I moved (again - not quite). My new address is now http://piecesandlove.blogspot.com/. See you there.
Caroline
12/20/2009
12/16/2009
The Fantastic Three - tous champions
Last Saturday, my "monsters" participated to the inter-school Aquathlon:
- Juliette swam 200 m and ran 1.280 km,
- Victor swam 300 m for 1.920 km run,
- Alice did 400 m swim with 3.200 km run.
Here are some pictures:
12/15/2009
Christmas is coming!
How many days to Christmas? 10, and for us it is less than 5 days before we go back home, to my parents' home in France. I guess it is time to get the Christmas decorations out.
Here are a few decorations I made last year and the year before. The pattern is from Country Folk by Brenda Walker.
Alice
did this for the entrance door. I can't remember where I found the
original idea, but I've seen it in several blogs since. NB. if you find
the instructions, please do not skip the part where it is recommended
to glue the ball to their hook - I did not glue mine and they dropped
on the floor, Alice has had to redo everything. The result is very
pleasing.
12/09/2009
12/05/2009
Finished
Here is the finished Christmas Quilt. In the end, I am quite please with the result, although the machine quilting is not great. Will do better next time.
Yesterday, I went fabric hunting with my
friends from the Quilt group. We went to People's Place. It is a great
place with plenty of choice at a reasonable price. I bought 2 pieces.
It is my starting point for MP's Bb's quilt. I am not quite sure what I
will be making yet. Should I wait until the little one arrives?
11/25/2009
Catching up - Part III: Quilting
I have been in a technological black hole for all week now. I cannot access my e-mails, and whenever I get a connection they appear in a crazy lay out (Alice would probably say “m..ed up”).
Anyway, I’ve been sewing and producing 2 cushion-covers. Do I dare saying that I have “designed” these. Maybe not, I am pretty sure that anybody would have or have already came with a similar idea. Still, I enjoyed the result and will be posting a tutorial once I am out of this technological black hole (Adobe and Word are playing up too).
The Batik quilt has now been sandwich. It looks great, just the size of our bed. Only think left to do is quilting: I said I will machine quilt it, but delaying the start of the process - I still feel uncomfortable with machine quilting.
And finally, the Xmas quilt inspired from this BOM is nearly finished. I machine-quilted it, it looks OK from the front, but the the back is not too good. I should have used a neutral colour instead of the red thread. And I should probably have planned it better: Initially the embroideries were the square in the center of another square, every thing surrounded by a star. The stars ended up being huge and the embroideries lost - such a shame considering the time spent on them. So I cut, re-cut and finally went for smaller stars, but every single piece of fabric is in the bias! Now I am adding a bit a hand-quilting around the embroidery.
11/18/2009
Catching up - Part II: Knitting and crocheting
MP's Bb’s set is finished. I also knitted a little hattie, not that it will be necessary where they live but I could not resist its cuteness. With its little anchor it seems very appropriate as a gift for a baby with Briton ancestors.
I also crocheted this very easy scarf.
One of the teachers at Juliette’s school was making it last week and I had to copy it. It is so simple and so effective. The pattern is posted for free here. I will probably make it again as a hair band adding beads and nice ribbon.
11/10/2009
Catching up - Part One: Halloween
Halloween is more than a week ago, but still here are some pictures of my monsters: a zombie and a witch (Alice did not fancy any of this).
They went “trick and treating with these little bags. I found the pattern at Happy Zombie, here is the link http://thehappyzombie.com/blog/?p=368. They look much better than any plastic bag.
10/30/2009
I loved the post... but may I say
Following this post from A Commonplace Life, I would like to say: my home is tidy and dust free. The laundry is done early in the morning. The bed linens smell fresh. The dishwasher is empty. The floor is free of toy or book or ball or any other thing that normally comes with children/teenagers in a home .
I live in a country where it is easy to have a lived-in maid. She is great and will hunt any small trace of potential chaos. Still nothing is perfect; I still make a mess when cooking. Today I prepared those Ginger and Molasses Cookies. So far I have baked 5 dozens with a batch of dough.
When DH (Dear Husband - for my daughter who is more familiarised with Facebook and SMS than blog!) is travelling (i.e. most of the time), my sewing machine is on the desk in our bedroom and the ironing board is out too. You will not see any knitting hanging around, but do not be mistaken, it has nothing to do with tidiness, but we have a kitten, Lao Shi (the teacher in Mandarin) and she cannot resist playing with yarn and needles.
Still, I am a great fan of Martha Stewart. She does not make me feel inadequate. I am not into “Prince Charming” or romance books, but I dream of an old barn somewhere, colourful autumn, chilly winter, inspiring spring and joyful summer. My children, grown up, would come for big and small family occasions. Each of them will ask me for a special dish which will bring memories of happy moments. The table clothe will be of white crispy linen (this never happens in my really life!). You can probably see dogs and cats in the picture too. But this is a dream, some girls dream that they will be ballerina someday, I dream that I will be “Martha Stewart”. But this is just a dream, something I can enjoy before falling asleep.
In the meantime, my life is not perfect, but pleasant, sometimes chaotic and I do not mind my desk being crowded with pins, fabrics, bills to pay. I do not mind children’s book on the carpet and beads rolling under my toes. This is life and as far than I am concerned Martha is a nice fantasy (though I do love Everyday Food and Donna Hay for our friends down there).
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