Sweet Peep Day

Well, how is your weekend going?  Are you getting all geared up for Luuuuuv Day on Tuesday???  Here in ThimbleannaLand, we had a super fun day with the Quilty Peeps yesterday.  Lots of sewing and eating, as always.  We had a little Valentine’s luncheon in the middle of our day.

Gurney, Junie and I are pinterest addicts, so we spent a little bit of time bringing Jewels into the fold (Holy Cow Woman — were you up all night pinning????).  The reason I tell you this is because Pinterest played a big part in our get-together.  For lunch, I made a Potato and Asparagus Frittata, Jewels made Ina’s delicious Cape Code Chopped Salad, and Junie brought these wonderful dinner rolls that she found on pinterest.

And then, for dessert, Gurney bestowed this beauty upon us — a gorgeous (and divine!) Kahlua Cake (from pinterest).

We had to keep our strength up while we were sewing.  There was lots of snacking.  Junie made the yummy Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips that’s made the rounds on pinterest. (Are you sick of hearing about pinterest yet?)   I was really excited about this ’cause I wanted to try it.  We all loved it.

And Jewels made us these gorgeous Valentine cookies, courtesy of Martha.

In spite of appearances, it wasn’t all about eating.  (Well, sort of.)  There was some sewing.  Gurney worked on the Aurifil block of the month project.  Her blocks are turning out SO cute!

Jewels was knitting a really pretty ribbon scarf.  I love those colors!

Junie continued her fabric folding efforts.  (See Jenny?  Junie just works on folding her fabric here and there, and eventually, she’ll have it all done.  Just. Do. It!)

Junie even had help — we had to chase both kitties out of her fabric boxes.  Bad Kitties.  Scruff says he’s sorry he bit you Junie — I think he’s just jealous that you have so much pretty fabric.

And I worked on an old Valentine UFO.  I was going to work on my applique quilt, but decided to sneak another UFO finish into my year.  Almost done….

And there were gifts.  ‘Cause I have the best Quilty Peeps on the planet.  Jewels brought us each a filled-to-the-brim gift bag.  Lots of candy, cupcake liners and and adorable little dresden plate pin cushion.  Jewels loves anything red, so this is HER week LOL.  I don’t know if I’ll really be able to stick pins into that cute little pincushion.

And Gurney gave me a beautiful pack of homemade greeting cards and a cute little schnibbles pattern.  Gurney makes the most beautiful cards and I’m so honored to have a nice selection to use when I need them.

We had a wonderful, really FUN day.  I love my Peeps and our sewing days — we don’t manage to have them often enough.  We’ll be celebrating our 25th year this year — how lucky can a girl be???  Thank You Thank You Dear Friends for all the wonderful memories and fun!!!
XOXO,
Anna

LuuuuV Day

Did you have a fun Valentine’s weekend? And Day???  Full of Luuuuv and hearts and smooching and Chocolate????  (My Sweetie surprised me with some Shari’s Berries — Oh. My. Gosh!)

Anyway, it was a fun weekend here in ThimbleannaLand.  It started with a fun day with the Quilty Peeps.  Us locals drove a few hours to see Gurney.  We shopped (quilt shops, of course) and then Gurney ever-so-sweetly treated us to a Valentine’s Proper Tea.  It was great fun and the food was wonderful.

Notice how the ladies know correct pinky etiquette?  Extended … yet not overly so.  (I have no idea what I’m talking about…just play along.)  We had two types of tea — a cinnamon spice (yum) and a chocolate flavored tea.  The foods were all finger foods — appetizers, sandwiches (cucumber was included, of course) and three delicious little sweets — a meringue heart, a mini-fruitcake and a little lemon shortbread type of cookie.  I have the best quilty peeps ever and we had a great day.  Thanks girls — and especially YOU Gurney, for the fun treat!

Other than that, it was a low-key Love-y weekend.  I made a few gifts for my little sweeties.  Boxers for the boys in my favorite recent crush — Thing 1 and Thing 2!  Sadly, there were no cute models around, so I just took a quick pic on the cutting table.

I embroidered “Thing 1″ and “Thing 2″ just above the hemlines — just in case both boys are home doing laundry at the same time.

Then I wrapped them (with a little fabric surprise for SweetiePie) and packed them with a chick flick movie (yeah, the boys might not be too excited, but the girls should like them), lots of candy, and some dental floss and toothbrushes to counteract the sugar.

Then, last night I made our annual Valentine’s dinner.   Steak Au Poivre, herb roasted new potatoes, and oven roasted asparagus.  And for dessert, I tried a wonderful new recipe, Not So Humble Pie’s Bittersweet Chocolate Tart.  It was delicious!  Thanks to LindaNoBlog for the great suggestion.

Oh, and this picture isn’t our Valentine’s Dinner, but it was just as fun.  Someone posted a picture on Pinterest and because I’m 5 years old and love to play with my food, I had to try it.

You should have seen TheManoftheHouse’s face when he figured it out.  He ate his veggies first and he didn’t know why I was grinning.  Then, he started to eat his spaghetti and discovered that it was connected to the hot dog.  It was pretty funny!  If you don’t think you’ll die after eating an occasional hot dog, you might like this fun little surprise.  If you have kids, I’m betting they’ll love it!

