Linking to  Building Blocks Tuesday . Celine

Yes it is finished, and gifted too! I am so pleased I finished it on time and I really loved how it turned out. I had picked the 30 blocks I wanted to make out of the 45 in the book but I hadn't planned the fabric at all. I just want with my stash and with what took my fancy so it is a very scrappy quilt and a bit of an explosion of colour! I bought the white for the sashing to bind it all together. So this month I finished the last 8 blocks that I was missing to get to 30. The last one (the pumpkin, which needed 30 different orange fabrics, not my strongest colour!) was finished on Sunday! I assembled the top on Monday night while hubby was putting the quilting frame together and loaded the quilt ready for quilting on Tuesday night. I used an allover flower design inspired by The Inbox Jaunt and used Aurifil thread to quilt it. And the only thing that was left was the binding, which I finished yesterday. Quilt stats: Farm Vintage quilt pattern by Lori Hol

I have made quite a few blocks this month, but they were all for my Farm Girl Vintage quilt so far but in the middle of all these blocks, I collected enough neutral to make this Mineral block for Chris for Bee Hive. This was a late overdue block from last October... This counts as 1 block for the 350-blocks project. Linking to Building Blocks Tuesday . Celine

There is always too much going on in December and this year is no exception....  I have been very very busy with work and everything else on top. I have also worked a lot on one of my WIP and I am so pleased that I am nearly there. Our lovely childminder is sadly retiring this week (she had told us about 18 months ago but I have been in denial until really recently just because she is brilliant). Anyway, when I started the Farm Girl Quilt in the spring, I knew I wanted to make it for her. And I initially did well with the first few blocks and then completely fell off track. With 6 blocks when I needed 30 for the quilt I wanted to make, there was some serious catch up to do! So I worked through the blocks in the last few weeks and finally made my last block this week-end. The quilt top was assembled by Monday night and I quilted it yesterday with a lovely flower pattern inspired by The Inbox Jaunt . So here it is a WIP that I need to turn into a finish this week.... Just the bin

December? Already? Where does the time go and more importantly the sewing time? I don't even know whether I should make a list, what with Christmas preparations, Christmas parties/concerts etc.... but let's try and hope that I can find some lovely sewing time among the busy end of year schedule. Hoping for Finishes! 1.     Advent Wreath - top made, now need quilting and binding and I would really like to hang this lovely wall hanging THIS year... 2.  M r Snowmen cushion - quilted! need embroidery, buttons and finishing -  the cushion envelope is done, I only need to finish the embellishment now 3.  Farm Vintage Quilt-Along -  This will be my goal for  A lovely year of Finishes   Bee Blocks  1. Flower hexies for the Inchy Hexie Swap (Dec ember )   2.  Flying geese Bee  3. Fat Stash Bee (October)    4. Bee Hive (October  and Dec ember )  5. Bubble Bee ( November )  6. Bee Europa (December) WIP 1.    Quilt for M