Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Wow! You guys are the best readers anywhere! Thank You for all the mug cozy love! I had several questions about how to make that little mug cozy and you’d be surprised at how easy it was to make. I think it only took me about 3 hours, start to finish.

It’s just a little rectangle mini-quilt. Draw a few little flowers out on a piece of fabric, embroider them, and then add 1-inch blocks around the outside. Finish it just like you would any other quilt with a backing, batting and binding. Then sew two buttons to each end. Wrap it around your mug and stretch a small sized ponytail holder between each set of buttons. (You just can see them in the photo above.) Easy Peasy! I would have taken a better picture of the button thingy, but it’s now at work doing its job. It’s either working well, or I’m drinking my tea faster, but the tea isn’t getting cold now until very close to the bottom of the mug.

Among all of your fab comments was one from Isabelle suggesting that I make a patchwork roof cosy. Which is exactly what I’ve been thinking.

That’s precisely why I have nothing else to report today — you wouldn’t believe how long it takes to make a quilt big enough to cover that south end of the house. And then, being the over-achiever that I am (ha!), I had to make more than one for a little change up now and then.

I’m thinking this could be a new market niche.  Wouldn’t it be cool if you could drive down the street and see a quilt on every roof?  And certainly, today deserves a quilt all its own. Somewhere, way back in my genealogy, I remember seeing someone born in Ireland. That probably makes me about 1/50th Irish, but I’m counting it.

I hope you didn’t get pinched today. If you did, I hope you enjoyed it {wink}{wink}. I’m off to get to work on the Easter Roof Cozy!

XOXO,
Anna

The Day’s Recap

How’s your weekend going so far?  Mine has been nice and relaxing.

There’s been surveying of the wind damage to the roof and picking of the new shingle color.

A little cleaning.

Chocolate Chip and Frosted Orange Cranberry.

And a little stitching with my lap dog buddy.

Which resulted in a mug cozy.  ‘Cause I’m a sipper and only halfway through the tea, it gets cold.

Have a Happy Sunday!

XOXO,
Anna

Excuse Me, Please…

I’m interrupting this mighty-fine weekend to show you the wonderful package I received in the mail today.  A few weeks ago Nancy of Nancy’s Sting Og Ting had a blog anniversary.  She gathered her comments, randomly selected one, and yelled “Thimbleanna, Come On Down!”  Today, the fabulous prize package arrived!

Just look — an adorable bag, a Norwegian moose magnet, a thimble and a note to me on a very pretty card.

I was so excited to see the pretty thimble — isn’t it cute?  It’s from the town where Nancy lives.

And look at Nancy’s exquisite hand embroidery.  I LOVE embroidery and hand embroidery is the frosting on the cake.  Look at those perfect little stitches.  And I love the way Nancy colored a little shading inside of the embroidery lines.

Every little detail about this bag is fantastic, from the label inside of the bag, to the drawstring cording with it’s own little pouch on the end to protect the cords from fraying.  Nancy’s workmanship is awesome.   I’ve been carrying the little bag around with me all day.  I feel like Nancy came over here and gave me a big hug.  Thank you so very much Nancy for making me feel so special!

And while we’re on the subject of embroidery, I’ve done a little embroidery this week too.  Natalie at Cinderberry Stitches offered this adorable free pattern a few weeks ago.  It came along just at the right time  for a little project I’d started.  I was amazed at how small the little birds are — I’ve put a nickel in the picture to provide some scale.

Thank you so much for your gift too Natalie!  I’ve really enjoyed this little embroidery and have learned a few things.  I grew up embroidering on dishtowels and I always forget to put an extra layer behind my embroidery.  I didn’t notice until I took this picture how much that extra layer is needed.  I also love this new way of doing straight stitching.  I’ve always used a traditional running stitch, but this method seems so much cleaner.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled, busy weekend.  I hope it’s a fun one with great weather where you are!

XOXO,
Anna