It's been a busy week.

 It has been busy in my house this week. A birthday had to be celebrated with a Nigella Lawson Nutella cake (yummy) and indoor fireworks.

I did manage to make the 5 blocks for the monochrome quilt. Big cheers all round please. It should be finished for Christmas. Hurrah.

 Look there is the pile of lovelies.

 I have managed to sew the top three rows together. I am über pleased with myself. Maybe I shouldn't be but it will be great to see it finished.

I am not venturing out today. Well all right I will pick up the children later but this is the view from my window today.

To be honest the it looks better than it is. I wonder if I can somehow move the machine to the living room where the wood burning stove lives. ... Hmmmm probably not.

I am linking to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.

Monochrome

The end is in sight. I have worked hard the last two days and only need 5 more blocks.

This quilt is for my dad. I am more a fan of bright colour, so this has been hard work for me. I am really pleased though that it's only 5 blocks to go.

Husband and mother like it too but I will have to do serious colour before I do monochrome again.

In other news three baby quilts I made are part of an exhibition. Look that's them there.

Photo "borrowed" Lady Sew and Sew Henley.

OK, so it's an exhibition of customers' work but they are up on the wall in the tea room. My husband refers to the tea room as the sanctuary, a place for husband with fabric fatigue. If you are in glorious Oxfordshire why not come along to Lady Sew and Sew's warehouse. Lovely quilts and fabric and somewhere to leave the long suffering other half. What more can you ask for? 

I am linking to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

nothing to do with sewing

Found this on my camera. My daughter's feet.

Finished advent tops.

 The Advent calendars are done. Now I just need to see if I have enough wadding.

I may have to piece some wadding together. I have lots of bits of wadding but I am not sure if they will be big enough.

Fingers crossed this will be finished by next week. I need to do Monochrome quilt. Major guilty conscious.

Work in Progress Wednesday

 Project Advent Calendar is coming along well. All the numbers are on and the pockets are basted together.

 I need to cut sashing for it.

I am carefully avoiding thinking about the monochrome quilt that still has 20 or blocks to go. Also the EP hexagon quilt is languishing somewhere. I also have a granny squares quilt that needs to be quilted.

I am not even touching on the skirts my daughters want. Partly because they were sneaky and grew, which means I have to trace the pattern in the next size up. Not my favourite job.

Got some post today from M is for Make. Love these prints. Not sure what they will be yet but I think they are a fantastic Dutch theme. I know Patty Young calls the range Heaven and Helsinki but I think she meant Amsterdam.

I am linking to Freshly pieced for WIP Wednesday 

Advent, Advent,

ein Lichtlein brennt. (advent advent a little light burns). All right not yet but I am busy making advent calendars for the daughters.

 I cut 100 squares. Actually I outsourced that part. I got the daughters to do that for me using the accuquilt. So much quicker and quieter. Child labour on a rainy afternoon is much recommended :-)

I added binding to 50 squares. I was going to machine embroider the numbers on but I found that they were too small.

 I spent last night tracing numbers onto bondaweb. I have since realised that I forgot some. Oops

And this is what almost 25 pocket fronts look like. I think the scissors dent in my fingers gone down enough for me to start on the next lot of numbers. Two hours till I have to pick them up from school. No problem.  Ahem.

What to do with items that didn't sell at the craft fair?

 I have been wondering what to do with the things I made for the craft fair but didn't sell.

Some have been claimed by the daughters (two cushions and a bag). My mother has a new bag. I think there may well be some friends who will be getting bags for Christmas, so they will go to good homes.

 There are quite a few little purses left over. I did ask the parent committee at the daughters' school if I could sell them at the Christmas bazaar (for a fee of course) but apparently the Christmas bazaar will not have stalls this year.

I have decided to open an Etsy shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/MadebyFrederica.

I hope people will like the purses.