CHICKPEA SEWING STUDIO

Pretend Summer

We are just back from a few days in Mexico, where the police/military is definitely out in force. It was a nice break from the winter though and I am not about to forget Tulum and the coral reef in front of the site, paradise no doubt.

The chocolate sampling was pretty phenomenal as well.

De retour, I feel the need to sew bright warm things, and the class I am teaching next tuesday at the Pioneer Craft House (exciting!) provides an excuse to get back into coiling. The bowl below turned out really round and I can't help but be pleased by it's symmetry (this one is for you Evelyne, Merry Christmas at last!)

Meyer Lemons from Whole Foods, used in everything from salad to rice to jams, taste like the ocean.

 

Can you spot the (ancient) Denise Schmidt Flea Market Fancy in apricot? This wrapping technique completely obscures the design of the original fabric.

We made it!

The birthday happened! between 35 and 40 people came, which was by far the most crowded this house has ever been... We loved it!

 

Finn turned 4, and strangely he feels completely different. I hear a lot of " now that I am 4, I am going to do this and that (tasks I refused to do only yesterday)."

I had no time to take any pictures of the house decor before the party, as even with help I was still struggling to get all the food on the tables and counters and side table and... you get my point. Two full days later the house is back to normal and I can finally look up  and really enjoy the poms:

in the kitchen

and the living room

We are keeping them up for a while, they keep us in a party mood.

Save the date

Finn has been frantic lately, talking/breathing/sleeping the idea of his birthday. He woke up at 3 am this morning, came to us with a Playmobil catalog and would not take note of the hour. We are tired today and even though I decided to reach Finn in the middle and just spent the best part of the day making save the date cards for him to give to his friends at school.

They need to be clipped to each child folder so I felt compelled to add the paperclips with bow. I love how French those little blue stripes look. It's a big decision having this party at our House. Almost all birthday parties Finn has been invited to have been held at outside private venues that I believe are not age appropriate and seem to cost an harm and a leg (they are only turning 4). I wonder if parents are hesitant to let others into their house, I certainly don't live in a 'Manoir' but the first step to a happy life is most certainly to be comfortable in your own house. The only downside I can see is that Finn can't invite more than a dozen friends.

For the invitations I found this free download from the Wedding Chicks blog. I edited the card the best I could with illustrator, which is not saying much. I hope I can do the same with the actual invitation.

Moving on to making paper airplane garlands and folded boat hats...

 

crafty repurposing

Every year I think and think about what I should use to wrap our presents. It seems so pointless to wrap everything in brand new paper only to see it ripped apart in mere moments. Plus I ran out of the seemingly endless roll purchased many years ago.

Two months ago I was under the illusion that all the unused Christmas fabrics in my drawers would assemble themselves into adorable/reusable present bags. ah! ah! ah!

So here I am re-purposing a J Crew bag into a gift bag and just making tags for the presents that come alone.

Then, when cleaning out I find these left over rectangles that won't let me toss them. They become 'even more tags'. I keep all the ribbon pieces that come our way, none too small, for just this reason.

snapshot

I speed crafted the last garland today. The tree was a little bare without it. This little one required a minimum of 5 yards of flags, multiply that for a big tree and you might need elves at you disposal!

Taking a good picture of this tree eludes me completely! I'll try again

Christmas flannel part deux

I was ridiculously productive this weekend, completely collapsing on Sunday night.

One of the things I finished is the garland I had imagined for our tree. Now that it's here, it's become trying to hold back and visit all the lots to find the perfect diminutive "sapin". I plan on taking my basket along to give each candidate a trial run.

Because I don't want it to tangle and wrinkle I hand it up. (The elf is visiting Finn's daycare today, for show and tell).

Regal, a felted wreath

We are going through major changes at la casa del Chickpea and I hope they are for the best. In very short I have been decluttering over and over again (sometimes the same rooms and spots) until about half the house content remains. It's taken what seems like months but I am getting there, already my head is almost as clear as the cupboards.

The benefits of simplifying have been felt all around the house already as I no longer feel hounded by laundry and ironing, no longer feel guilty about my enormous stash of fabric ( I gave most of it away to a friend), no longer looking through junk drawers for tape or wondering where to store something (I just don't and give it away).

This sudden creative urge came about in the mist of the madness and this wreath came out of it, an object in a style completely different than anything I have made before but what fun it is to explore the baroque side of life. I couldn't stop adding once I started...

Now the key is to not replace it all (ever). A very hard feat when you like shopping like I do. Still a challenge well worth the work, and work it sure is...

Done!

 

This little table runner must have been languishing in my closet for an eternity, It needed a little finishing in the back, one of the prairie points is not quite right and you can tell where I lost interest and stopped quilting.

Still, it's completely usable and even though it's not fitting with the style of our current dwellings I decided that Finn's classroom could use it for their little table.

The turkey in the corner speaks my mind exactly; it's clear this is old since we became vegetarian over 5 years ago!

I wrapped it up very loosely, so that the toddlers might go at it with abandon.

one more project down!

I went into the Millcreek woods this morning for a solitary photoshoot of my Halloween getup. I am so happy with the cape. It's my own design and it fits like a large red glove. More to come on the subject at We All Sew very soon.

This song cover is completely charming with its hesitations and smooth feminine voice:

 

18 Lil' Red Riding Hood (Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs cover)

 

I have set myself a challenge lately, to finish five projects before Halloween. These must be projects unrelated to work, projects started sometimes eons ago that are more than half completed. It could be just putting a binding on a quilt. Most of this WIPs are quilts that aren't really my style anymore, but that Finn would love for the cats or pumpkins on them.

Finished with a vengeance so far:

Sewed binding on an halloween flannel crib size quilt. THis quilt is for Finn so I bound it off entirely by sewing machine, aka I sewed the back in the ditch. He doesn't care, and it was so satisfyingly fast!

Sewed Binding on a clothe-line basket for my mom, still need pictures.

Need a bit more avenging:

My halloween cape needs a claps

A Christmas quilt top needs quilting (will bring saturday to Eagle Mountain Quilting) and binding (by machine for sure).

A very fancy fussy cut quilt top needs borders, a back, quilting and so on...

Do you feel like you need a kick in the pants? join me in ridding your closets of a few depressing WIPs.

and grab a button if you'd like.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chickpeastudio/6237627189/" title="Button by chickpeastudio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6116/6237627189_7c4bb97afb_o.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Button"></a>

 

If anybody joins and  have a blog I will make a list of participants right here (there below) and Flickr group to share our efforts with each other.