Finished Stash Busting Bee International Quilt!

So, funny story about this quilt. This is the only quilt I have used before it was finished. It just so happened, that as we were on our cross-canada tour this summer, I had used our quilts to pack assorted fragile things. The only quilts I had kept out were the two I was working on. This quilt, and Clare's Quilt were both being bound at the same time. I started with this quilt, then realized I wasn't going to get it finished in time to also finish the Afternoon Tea Quilt, so I started binding that quilt too, and I was switching back and forth. In any case, I had one side of this bound, but I needed a quilt for us to sit on when we were in Kenora , then I needed a quilt to keep Emma shielded from the sun on the drive, then I needed a quilt for Emma to lie on while we were camping . . you get the idea.

In any case, this quilt was actually finished after it had been used for about two weeks. Then I sat down, finished binding it, and threw it immediately in the wash. Not just because I wanted to see how it would crinkle up, but also because it was really, really dirty from travelling with us. I chose the brown dotted binding, and almost immediately wished I had chosen turquoise instead. I did not wish it enough to rip the whole binding off a week before we moved across Canada, however, so it will stay as it is.

I loved how the hand quilting worked out. Next time I might do smaller stitches, but I love the fact that the turquoise stitches can be seen peeking out through all the hot pink and orange fabrics. Can I ever get enough of high contrast? I don't think so.

Did I ever show you the real back? I decided to boycott Emma's choice of fabric in favour of three of my favorite prints that matched -- the pink butterflies from Wonderland, the big cages from Lantern Bloom, and the blue birds and cages (you can't see them) by Tina Givens. Its a brilliant backing. I love it.

This is the front, and this is one of the places it gets used. Aaron and Emma use this quilt when we're out and about pulling them in the wagon, and Emma uses it for bed time too. Its super snuggly. Thanks so much, ladies from the Stash Busting International Bee. We love our quilt.

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.

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?

Quilt Bee Update

You want to see my last few quilt bee blocks? Of course you do!

My first Quilt Bee -- Threads Together -- is over now. It took a while for all the blocks to come in, and some are tragically lost in the mail, I'm afraid, so I'm just going to have to work with what I have when I get over the loss. I really loved that fabric and had been hoarding it for a long time, so I was a bit miffed. But I did receive 12 wonderful blocks which I will show you when I pull them all out again.

My second Quilt Bee -- International Stash Busters -- has been buzzing along wonderfully well. November was my month, and I beleive I showed you the fantastic blocks I received already here .

We took December off.

January we made warm wonky log cabins for Mimi Park. I really loved this colour combination so much that I may have to make some for me:


February we made I-spy blocks for Marlyn's new grandsons. Since I had all my I-spy stash out for Aaron's quilt already, I made two:



March was a big block for Quilting Barbie. We made these scrappy blocks. I really like this block, and may have to play around with this and my polka dot stash some day.


April is postage stamp blocks. We're supposed to do a 12" block with 1" finished squares, but I have received a new mom dispensation, and I am only going to do two smaller, 6" blocks, and another Bee member is going to spell me off by doing the other half of my block, sewing two extra 6" blocks. Thanks again, Mimi Park!

Ug, how did this happen?

I really try to only do one major project at a time. In the midst of a big project, I will stitch some mini quilts or quilt bee blocks or soft toys just to break up the process, but I try not to have too much going on, or I start to get scatter brained and feel like I'm overwhelmed and going in too many directions at once.

Right now, however, I have a baby quilt top that needs to be stitched to a backing and a stack of quilt blocks ready to be assembled for a quilt to go on my wall (to brighten it up in the winter, although the winter will be done before this quilt is at this rate)

Plus two stacks of virtual quilting bee blocks waiting to be assembled (these are my lovely Stash Busting Bee blocks -- think I need to make three more to balance them out)

Plus this hanging on my wall, ready to be sewn together before the boys knock it all down. This is Aaron's I-spy quilt. I promised Aaron that his quilt would be next, because he kept asking, "Is this MY quilt, Mommy?" every time I've finished a quilt in the last 6 months. So finally, I am doing his big boy quilt, even though Emma doesn't have a quilt yet.

I think it needs some red, but I don't have any red novelty fabrics, so I'm thinking I'll bind it in red.
Plus, since I've been sewing like mad, but not having time to tidy up between projects I have a giant pile of scraps to sort through
And a few fabrics I've pulled out for various projects that need to go back where they belong:


I just remind myself that one day I will have more self sufficient children and more time. But by then I'll be back to work and embroiled in the kids' lives, so I'm not sure if it will be better or worse than it is now. Ah well. I'm abseloutely NOT going to start anymore major projects until I have these all done . . . except maybe a baby quilt for Emma.

Still Waiting . . .

now at 40 weeks and counting. I think I still have two weeks left, but because I went into labour and then back out of it on Saturday and everyone in town heard about it, people are acting like I'm WAY overdue. The church ladies have got bored of waiting and have started sending food over anyway, and our answering machine message now says "You've reached the Chapmans. There is no baby yet. You may leave a message." For a day or so it said "You've reached the Chapmans. We are in the process of having a baby. If you want to leave the baby a large cash donation, please leave a message after the beep" because so many people were calling us, but we thought it might be inappropriate if, say, someone was calling about a dire-ly ill relative Dave had to go visit.

Yep, there I am. Not so cute anymore. Just very, very pregnant.

Its ironic, because last time around I had such a fast, sudden labour, and this time I've been having contractions on and off for days. Of course, I had a brutal cold when I was pregnant with Aaron, so I might have been so busy coughing that I didn't notice them. Or maybe I just coughed him right out. Not sure.

