Espritpatch

July is coming to an end and I must say it hasn't quite felt like July, the weather has been really really mixed and I think we have almost had rain every day.... Not that it has given me extra time to sew as it has been busy busy, with the end of the school year and the start of the summer holidays. Anyway, I met my deadlines, and I am happy about that :-) Hoping for finish 1.  Teachers' gift - this will be my  One Monthly Goal 2.  Sorbetto black top -   in progress Bee Blocks  1.  Flower hexies for the Inchy Hexie Swap (June )  WIP 1.  Farmer's wife, let's try for another 10 blocks - none 2. Solstice challenge   -  none 3. HST modern sampler quilt - half way   -  none 4. Postcards of the world  5. Dear Jane - aiming for 5 blocks - none 6. Long Time Gone - top is finished! 7. Mischief blocks  -    -  none New Project 1.  Custom cushions    x 2    2.  Flora Sew Along 3.  Bridgetown Dress 4. A-line dress

I know, I know, I only finished one on Friday. But then, Angie and Nicole are doing it again, with another pattern by Jen Kingwell and one that I have in my stash anyway. So really I have all the reasons to join in.. This time, we will be making the Gipsy Wife quilt . And to my defense I planned to join a quilt-along last year but I never got started so.... now is the time I think. The quilt-along starts officially on Thursday 3 August and finishes early January so I thought it would be good to be organised, what with work, holidays and then Christmas. I made the first few blocs today: Colour Wheel, not my usual colours but I like it Pershing, another one not in my usual colours and From the Heart And of course I now have 3 more blocks for July, taking my total to 37 blocks. Celine

Last month I blogged about the lovely class I took with Charlotte to make a pair of Ginger Jeans and how I actually managed to make 2 pairs.... Well the first time I tried to wear my beige pair of jeans, the zip broke &%**%$ was exactly what I thought.... Anyway, I brought myself to unpick the whole waistband and the zip recently to replace it. Not something I was looking forward to I must admit but it also made me quite annoyed to not be able to wear my new jeans because of a stupid zip. Anyway, the new zip was too hard to put back in after all and I retttached the waistband tonight, even added one of my lovely new label. I am so happy that I can now wear my new jeans. I must admit that with the rubbish weather we have had so far for the summer, my Ginger Jeans are out quite a lot so having a second pair will be good. Celine

I can't believe it, no really. I never thought I would get there by tonight but here it is! My top is finished, it's taken a long time ;-) but it is a quilt top.... And I love it. OK, I'll take a better picture in the morning with day light (if there is any tomorrow) Better pictures in day light! but I love how this scrappiest of the scrappy quilt has turned out. I have made the quilt out of my scrap boxes almost entirely and didn't plan the blocks or colours so much. I just took whatever caught my eye while I was making the blocks. And although it is really scrappy it works I think. Plus there are a lot of pieces in there that I have used in quilts/bags/gifts etc and that reminds me of someone or a special occasion, a real scrappy quilt full of treasure. Of course before getting to the point of a quilt top, I had to quick quick quick finish my pineapple blocks so I could finish Part 5 and my quarter log cabin too... to finish Part 6 And

It is now time to assemble the blocks into the top for the Long Time Sew Along, and of course you can't do that if you haven't got all the blocks (which I don't) but then I am finally not missing that many (8 pineapples and 3 Log Cabins) so I thought I would put together what I have so far, just to keep it encouraging! So far I have managed to put together section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4  into half a quilt and parts of section 5 and then while I was trying to put together section 5, I realised that I had misread the instructions for one of the HST blocks and made it to big.... so I am painfully taking it apart to redo it smaller (you can see the real size from the top row) now the block is at the right size and 2 pineapple blocks But I still need 9 blocks to finish this top, including 6 pineapples! 3 more blocks for July taking my total to 25 so far. Now I better hurry up as there is still lots to do and the QAL

My little Scout is travelling abroad on his own (well, with his Schout group) for the first time and needed to have his ID as well as money to take with him. So a few days before he went, I thought it would be easier for him if he had a little neck pouch to keep everything together. I didn't quite find a pattern to suit my needs (mainly because they were all too big for a child) but I used this free pattern by Sew House 7 for the construction of my pouch. Here it is with a button to keep the pouch closed and the documents secure a zipped pocket at the back to keep his money and a strap in 2 pieces to be easily removed/opened in case it gets caught anywhere using 2 pieces of velcro for a stronger grip He is on his way to his adventures with a little piece of me ! <3 p="">And I am planning 2 more of these, one for each of the girls! One more OPAM for July! Linking to  Whoop Whoop Friday Celine

It was my lovely Mum's birthday last month and I was hoping/planning/dreaming of finishing my Farmer's Wife quilt for her but it didn't work out. She mentioned she needed a make-up pouch and that was far more manageable! So I looked online for some cute design and stubble across one by The Avid Seamstress . Now my mum doesn't wear tons of make up so I didn't want a massive pouch. So I decided to reduce the size to a smaller pouch and it turned out really nicely It opens wide enough to find everything even it is relatively small. Another OPAM for July and another one of my  one of my  Q3FAL  Celine

Finally the school holiday has started (on Friday). It has been a long time coming... as usual. It will be so nice to not have to go through the morning rush for about 6 weeks. Of course, before the kids left, they took a little present to their teachers as a thank you and that meant a few hand-made to gift to the teachers. Once again, I decided on the Open Wide Pouch by NoodleHead and used some fabric from my stash including some lovely cork fabric. I bought some star zips and used my lovely new labels! I made 5 pouches in total for the teachers, all same design and fabric to keep things more manageable! I love how they turned out and hope the teachers will make use of them! So these give me 5 OPAMs and one of my Q3FAL as well as my    One Monthly Goal Celine

It was amnesty week in the Long Time Gone sew along a few weeks back so I tried to play catch up as much as possible... I really don't want to fall behind as that will help not to fall in the UFO trap! It is so much more motivating to be sewing with others, even remotely! So recently I made 2 more pineapple blocks to the ones I made at the end of June all shown here the 2 remaining Flying Geese blocks All the mini Churn Dash blocks that were missing (9) to make them as the 2 units And last Sunday I went to the Maker's Retreat with Cathy, which was such a great relaxing day. We even managed to sew and I made all the checkerboard blocks too! And all in all that's 22 blocks for July already! Linking to   to  I May have a Scrap Problem ,     Let's Bee Social ,   Needle and Thread Thursday . Celine