Scrappy Pincushion Swap

Well, despite my intention not to do any swaps for the next while (what with moving and babies and all), I did do one little swap last month. All I can say is that when you get an invite from Ms. Chickenfoot for a quick, easy little swap, how can you refuse?

So, this was a fun, short swap. We were given blind swap partners, and a month to make a pincushion and send it off with no extras. So this was the pinnie that I sent to my partner, tangledthreads, who identified herself as liking traditional-ish things in pinks, aquas, light greens, etc. Her mosaic had lots of pictures of lovely lace and buttons, so here is what I came up with:



I stuffed it with wool roving, which I think needed to be played with a bit more before I put it into the pincushion, as it turned out pretty lumpy. Apparently, according to the pincushion obsessed girls over in the swap group, crushed up lizard litter is the best material to use to get a nice, heavy pincushion. I didn't think I could find any in town, however, and I wasn't sure if they would let it through the border, so I settled for a little bit of lumpiness and a pincushion that would not be ripped open by a suspicious customs officer.

I recieved this adorable pincushion from sewdeerlyloved. She was kind enough to send it with a fat quarter from her shop, as well. (Speaking of which, if you're looking for some sweet fabric, you should check out her etsy shop ). The words are in Sweedish, apparently, which is funny because the fabric is Japanese. Anyway, it is adorable and will be well used in my new sewing space in Montreal.




So, that was a bit of fun. If you have a spare hour or so, you might want to check out some of the other lovely pinnies made in the swap.

Moving and Life Review

When people know they are about to die, they and their family often go through a process called "Life Review", where they talk over the high and low points of their life and reflect on them. As both a chaplain and priest, Dave has had the privilige of hearing many people's final reflections.

I find that moving often leads to a similar process, as I find and sort through things that are precious to me. Here's a few examples:
Items found in my messy bathroom "stuff" drawer: Heart Shaped Box (purposely referring to the Nirvanna song) given to me for my wedding by my friend Maya, Aaron's baby hair, Dave's Grandmother's necklace in the original Woodward's box, my Grandfather's carpenter tool from the 1920's or 30's, a metal box my friend Kym brought back from Korea, and Emma's newborn hospital bracelet.

It was funny, because as I was rummaging through this drawer seperating these treasures out from bits of magazine articles, empty tubes of lipstick and stray buttons, Andrew kept asking me, "What's that Mom? What about this? Where did you get this from?". I wanted to just send him away (and I did several times), but then I realized that this was a valuable moment to pass down some pieces of myself and my family history to my son. So I took some deep breaths, slowed down and let him carefully handle each object while I told him the story behind it.

On the other hand, I also packed up my sewing area, including my sewing machine. As I packed up the sewing machine, the motion felt almost automatic. It reminded me of my old houses and appartments in B.C. when I stored my machine in its box, and only took it out to stitch myself the occasional dress or blouse (commercial ones never fit me properly). This reminded me of all the times we moved around in those early years, and how this sewing machine had travelled with me through all those places, to this house, where it had become my consolation and entertainment.

Packing up your stuff and letting go of your present life, while preparing for a fresh start is a big undertaking. I'm glad I have the space and time to do it myself.

Things I Love (As witnessed by quantity during packing)

Mini Quilts hanging on my shelf after a quick, gentle wash to remove the dust and lint:


Books (in free boxes from the liquor store - every book phile knows that liquor boxes are the best for packing books). These are Dave's and mine, plus a few boxes of the boys' growing collection. I realized that all my books were doubled up on the shelves, which means we're going to need more book cases in our new place.


And of course, fabric. I don't know how I'm going to fit all this in my new, smaller sewing space. In case you can't read the labels: vintage sheets, craft books, embroidery hoops + quilt batting, patterns, clothes for re-purposing
Quilting books, magazines and scraps
My bread box (ie- holder of that little extra bit of my stash), and one of my rulers and assorted odds and ends from the basement:
Scraps: I managed to fit them all in this drawer (um, okay, plus two small boxes -- time for a scrappy quilt - any suggestions?)
And of course my collection of fat quarters, yard cuts, trim, ribbon, buttons, and one bin of clothes fabric (with my voile that I sadly didn't get a chance to sew up into anything this summer, which means I have a derth of summer clothes, because I didn't buy any becuase I was planning to make some and now I can't bear to buy any because its almost August and I hope to be much smaller by next summer, so why spend money on clothes right now?)
Oh yeah, and some big cuts of fabric, my Thread Together quilt in progress, my Dad's ties (planning to make little quilts for my mom, my siblings and me from those), home decor fabric, wool felt, and my precious remaining corduroy, plus a few more clothes to repurpose.
So, no more quilt fabric for me. With the possible exception of a few of these owls and trees -- seriously how amazing is that fabric?

