My sister's sewing purse

Now that she has received it I can show you my sister's present. I made her a little purse for all her sewing things. The fabric is from Kaffe Fassett, and I quilted around each little circle, the design of the zippered purse is from this book from Tilda.

Then I made her a little pincushion, 2 circles sewn together and some embroidery thread to perfect the shape.

The needle holder comes from another book from Tilda, and in fact I have made 2 now

One is closed with one of the fimo buttons I made a little while ago, the other is closed with a popper, and is for my niece.

I must explain here that after I prepared all this for Marianne, she rang me to say her daughter, my god-daughter would like to receive a sewing kit, and she thought it would be a good idea if I made her one as she had seen us sewing together. I was just stopping myself from laughing on the phone. So I kept my secret and made another pouch, but it was way too big (I'll keep it for another post or this will be too long).

So there are 2 needle holders, and then I bought some ribbon and with my sewing machine I embroidered their names on it and attached them to the scissors.

You can see the name Aurore on the red scissors. I also bought some very cute felt for her to play with, she is only 7.

They both received some needles, pins and a measuring tape, plus some pink thread, fabric and ribbon for my niece. I think they both loved it, and I had great fun making all this.

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas today.

I have some exclusive photos for you,

First the Christmas tree before Father Christmas came, then we manage to take him in the act (I think he had eaten too many cushions, 3 in fact), and finally the tree after he left.

I thought that when children grew up the presents got smaller, but you wonder when you see that. I must say that we were 17 around the table yesterday, so it does justify some of the presents.

Enjoy this wonderful day, we are off to my sister in law for more food and presents, and the sun is shining over Paris, very nice. I hope we manage to go for a walk in the afternoon.

OT why I haven't posted lately

I had a plan, I would be very organised and prepare my posts in advance. None of it happened, too much in between. I have a good excuse, apart from Christmas being in 2 days of course.

At the moment I am in Paris with all my family, it had not happened in the last 18 months I believe. My brother moved back from San Francisco to live in France again. We are all enjoying being together for a few days.

But what really stopped me in my sewing path was the work on our kitchen starting. I can give you photos of the kitchen empty, I think it had only been that bare when we moved in.

And of the kitchen destroyed.

No picture of after yet, we'll have to wait until we go back home to see the results.

We had to empty everything the week-end before the work started, and we feel like we are camping in our own house. The worse was the dirt when Steffen who is doing all the work, had to dig in the walls for all the future wiring. The dust got everywhere, and there will be more while we are away.

I can be in advance a bit, and wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS. And I promise I will post some photos soon, as I did manage to make some things in advance for Christmas, but couldn't show them.

I am also hoping to find the time to go to Montmartre, for the fabric shops there. Maybe one of my daughters will accompany me...

Enjoy the festivities.

Muffin pincushion

I need a present for our quilter's group Christmas party tonight. And so this afternoon, in less than 2 hours I made this muffin pincushion, from the book "Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle", it is the second item I am making from the book.

You only need 2 bits of fabric and some wadding, plus filling.

The button on the top is one I made a few weeks ago from Fimo paste.

And tonight it will be gone for good, but I intend to do some more, maybe the smaller version. They are so cute, I went to pick up the girls from school and told them I had made ONE muffin, they were puzzled about the number.

Monkeys for Christmas

I am in the middle of making some Christmas presents, which means I can't show them as the people who are to receive them visit this blog. You will have to wait until after Christmas to have a peek.

In fact I can prepare my posts whenever and plan for them to be published when I want, so it could be on the 25th December for exemple, when I will be eating all that lovely food, and very busy visiting friends and family.

Still I will show you my production from this afternoon, but Karine will have to keep it a secret to her little girl. I am thinking she is too young to visit blogs by herself.

On Tuesday I went with my friend Katherine to Bath, to see the Christmas market. We had a really nice day, but a bit cold as we were outside most of the time. And the people in their little Christmas sheds were not even allowed to have any heating, for health and safety issues.

I also visited the patchwork shop Country Threads, in Pierrepont Place, as I always do when I come to Bath. And of course I bought a bit of fabric, very reasonable I was, and that's the origin of the fat quarter used here, with the monkeys.

The drawstring bag measures 12 x 9 1/2" (30cm x 24cm) and is lined with some white cotton. And the zippered pouch is 7 1/2 x 6" (19 x 15 cm).

I do love this time of preparation for Christmas, thinking of the people we love and appreciate.



