Tilda little purses

I made these 3 little purses, all lined and closed with a white pop up, before Christmas.

The 2 brown ones have gone to a friend and as a secret present in my quilting group, the Golden Lion Quilters.

I still have the light green one, made with some japanese fabric.

They are all a bigger version of the smaller one I made in a blue and white fabric, see more information here.

Baby shoes 2

And now that Christmas has come and gone, I can show you the present I made for my niece, the lovely Juliette, who is 6 months old.

These were done with the same pattern as the blue ones, made over a month ago, at the request of Juliette's Mum, who happens to come and visit my blog.

I didn't see them on the little girl, as she wasn't very well unfortunately.

My brother and his family have left us now but it is the turn of my first and third daughters to be sick. You can't blame them for looking after their smiling little cousin.

Hopefully they should get better soon, as we are leaving Paris on tuesday to go back home, where I am hoping to have more time to sew.

Secret Santa present

On Christmas eve, as is the tradition in my family, and very often in France, we opened the presents. It was after Father Christmas managed to sneak in the living room while we were in the dining room (it was my 15 years old nephew this year). The youngest boy still believes and we all indulge him.

I opened my present from Secret Santa on BQL and was very pleased to find a log cabin bag. Thank you Secret Santa, whoever you are.

I hope you all had a great day.

Sorry for the silence

My thousand excuses for keeping quiet for so long.

I have been sewing but had some problem transferring photos from my camera to the computer. I need to sort that out.

I also have the problem of not being able to show photos of presents that are surprises. That will soon be sorted, after Christmas.

We left England for Paris in France last Friday, and got caught in the big problems with Eurotunnel, after the snowy storms in France.

We waited 4 hours in the car, queuing to get to the Eurotunnel terminal, only to be told that it was officially closed. 5 trains got stuck between the 2 countries, and I pity the people aboard them.

We then tried to get to the ferry, 3 hours stuck on the motorway, and when we finally escaped we tried a hotel. It was 2.30 am on Saturday. Hotel was full but the person on duty found another one the other side of Dover. We left, got lost and found the ferries. After more queuing, we were told at 4 am that there were no tickets for sale for the ferries.

At that point we were lucky to find a hotel.

Later on Saturday, after 4 h sleep, we booked a crossing for 10 pm, and arrived in Paris on Sunday morning at 4 am.

A journey that should have taken 7 h, ended after 35 h.

We were stuck in the car for 12 continuous hours with no toilets or additional drinks. Luckily I had taken some and the girls were good because it was night time.

We had not planned to pay for 6 persons in a hotel, and hope to have our money back, as we also had to pay full price to book another crossing.

For you, quilting friends far away, this problem that happened last week-end has been in the English and French papers a lot. It is a disgrace for the Tunnel Company. They had nothing for the thousand of people stuck in their trains. No food nor drink.

Now we are rested, and amply fed by my Mum, everything is fine.

Tomorrow we will listen to the Christmas Mass and have a massive family meal. then Father Christmas will come...

I wish you all, who come and read my little posts, a very Merry Christmas, with lots of sewing related presents, and your loved ones around you.

Pascale.