Well, my basement is about an hour away from being completely packed, now I have this next week to work on the upstairs. Let the turning -upside -down - of -the - house begin!

Starting Young

So, I'm just about finished the last quilt I will sew in this house. It is a baby quilt for a new little girl called Clare. As you can see, my little night owl decided to "help" me baste it so I could get it done on time.

I don't know what it is about girl quilts, but they always seem to be a little more unorthodox than my boy quilts. This one started out with a bunch of bright orange, green and brown fabrics. But I kept looking at it an thinking it wasn't quilt right.

So I would switch out one set of squares for another fabric that I would pull out of my stash. And I kept switching fabrics and cutting more squares, until eventually I only had two of my original fabrics left in there.

So instead of being a cute little baby quilt with giraffes and elephants and owls, I've ended up with a ridiculous quilt featuring birds and tea cups. Because, you know, every baby needs to start in on the caffeine as soon as possible.

Anyway, its still cute, and I love it, even though its not really a typical baby quilt. Actually, I love it so much I really want to keep it. Fortunately I've got enough of that tea cup fabric left to do something else (albeit scrappier) with the remainder.

Some thoughts on packing

We are moving in just over two weeks from today. Crazy, I know. I have hardly anything upstairs packed at all. We have a plan to gradually move things that are packed into the garage so that our house slowly empties, and we can clean rooms that we don't use much up earlier than the rest of the house. In other words, the basement and study and the extra bathroom that houses our recycling until I make time to bag it all up and bring it to the recycling depot (can I tell you how excited I am about curb side recycling pick up? I'm very excited). This should just leave our bedrooms, the kitchen, the living room (ie - toys) and the main bathroom to pack in the last week.

But here's the thing. We have a lot of junk. I don't beleive how much stuff we've accumulate in just 6 years living here. Many wonderful people have given us extra furniture and kids' clothes which we have used well. But we won't need the extra furniture, and we won't need a lot of the stuff I've accumulated from yard sales, and we don't need to drag around three year worth of boys' clothes that don't fit Aaron anymore, and we don't need all our baby gear anymore, and we don't need the mosquito net tent (with no poles) that was given to us, or the old couch from someone else's basement. Our wardrobes won't fit in our new house (which is ok because they're Canadian tire particle board things), so they're going to go, and the boys' drawers were $20 second hand and are falling apart, so they need to be thrown out. And we have a lot of broken cardboard boxes, deflated balls, and decimated plastic bins (thanks, rowdy boys) that we just need to throw out. So I have spent most of my time sorting. What to keep, what to throw away and what to give away? This is what has occupied my time more than how I"m going to get everything packed.

And all that stuff, it has emotional signifigance to me. The reason its still around is because on some level it is sentimental. I think, "But we got that table (with the leaf that doesn't come up anymore and that really needs refinishing and won't fit in our space) in our first apartment in Chilliwack "(never mind that we inherited it from the guy who lived there before us who had died) or "I got that for a great price at a yard sale and painted it myself". Or, "I was planning to make an awesome quilt with all those old clothes one day". Its been a big emotional job getting rid of all this stuff. I feel like I'm shedding skin or losing weight or something. It needs to go, but boy is it a hard process.

Fortunately, I'm almost done that part. I need Dave to borrow a truck so we can make a first big trip to the Salvation Army and a first big trip to the dump. Then I will be able to get down to the actual putting-things-in-boxes stage of packing. Which will be much easier and faster, I hope. Because I'm starting to run out of time.

I think these speak for themselves . . .

What to do, what to do . . .

So, I notice that its been a year since I blogged about my hair. That would be because I was so grumpy after my last hair cut -- which I hated -- I was at an impasse. I was tired of my hair dresser, and I wanted to grow my hair out for a while. Since I'm too paranoid to see anyone else, I've just let it grow and grow for the last year. And lately I've been too busy to really take care of it (ie -- detangle it and brush it every day). I've just been putting it in braids all the time. I get time to put some detangler in it right after my shower and brush it, then it goes in a braid, so it doesn't get pulled all day. The next day, I either cover the messy top of my braid or take the one braid out and put it in two braids. Seriously, people, its come to this. My hair is becoming like an annoying pet that I can no longer care for.