Country Threads

2, Pierrepont Place, Bath, Avon BA1 1JX
Tel: 01225 480056

There doesn't seem to be a website.

November bag

The year has gone so fast, I have finished my November bag (well in fact I finished it on Sunday 30 October, otherwise I don't get the next pattern, too late, but had no time to post in between).

We have another bag to make for December and the challenge will be finished. I am sure there will be something else for next year, so if you want to take part go and register with British's Quilters List (BQL).

This month's bag is a courrier bag, big enough to carry a laptop. I used some fabrics bought last August in France, and the lining was a present from Karine, coming all the way from Berkeley, California, with little asiatic signs. Sorry the lighting isn't very good as the weather wasn't very nice for a few days.

I need to get on with some Christmas presents, but I also want to make the next bag, and I said I would help in school tomorrow as they have a lady coming to explain felting to the children. So I guess I'll better get busy.

(back of the bag on the left).

Sew Pretty Purse

So what do you do when you have several projects on the go, and you receive a new book through the post (it was difficult to obtain as 2 famous websites were out of stock). You start looking at a few pages, and then one strikes you and you have to start right away.

That's what happened yesterday afternoon, and then I was busy with other things and couldn't get on with it, so it was my first thing to do this morning. And it is finished.

The book is one of the Tilda series. They are all very inspiring, in a cute way.

And this is the little purse that I made in an hour and a half. The outside is a bit of japanese fabric bought in April, and the inside was some left over fabric from something else (I can't remember what, honestly). I bought the little snap buttons last week, because I liked the effect on the top, a bit iridescent. You need a hammer to close them down, but it's OK.

The size of the finished purse is about 6" wide by 5"tall. I really enjoyed this small project.

Still here,

I realise that I haven't posted this week, but it is difficult when nothing is really finished.

I do some hand quilting in the evenings on my log cabin quilt.

I started yesterday some embroidery and ribbon embroidery, but there is still a lot to do to finish that one.

And I have started work on my November bag for BQL. There is quite a few little blocks to piece, and I need to start the quilting next, by machine this time.

Should I mention that it was DD2's birthday this week as well, and she had her party at home on Saturday. She turned 13 and the teenage years don't look like they will be easy. At least she was a lovely baby.

And of course I have a few projects in my head for Christmas, bought some fabric, I just need a bit of time I suppose.

I hope you all manage to do a lot of sewing at this busy time of year.

Block 3 in "Nature et Petits Points"

I am late on this project, I think there are 7 blocks published, but it is not like I'm doing nothing, right!

So 3 days ago I felt guilty and started working on this little embroidery for the block number 3, and of course I greatly enjoyed it. You can have a look at the project led by Pascale in France on her website "Au bout des doigts". The explanations are in French, sorry for the english speakers.

The result is quite small so difficult to show in a photo. I have this dark corner but the colours are good, and the photo is not fuzzy.

There is some embroidery and ribbon embroidery. I had to check some of the stitches, not having done them before.

Problems with colour

Do you remember this bag I made for my daughter to go to school. I've had problems with it.

I won't mention that she put really heavy things in it. No my real problem is the colour discharge. It started when she came back in the rain one day. Her books had all their corners turn blue. You guessed it I didn't pre-wash the fabric, and the colour is running like mad.

I tried to wash it now and all the white and pink border fabric has now turned a bit dark, horrible. I will have either to change that fabric or cover it with another one.

Now I wonder what to do with the rest of fabric I have in a drawer if I want to use it later. I can wash it as a first measure, but how could I fix the colour so that I can use it safely in a project. Please if you have any idea, leave me a comment.

Otherwise I have started making some Christmas project, and so sadly I can't show them to you yet. You will have to wait after Christmas. You can just have a peak.

The fabric is from the line designed by Kaffe Fassett, and I quilted around nearly every little circle.

I am working on something else, and hopefully I should be able to show it soon.

October bag with BQL

It is amazing that this challenge has been going on for nearly a year now. 2 more bags to go, and I still really enjoy it. Although for this one I finished at 11.45 pm on the 31st October, so nearly late, when I wanted to be more organised this month.

The quilting was made free hand.

There are ties on the sides of the bag to make it smaller, and on this photo they are undone so that you see the bag fully open.

And as this bag is for DD1, we used a handmade button that she made, white with sparkly grey. Love it.

And there are 2 pockets inside, and my name tag, the lining is blue (reduced my stash a bit).