Espritpatch

  We all travelled back to England this week to see friends. Before we went, I made 2 more baskets as gift. A Barbie pink one for my youngest to gift to her friend and a blue one w ith horses for my eldest daughter to gift to her friend too After my first basket following the tutorial for the binding, I didn't like the bulk at the junction so I decided to join the binding with a 45 angle and it is much neater. I also serged the seam of the lining to have a neater finish there too. 4 little baskets made over the last 2 weeks and I can really say it's made a difference to my stash BUT it's for me spending some sewing time almost every day and following  Kate's challenge . Linking to  Put your foot down ,  Brag about your Beauties ,   Off the wall Friday ,  Can I get a Whoop Whoop ,  Peacock Party ,  Patchwork and Quilt ,  D esign Wall Monday ,  Midweek Makers ,  Wednesday Wait Loss ,  Happy Needle and Threa d Céline

  A quilting related little project, it had been a long time! I seem to be spending all my sewing time on dressmaking lately! Maybe the appeal of this particular project was that it is a fast and fun make? Anyway I joined more or less after the party, the rainbow scrappy basket quilt along organised by the Crafty Nomad last week-end. I picked my green scrap box for my first basket  The quilt as you go piece is quite fun to make and goes together quickly. The trickiest part is sewing the base to the side piece.  I had the perfect piece for the lining in my pile of larger scraps.  With the binding on, the basket is ready to be filled! Next on my list was a raid through my powder blue scraps to make a little basket for lit l my friend.  I had to use 2 different fabrics for the lining as I didn't have enough of the first one I selected.  Ready to be gifted! With those baskets, I've spent at least 15 minutes sewing most days last week, encouraged by  Kate'...

Of course, there was more baking again this week... but I have also managed some more blocks. First I caught up with the Project 48 quilt making blocks 6, 7 and 8 I also made Lantern for the Modern HST sampler I finished my bubble for Melody and also 2 more geese blocks I squeezed in 4 tiny blocks for the 365 challenge and 2 Farmer's Wife 1930 blocks: #37 Georgia #61 May with all the Y-seams.... And finally one more Hello Kitty block So that takes my total of blocks this month for 350-blocks challenge to 58! And today I made a cute little tiny Pixie Basket for my youngest so she can store her shopkins, one and the first OPAM this month. It is a leap year after all, let's see if I can still squeeze one or two before the end of tomorrow! L inking to  Building Blocks Tuesday ,  Sew Cute Tuesday ,  Let's Bee Social  and Whoop Whoop Friday . Celine

I have signed up for a few more swaps (of course!) and one of them is the one-hour basket that is currently so popular in IG. I thought it would be good to have a practice and it would also make a good present for my friend's birthday. And my one-hour basket (which has actually taken about a week because I was so slow) was actually easy and fun to make. The instructions are great and it should really take an hour if you keep at it. I used a deco-weight fabric with Scottie dogs and some Art Gallery jungle for the lining. I really love how it turned out, I hope she does too. And today I have been trying a mini version to send to my IG swap partner. Someone (and I can't remember who to credit, sorry) posted dimensions on IG so I decided to try it out. The construction is the same as the big basket but starting with pieces 8 x 4.75' and cutting a 1' square of the bottom. I can see more of these in my future. And that's 3 more OPAMs for April. Linking ...

I have finished my "It's Raining in New York" mini quilt for my Sew Sew Modern Swap and I really like it. I could easily have kept it. I think I will have to make myself one. I quilted the centre with some concentric petal shapes and echo quilted around the quarter circle to give volume to the spiky arcs. I also made 2 nesting baskets with some grey Essex Linen and purple Pearl Bracelet. I really like those baskets from Nova  (the pattern is about 35 pages long with lots of customisations, options etc!) Now my package is on its way across the Atlantic, fingers crossed my partner likes it. So that gives me 3 OPAMs for February and one item to cross off my list for the Finish Along Party . Linking to WIP Wednesday , WOW  and Finish Along 2014 . Celine