What has been arriving at a lovely rate, however, are my quilt blocks from the International Stash Busting Bee! I got a block Friday, two Monday, two Tuesday and one Wednesday. I sent out the big flowers, and look at all the beauty I received back:

If we have a girl, I may not have to go to much effort to make her a quilt after all.

Stash Busting Blocks

So, I wanted to catch up on all my Quilting Bee Stuff, so I could get it off my mind before I started any other sewing projects. On the Threads Together Quilting Bee, Sept was my month to send out fabric. The blocks I have received and seen online so far are fantastic! I plan to make them into a snuggle quilt for Aaron around the time the baby comes, so he will have his own "new" thing when all the baby presents roll in.

For some reason, even though I made two of these blocks in August when I was supposed to send them, I had this idea in my head that I was going to make a third, bigger block. I didn't make the block, and I didn't send these either for the longest time. So finally I made a third small one and it is ready to send out to 2nd Ave Studio tomorrow:


Terrie wanted to make a quilt with Halloween houses, so she sent out some Halloween novelty fabric and asked us to add to it and make her a wonky house. This was really fun to make.


Finally, Brenda sent out her fabric for October early, and requested a 9-patch block in fall colours. I decided to finish her block while I was in the mode, and since she send batiks, I thought I would use up some of my small, autumny batik stash to finish her block.

Quilt Bee update -- July and August

For some reason all my photos always appear in reverse order in Blogger. Sometimes I can wrap my head around it, sometimes I can't. Oh well. In reverse order, here are the blocks I've made lately:

In the International Stash Busting Bee, 2nd Ave Studios sent us the centre scraps,and asked us to make scrappy stars. Here are my two, one pink:
And one blue:

And in July, Shannon asked us to make a block for a hunting lodge quilt. She supplied the bear and the forest pieces. I didn't have much fabric that worked well with this theme, but this was what I came up with:

In the Threads Together Quilting bee we were asked to make wonky log cabins for August. I loved this fabric, it was so bright and fun. I made one slightly more traditional block:

And one a little more funky one:

In July we were asked to make wonky strips with these solids. I made this one at home, while I was listening to an interview with John Cleese.

And this one on my sister in law's sewing machine in Winnipeg, so it was a bit simpler as I didn't have all my supplies with me.

And this was my other July Stash Busting bee block. Lish had asked for stars of pinwheels. I was going to make something more complicated, but then I ran out of time, so I made this simple, but still hopefully striking block. Lish sent the little birds, and the rest was leftovers from my dad's 70th birthday quilt. The pattern said it was a 12" block, and I assumed that was the finished measurement - that is was actually 12.5, but it was a 12" block, so I added the border to round it out.

What have I been stitching up?

I'm glad you asked!
First, my June Threads Together blocks are done, but not sent yet. Alison asked us to make cross blocks, with as many or few crosses as we wanted. She sent a fun collection of reds and some tone on tone whites and solid white to work with.


Next my Craft Hope quilt. You will remember I was making a quilt to send to an orphanage in India. This is the quilt I'm working on for that. It just needs the binding wrapped around from the back to the front and attached and its ready to go, which is good because it needs to be in Texas in 11 days. I used lots of big, elaborate prints, which sort of reminded me of Indian sari fabric. And since I have two boys, I decided to make something pretty and girly, but hopefully something that won't show dirt too badly.



I really liked the simple design I used for the Craft Hope quilt. So much so that I've decided to use the same design for a quilt for my friend Lisa's baby that is due around the same time as mine. I started one really crazy, complicated quilt in all reds and black and white polka dots and dark blues. Then I remembered that Lisa likes more muted colours than I do, and that I wanted to finish the quilt before she goes back to Bogata in Sept, so I decided to cut into my Heather Ross stash instead to make something soft, sweet and simple. For you other fabric junkies out there, I picked up 2m of green West Hill horses for the back.


I also have three blocks to work on for my two quilting bees. The blue and grey solids are for July for Threads Together, the tone-on-tones are for Lish for the Stash Busting Bee, and the forest animals are for Shannon, who is making a hunting lodge quilt for her nefew. I need to have these all finished before I go on holidays in a week, so after art camp is done, you can know that as well as packing and cleaning, I'll be stitching up a storm.

And this is a sneak peek at something I'm working on now and then when I get the chance -- a quilt for me. These are my Pop Garden scraps from this picnic quilt where I used up almost my whole stash of these fabrics. I've added some of my favorite browns, as well as some fantastic greens I've been generously given in assorted swaps. I made the first block when I was doing a test block for this star block . I'm making 15 more, and then I'll figure out what to do with them once they're done. This one is just to pull out and work on when I don't have anything else with a deadline to sew. Although I might like to finish it in time for the new baby, since I tend to do a lot of couch snuggling and nursing with new babies while everyone older plays around us.


I was being pretty disciplined about doing one major quilting project at a time, but I've found that with the boys at the stages they're at, there are only certain parts of a quilt I can do during the day when they are awake. So if I'm at a spot that requires some thought and concentration and possibly math or a lot of ironing, I can't do it when they're awake. So if I have several projects going, there's always something I can mess around with at any given moment. Hopefully this isn't the beginning of the end of sanity.

Quilting Bee Anyone?

I've joined another quilting bee, and we're looking for a few more good quilters that are willing to brave the arduous task of shipping internationally. Its kind of cool because instead of sending all the fabric you want used, you just send one piece and the other quilters add to it from their stash to make the block. How much fun is that?

If you're interested, check out the rules here .