CHICKPEA SEWING STUDIO

Busy little quilting bee, taking shape.

Most of the blocks from the quilting swap have made their way to our mailbox, I say most because some got lost in the way which bugs. (Correction: I just checked out the Flickr group and more blocks are definitely on their way...)
The swappers made fairly small blocks, this way it leaves some wiggle room when resizing them. I am now adding 'borders' of the same linen as the one used in the blocks to make them all 10"x10". The borders do not center the block but make it float somewhere in the 10" square, I hope the effect will be very asymmetrical in the end. It's an experiment so it could really backfire!

Take a look at the first four:

and two more:

Quilting swap: catching up!

Yesterday I got all caught up with the Busy Little Quilting Bee.

This one is for Cathy :

This for Sarah:

and this one is for Stephanie:

I have to admit that this swap has been surprisingly hard for me. However much I admire Denise Schmidt style log cabins, I am not very good at making copycat blocks. The modern/wonky look is much harder to achieve than I ever thought. I have developed an healthy dose of admiration for the other girls in the swap that appear to to have mastered the skill perfectly. Life has a way to point out our shortcomings in areas we had no idea we stunk, I guess....

A spare change friendly project, and a deadline long gone...

Sara sans-H brought Seams to Me here yesterday, the second to last project screamed 'Spare Change' . I almost immediately started sorting and cutting my precious squares, You'll need 20 squares for hexagons and 12 for pentagons, I think I'll make my pentagons all in one fabric ( maybe...). It's going to be a lot of Y-seams and therefore will be my Christmas present for Finn, just because. I am so excited to use off my precious squares!

I need to do something today, now, this very instant! my swap block for busy little quilt bee. It must be about one month late, bad swapper you.

I am on it! See:

It got finished while writing this post and I just love love love it! ( how not-so-humble of me, sorry!).

I have been feeling a bit intimidated by everybody's charming wonkiness and getting a sewers cramp, but just decided to do my thing and the super straight cross look so precious to me, I want to make more! 

The new pattern is up!

 

You can now find the pattern for Finn's quilt here

I hope to come up with more scrap and white friendly project in the near future, something modern and (hopefully) cool is brewing in my head right now!

Spare Change: making littles piles.

The little packages have been started! I got to the thick of it yesterday afternoon and evening while watching CNN, thinking the elections results would go far into the night. Not so, and my back gave out anyway. But we have about twenty done and what looks like 150 to go (!). Wish me luck! and don't worry too much those of you that have been writing to say that you are late, it should take a few more days...

Another reason to be slow would be because of Kristin: She sent me an amazing poetry book for Finn, and I am reminded once more how much I love reading poetry. Poetry feels like caramels for my soul. Thank you Kristin! 

I have been really touched in fact by the charming/abundant hostess gifts 'swappers' sent me! I had no idea... So much to blog about, after the packages are sent !

For now, and because I find it fits the day, here is one of my many favorites (you can click on it to make it easier to read):

Swappy Swap Swap...

This is what the post office has to resort to since the swap entries have started to come in... The mailman still says hello, what a relief!

I never counted how many comments and follow up emails the Spare Change post received so as to not get discouraged but the full scale of the affair is becoming clearer everyday... So yesterday my friend Karen came by and convinced me to get started at once with the redistribution.

What makes it a slow process is the vast array of fabric that are sent to me. We try to match the style of every entry with what we send back as best we can and that process alone takes hours... The fear of selecting the same squares for whomever sent them in the first place also makes me pull my hair out, but I seem to have a system... Trial by fire: the best kind (let's hope)!

a little peek:

This little swap is starting to look like a big one! Who knew so many people actually read these posts I like to write?

I am not counting how many have signed up but the number of email replies being sent ( by me/by hand) is just mind boggling...

I get a lot of the same questions over and over, here are some answers for you.

Should the fabric be prewashed?

No

Should the fabric be all the same or different?

Either or

Shipping internationally?

Yes, we can use paypal for stamps.

I signed up but have not received an email yet?

Some of the comments had no-reply addresses

Do I need a blog to participate?

No, we wouldn't have a lot of readers if we only liked other bloggers ;)

Can I play twice?

Please don't, I don't know how I am going to keep track already! But:

Will you do this again?

If all goes well and we can get some projects going, why not...

I also want to congratulate Hashi for being the first to send the squares out, they arrived today!

Tomorrow some book reviews for a change of subject... Some Japanese cute and more...

Spare Change: rules of the game.

Let the swap begin!

I have been thinking it up all night ( Having a cold + Baby has a cold = time to mull things over).

This is what I came up with:

General rules:

Each participant will be sending me the equivalent of 1/2 yard of fabric, or 24 squares. The fabric can be pre-cut in 5"x5" squares, of different prints or be all the same print. Since I will be dividing it amounsgt everybody we shouldn't get much duplicates in the end. 

You will be sending a self adressed enveloppe for the squares with about three or four regular 42 cents stamps. I will cover the difference if need be and the international shipping because I can't come up with a better plan.

I ask everybody to send only the kind of fabric they would love to receive, nothing from chain stores please. When you think about it 1/2 yard of good stuff costs barely more than five bucks. So be choosy with your selection and everybody will have a yummy set of squares to work with in the end.

The deadline to enter is October 15th, 2008. I hope we get a good turn out! I will be sending everybody my address through an email after that date.

Meanwhile I made a small button to add to your blog, so spread the word!

White and Scrap Swap

I have always wanted to organize a swap, but generally felt too 'green' a blogger to say so. I keep telling myself: 'maybe after 500 posts you'll be ready!'.

It's been about half that but I am putting it out there anyhow: Is anybody interested in a little scrap-swap?

The objective would be to collect enough 5"x5" squares to create a white and scraps quilt with a lot more variety that one can get on its own. 

After making Finn's quilt I really caught the bug of working with more white and keep noticing more and more quilts using that kind of contrast everywhere. Like this one or this one.

So what say you, is anybody interested? If yes, live me a note and I can start making rules up and get it going. As you can see I like to do things backwards and already made a button ^_^

updated post:

Look what I found at the purlbee: pure joy! plus the 5" by 5" would work.

Busy Bee Quilt Swap

I had never before participated in a quilt block swap, the idea seemed enticing. September is the first of many months ending in June ( how many months is that?). With my luck I ended up last for the swap, which means that I will be getting things back in June of 2009 (!). That worries me a bit as I am concerned that fellow swappers will forget about it or get burnt out by then. I do remember making this very elaborate mobile for my first swap and receiving nothing at all in return... I should be more trusting.

Here is a peak at the first block, ready to be sent.