Also, I'm probably going back to work in a month and a half, and I need to do interviews and such, so I need hair that actually looks professional, not crazy. This means either keeping lot of the length and getting bangs and layers (and finding someone who is not going to just give me a "Friends" haircut which is totally outdated and will not do in a bigger city) or cutting everything off and getting some version of the default haircut but slightly shorter. About this length:

This would leave my hair free to be pulled all day, but it would mean cute hats and scarves when off work, and easy wash - brush - and go styling when I was working. And it would mean I would actually have to go to the hairdressers once every two months. But I think I could probably fit that in if I really tried.

Oh hair, if only I took the time to blow dry and style you . . . life would be so much less (more?) complicated.

ps- if you're wondering, yes that is a Schoolhouse Tunic . It is a super great pattern. No, I haven't shown it to y'all here because mine turned out poofy . . . I think because I used a linen / rayon blend that had too much body. Either that or I have too much body . .. I think I shall continue to blame it on the fabric.

pps - Does anyone else think its hilarious and oh-so-Jillish that in my "default haircut" post it didn't occur to me to clean the mirror? I do make myself laugh.

Twin Quilts

One of our oldest friends -- a friend of mine from band and ISCF in highschool -- has nobly kept in touch with us for years and years. He is in Fort McMurray now, and has a lovely wife, two older boys and recently . . . identical twin boys!
I decided that identical twins don't want identical quilts. The funny thing about twins is that they are genetically identical, but they are never the same.

I think it is because our personalities are this amazing mix between our biological make up and our soul. So, identical twin have one part the same, and one part different. With that in mind, I made these quilts sort of the same, but not.

Most of the fabric is from "On a Whim 2", along with some co-ordinates that came in a couple of Fabricworm.com baby quilt kits. I bought the dino fabric and the blue and yellow dots separately when I thought I had more time to make the quilts, and had a more complex plan. The first quilt is a little darker and possibly more expressive.

The other is a little quieter, and possibly more reflective in nature. It also has a David Walker fat quarter I had drifting around.

Two little play quilts for two little babies. The backings (as you can see above) are tone on tone birds from the On a Whim collection in two different colour ways. The darker quilt has a light beige, while the lighter quilt has a dark brown for contrast. I was in a hurry, so they are pillowcase flipped and then quilted in straight lines. Because they were already bound, this created a little bit of puckering at the bottom. Next time I think I will do what I did here and make the quilt the right size to just wrap the backing over and bind it on the front.

Anyway, they ended up at about 32" x 44", a nice little play quilt size. I think they're pretty happy and cute. I really do love this simple quilt layout -- these are my third and fourth quilt using this simple plan, and I think I'll be using it again in the future. It is such a nice way to display cute novelty prints and play with fabric.

Moments to Cherish

We got they boys new sleeping bags today. Of course, they had to try them out the instant they saw them, so they listened to their afternoon stories in the living room, in the sleeping bags. I told them "no snack in the living room", as this morning Aaron had taken strawberries into the living room and rather than putting the tops in a bowl, he had wrapped them up in a quilt (reminder to self: the next couch quilt needs to have less white). I was trying to finally get the dishes washed, and so I pretended not to notice when he snuck into the kitchen and grabbed the box of Corn Flakes. But when I peeked around the corner and saw this, I just had to take a photo:

I was taking photos of Emma making a mess of her food in typical baby fashion when Andrew asked if he could use the camera. He said, "I want to take a picture of you, Mom, because you're so beautiful".
As you can see, I'm actually rather tired and in need of a haircut, but it was sweet none the less.
We were eating chips and guacamole for an afternoon snack, and Andrew heard that Dave was on his way home to barbeque. He put together this "platter" for Dave to snack on -- a giant pile of ham (Andrew loves ham), the guacamole we had been eating earlier (Dave hates it, but I love it) and the crazy PC chips Dave brought home earlier (General Pao Chicken or some such silliness).
Emma is a late night kind of girl. She's a night owl, just like her mama. She loves to be up until midnight, and sleep until 10 or so. I love the quiet, just us time we get to have late at night. Often she's not even fussy; she just wants to play when there's no one tugging on her legs or sticking things on her head at random intervals.



It is sweet to watch her as she practices crawling, standing, sitting, cruising, sitting, crawling, sitting, grabbing, shaking, sucking, throwing, crawling . . . in that very deliberate way babies have.
Its usually cute until about 11:30. Then I start wearing thin . . .

