Espritpatch

Last month of 2017, and of course it will be a busy month. There will be lots of time dedicated to cooking for Christmas, some last-minute sewing probably as well as gift preparing and Christmas decoration etc. Not sure really how much I'll be able to cross off the list, but lest try/hope!  Hoping for finish 1.  Lander trousers (green) - One buttonhole, buttons and hems are needed 2. Dance bag for A - have gone as far as cutting the fabric, will it be finished before Christmas? 3. Dance bag for C - not started but it would be good to finish it at the same time as the other one more or less.... 4. Long Time Gone - quilting should be finished very soon so it would be nice to finish it all this year! I will pick this one as my  One monthly goal  again 5. Colour Companions cushions - I have all I need to finish these ones, just need some time! 6. Christmas pillows for the 3 kids WIP 1.  Farmer's wife- - this one will no...

November is over.... already. It has gone so fast, I can't believe it is finished, and we are about to enter the last month of the year. So of course, I didn't finish all I was hoping for but there have been a few finishes or nearly finish this month. Hoping for finish 1.  Lander trousers (green) - Let's just add the waistband and loops and hem it to enjoy this new pair of trousers!. Some progress but not finished, hem and buttons are still missing. 2. Dance bag for A  - I have gone as far as cutting the fabric, will it be finished before Christmas? No progress 3. Dance bag for C - not started but it would be good to finish it at the same time as the other one more or less....  No progress 4. Long Time Gone - I am hoping to load this one on the frame soon.... Some progress but not finished, still on the quilting frame 5. White and red disappearing 4-patch (blocks from the Block Lotto March 2011) - finished and gifted to my cousin mid November   ...

Still while doing my decluterring and still taking advantage of the quilting frame being out, I unearthed another pile of blocks that I made years ago. This time it was practice blocks I had made during the Colour Companions online course on Quilt University in the spring of 2009. I had made these 4 massive blocks (24' finished) at the time and always thought I would soon make a few more to arrange them into a quilt. And of course, that never happened! You can read more about the blocks in my second (!) blog post here ! So without a quilt top ready or an idea for how to arrange the blocks and without the time or will to make more blocks, I thought I could maybe use them for some free-motion quilting practice and make some cushions out of those to place on our bed. So I quilted all 4 blocks with different patterns. Now all I need to do is to finish them into lovely cushions to put on my bed! Hopefully this will not take another 10 years or so!...

The weather has turned very cold here so it was time to upgrade to a warmer coat really. And although I really want to make a coat, I still find the prospect quite daunting. So I went for an easier option. I bought some gorgeous raspberry boiled wool at Les Coupons de Saint Pierre and picked the Raw Edge pattern from the Maker's Atelier book again to make myself another version. I had been wearing my neoprene one all through the summer and loved it! So I was ready for another one. This time I left the seams on the inside and top-stitching on either side after taking inspiration from IG. And the problem with a fabric that has no right or wrong side is that it easily gets so confusing that I handed making 2 "right" sleeves and of course I only noticed AFTER I had sewn both sleeves on and topstiched both sleeves too. So there was quite a lot of unpicking (and probably some not so nice words as well) but I finally got there on Friday just before I left for the week-en...

I have been trying to do a lot of clearing out and decluterring in the last few months, including in my sewing/craft supplies. And while going through bags, boxes etc, I have of course unearthed some long lost treasures, abandoned projects and all sorts. I stumbled across a pile of Disappearing 4-patch red and white blocks that I had won during the Block Lotto in March 2011 (!) and that had been waiting to be put together... one day. Well the days to do so finally arrived recently and I started to piece the blocks together into a quilt top earlier in the month. While working on this top, I decided that I would make it a "Love Quilt" for my cousin and her boyfriend who invited us to celebrate their 10 years of love yesterday. Once I took that decision, the obvious pattern to quilt over the quilt was of course Love Hearts and took inspiration from the backing fabric The quilt was finally quilted last week and I unforutnately didn't notice that the backing fabric h...

So for the IG #cosycardichallenge, I had also picked to do the Blackwood cardigan from Helen's Closet and I had bought a lovely jersey boiled wool in lilac colour. It turned out that the fabric wasn't that stretchy but never mind, I went with it anyway. Of course I left this one to the very last minute and I ended up cutting the fabric on Monday morning (30) for the challenge finishing on 31.... But the cardigan was easy to put together and I could have finished on the same evening if I hadn't sewn my pockets on the wrong side of the fabric (which was probably identical to the right side... but anyway I ended with my pockets sewn inside the cardigan, so I had to unpick and resew them) This one was also finished... just in time and I had to embrace Halloween for my last minute pictures! Nice pattern that I will most probably use again in the future! That was one more OPAM for October and another one off my  Q4 FAL  list. Celine

When the #cozycardichallenge came up on IG, I knew resistance was futile and actually I do need one or two cardi anyway so why not? Fabric Galore had a sale on over the August bank holiday so I picked this fun panda fabric and also picked the Muse Jenna cardi on sale (win-win really!). The beauty of these challenges too of course is that it makes you discover new designers etc and keep the focus. The Jenna cardi comes with lots of variations and an extra pack with collars and different sleeves so it seems very versatile. Anyway, for this first try I picked the hip length, long sleeves version. I thought I had cut the right size for the cardigan but it felt a little tight when I tried it on so I decided to add a zip instead of buttons to gain a few inches! And this is where the problems started! I hadn't anticipated that sewing a zip on stretch fabric would be sooo difficult. With my first try I stretched the fabric so much that my zip ended far too small. So I unpicked the ...