Update

I have really been absent from this place lately, haven't I? I've made a few things, but I don't have the images here -- they're on my camera in Montreal. As for doing things, well, I just had to buzz out to Montreal and write an English test and check out a few things, and Dave is out there now finding us a house, and we've been trying to pack and clear stuff out a little at a time in between taking care of all the kids, plus I had my two end of the year youth group things, and a summer cold has been running through the family (Aaron's got a bad sinus infection at the moment and we're going to have to visit the doctor on Monday for some antibiotics if things don't clear up by then). Its been a couple of months where you think about something that seems like it happened forever ago and then realize it was only last week.

Anyway, yes, I am still here, but I rarely have time to type -- someone is generally on my lap or in my arms or my hands are full of things to fold, pack, cook or clean. Its just one of those stages in life, I guess. When I get free arms to type (right now I have had two out of three of the littles on my lap in rotation, and the only reason the third one hasn't taken a turn is because she's sleeping) I shall, I promise, friends.

Stash Busting International Finale

I've got behind on posting about my Stash Busting Bee blocks. Fortunately I didn't get that far behind on making them! The last few blocks have been kicking my butt, but I've finished them all with only a few mishaps.

This was the April block. We were supposed to make one 12" block made of 1" finished blocks. Yes, that is 144 squares. Because of my new mommy status, I agreed to make two smaller blocks and someone else in the bee made two to match. Here's my two:


The next month was another block with lots of 1" squares. I was so worried about the strips not being big enough that I made the seam allowances scant. When you take away a 1/16th of an inch from enough squares, you end up with . . . an extra inch worth of fabric. So if you look closely you'll see that I had to cut off some of my fabrics to make the block work.

On the bright side, I love the colours I chose for this block, and I love the grey fabric and the design that Little Miss Shabby chose for this. It really is going to be a stunning quilt. I must find out where she got that grey.


For our last month of June we did the same block as in March, but we used all blues and greens. This block is pretty easy to piece, but I always find that putting all the blocks in the right place give me a bit of trouble, and some pulling apart and re-positioning is always in order. Anyway, I'm happy with the finished result.


Whew! So that's it. I'm done my Quilting Bee. This was a lovely group of ladies to sew with, and twelve really fabulous quilts are going to come out of this. I can't wait to see them all put together.

I think that's going to be it for me for Quilting Bees for a while. I really enjoy getting to know people and stretching my creativity. But I have a list as long as my arm of sewing for myself and my home that I'd like to get done, and that's not including anything I might like to make for the new house, or other personal projects I might take on. So as much as I have fun doing quilting bees, I think I'm out of that world for a while (unless of course a really fabulous offer that I can't refuse comes along . . . ).

In any case, thanks so much, Stash Busting Bee International Ladies! Its been fun.

Revisiting Narnia

Narnia has always held a special place in my heart. Other than Winnie the Pooh and Alice in Wonderland, the Chronicles of Narnia were my first introduction to the chapter book. I have fond memories of sitting on my Dad's lap as he read them aloud to me when I was young, and more fond memories of reading them again (and in some cases, again) to myself as I grew older. Not only did they start my life long obsession with all things both medieval and fantastic, but C.S. Lewis' picture of God, as expressed in the character of Aslan, has often guided my own ideas about God. "He's not at all a tame lion, you know." While the stories of the Bible, especially of Jesus, can be strange a puzzling to a young child, what young child doesn't want to visit Mr. Tummus, have dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, and get to ride on Aslan's back and nuzzle their head in his soft mane?

You can imagine how excited I was when Andrew decided he wanted to read them, and actually had the attention span and comprehension to enjoy them! To be honest, I did bribe him a little. I promised I would let him watch the first two movies after he read the books, and that we would go and see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader together at Christmas. But once he started into the books he was hooked.

He had to find out what happened to Mr Tumnus. He wanted to know if the White Witch would die and how the children would get back to earth. As we finished the first book, he said, "How do you think they get into Narnia in the next book, Mom?". He wanted all the books pulled down off the shelf and he has been walking around with them asking me to explain every illustration in every book (I only read the Last Battle once, so I don't actually remember anything about it, except being disappointed at how little Lucy was in it). So we're already six chapters in to Prince Caspian and he's begging for more.

Funniest of all, he decided to use his Playmobil to do a Narnia set-up. About five minutes in, after Peter and Edmund and Caspian had been properly armoured, and the plastic lion had been fished out of the animal bin, he complained, "Mom, we don't have any fauns or centaurs or minotoars. How am I supposed to do a Narnia set up without fauns? And we don't have any girls. Or dwarfs . .. ".

In any case, I'm glad to say that as an adult, Lewis' writing still mesmerizes. He really was a master of creating just enough drama and suspense to keep children interested without being too scary. He often describes things carefully, but in just enough detail so that you have to fill in with your imagination. They are wonderful books, and I'm glad to be reading them again.

Bittersweet

Watching my oldest boy and his best friend walk hand in hand on a school outing, and knowing they will not be together in two months.

Seeing my baby learn to crawl, and realizing that my youngest is moving away from me, slowly but surely, already.

Enjoying joking with my youth group kids at the last youth event I will do with them.

Clearing out the supplies I have gathered from four years of Art Camp, and putting them in the Sunday School closet for future teachers to use. Telling parents whose kids have attended for 4 years that, no, there is no Art Camp this year.

Sorting through baby clothes and giving away those I know I won't use.

Giving books back to friends.

Andrew's last day of Kindergarten.

Aaron's first day riding his brother's old bike.

Boys playing outside, without me, for most of the day.

Packing up, moving on, saying goodbye, planning for the future. Leaving this certain, present moment for an uncertain, uprooted future.

Breathing. Focusing on the present; on that next step forward. What must I do now? And now? And now?

Just In Case you were Worried . .

no, I'm not in the part of Saskatchewan that has had all the flooding. Yep, we've had a lot of rain here, but I'm further North. Its not quite so flat here, so we're not as bad off.

I'm just busy, busy, busy. And also I just got Project Runway Season Six in the mail. Which Dave and I have been watching every night and has been seriously cutting into my blogging time. Quality couple time, I tell you. Really.

Little bit more Girl Sewing

I decided that Emma needed a mama made dress. For no reason other than that it made me happy to make it. I started out just wanting to make some bloomers for her to wear under some of the dresses she already has. But once I had the fabric cut, I realized I had enough to make a matching dress. Well, obviously it was all downhill from there.

This is the simple dress from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for Baby. I shortened the pattern about 3 inches, since she's little, and started sewing. I decided that this yellow was going to be too busy and yet not busy enough by iteself, and I happened to have the pink floral sitting there for another project. I realized that it would match, sort of, and add some interest to the dress. But when I laid it on top of the fabric, I realized I needed something else to make it pop.

So I pulled out this magenta fabric, and once I had finished the applique, I decided that the magenta needed to re-appear. I decided to reverse the bias binding so that it was on the outside of the arms instead of tucked inside the arms. I had originally planned to do the same on the neck, but once I had the arms on, I thought that would be too much magenta, so I put the binding on the neck properly, and I think the bit of magenta peeking out is just right.


I think it looks adorable, Emma has had many compliments on it, and she loves it because it is so comfortable and easy to move in. So everyone is happy. And I am definitely sensing a new sewing addiction coming on . . .

Emma's Quilt update

So, in the end I decided that the magentas were too busy and not matching enough with the front of the quilt. There is so much going on in all the lovely blocks in the front that I didn't want to take away from it. I'm sure Emma has years of magenta sewing requests ahead of her, so I'm not too worried. Instead, I opted for using big cuts of three fabrics:

The green is my favorite print from the Lantern Bloom collection, and this is the only metre I have. The purple is by one of my favorite designers, Tina Givens, and I can't remember the name of the collection. I actually ordered this piece to make a purple, tuquoise and green picnic quilt, but I loved this fabric so much I opted to keep it instead. The pink butterflies are from MoMo's Wonderland. I have a few half yard cream cuts, and this is one of my favorites. Anyway, it is still bright and colourful, but it works better.

I had a few thoughts about quilting this. First I thought I was going to follow some of the squares in each block, but so many of them are wonky (at my request) or pieced out of lots of lovely little bits, that I decided against it. Then I was going to machine quilt it in straight, narrow lines, but again, I didn't want to take away from what's already there. So I've opted to hand quilt it -- my second attempt ever. I tried it for part of this quilt way back in my early quilting days, but it took a long time to hand quilt around all those fish, so I haven't tried again since.
I chose this nice, bright blue thread. This colour looks great on Emma, and it really pops against the oranges and pinks in this quilt, which I think is fun. So far the hand quilting is half-done. I'm quilting this to Victorian-themed movies. Last night was Alice in Wonderland, tonight (or possibly tomorrow night) is The Young Victoria.

Speaking of which, why is Victorian England so cool all of a sudden? Not only those two movies, but also Sherlock Holmes this year in the movies, plus Steampunks, and all those ruffles and high necklines drifting around . . . I wonder what is resonating with people about Victorian England? A return to propriety? A fun era to make films about subverting authority and structure? Cool fingerless gloves? The last era where men looked really dapper? A flowering of arts and technology? Is Victorian England pre- or post-industrial (I can't remember)? What do you think?