OkeyDoke…off to pay some bills.  Big Valentine Smoochies!

XOXO,
Anna

Market Report: The Fabric

Shoot! I meant to post before now. I just can’t seem to get caught up around here. Plus, we had a very busy weekend last weekend. I spent one day with the family cleaning up leaves at MeMum and BigDaddy’s house and the other day sewing with the quilty peeps.  I was working on the Ghastlies.  ‘Cause, of course, I didn’t get them done by Halloween and I don’t want them being a UFO until next Halloween.

Junie finished up an adorable quilt that she made for a new baby in her extended family.  She said it’s a Moda Bakeshop pattern, but I’m too lazy to look up the link for you.  I love the little surfing monkey and the baby’s name on the quilt.  (Sorry for the dark photos — it was pretty late in the afternoon by the time I remembered to take pictures.)

Gurney was working on this very pretty Crabapple Hill snowman pillow.  I have this pattern in my stash and hope to make it someday.  Gurney is a wonderful embroiderer.

And Jewels (the hostess with the mostest) worked on her cute little dresden plates.  They’re pretty small and very perfect.  They’re all hand-pieced and Jewels is the master.  I love them!

Ok, so here’s my market fabric report.  Once again, I bought WAY too much fabric.  At least it was less than last time, but still.  I blame it on the excitement of the Sample Spree Moment.   In the back of this picture is Sunkissed by Sweetwater,  Anna Griffin’s new line is in the foreground, and to the right is the only fat quarter stack that I was really there for — Sherbert Pips by Aneela Hoey.  CrazyMom has a picture of the prints all spread out — I can’t bring myself to take my cute stack apart.  I love those pips, but I’m 100% positive that CrazyMom will have something done with her pips before I do, ’cause she actually uses her fabric!

Then, I was innocently wandering past the Lecein booth and I spotted this adorable Little Red Riding Hood pack.  I couldn’t help myself.  I probably won’t be able to cut into this fabric either.

And last, but not least, The Cat in the Hat.  My new fabric obsession.  I want to buy it by the bolt.  C’mon now — how can you resist Thing1 and Thing2 all over their own piece of fabric???  Just imagine the pillowcases, BOXERS, quilt backs, and more.  Can you blame me???

Since I’ve spent all day in the dungeon cleaning out fabric and junk (new furnace coming next week so cabinets have to be moved) I’m thinking all this new fabric really wasn’t necessary.  On the other hand, I have lots of stuff heading to Goodwill now, so I have new room to stock up!

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Banana Bikes

One week ago today I was blissfully sewing with the quilty peeps.  (In sharp contrast to the pantry and kitchen drawer cleaning I’m doing today {sigh}.)  One of the highlights of my day with the quilty peeps, was being able to see the banana bike collection that Junie and her fabulous hubby have started.

Junie took the picture above — I was so busy taking pictures of all the bike parts, I didn’t get any good pictures of all four of the bikes together.  (Thanks Junie!)

JunieHubby is an amazing guy.  He rebuilds all kinds of really nifty old jukeboxes, coke machines, arcade games and probably lots more.  He’s rebuilt all of these banana bikes except one — was it the red one?  I think that one is a reproduction.  Don’t hold me to that though.  JunieHubby told me lots of really cool facts about these bikes (I remember gasping at the prices of some of the little parts) but I have a terrible memory, so I don’t trust myself to recount any of those facts.

Besides, I was too excited about being in the presence of  relics from my childhood.  Aren’t these the cutest bikes ever???  And LOOK at these fun colors.  The red bike doesn’t have speeds and I think the reason I didn’t take a picture of the red handlebar was because it doesn’t have handbrakes — it has a plain handle.  I liked the crossbar on the red bike though — without the shifter, there’s room for that pretty Schwinn logo.

My very favorite part of these bikes is the chain guards.  Feast your eyes:

I mean really.  How cool are those names?  Oh.  My.  Gosh!  I loved our pink banana bike when were were growing up, but I think I’d be in a real pickle to have to choose between pink and one of these adorable fruity bikes.

Junie and I had lots of fun taking pictures of all the little bits and pieces of these bikes.  JunieHubby has spared no attention to detail — just look at those little racing flag valve stem covers on each of the tires.  They’re on the rear tires too and they’re color-coded to match the bikes.

I love the pretty speedometers too.  And the shiny brake drums.  Hmmm.  That’s not what you call it — the brakes are around the rim of the tire on a bike.  Help JunieHubby!  I love that pretty shiny part that’s in the middle of the bottom row of the picture below.  Whatever it is, it’s pretty slick.  Oh — and that fun coil-y part that’s under the speedometer.  Pretty, pretty, shiny, shiny!

You’d all be very proud of me — I didn’t get any drool on any of the bikes.  And when we were all done taking pictures, we grabbed Jewels and Gurney and took the bikes out for a spin.  A very short spin.  And we laughed a lot.  ‘Cause you should try to set the timer on the camera and then run and hop on a banana bike with a cross bar and then hold hands.  That’s why my tail light isn’t shining!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Junie and JunieHubby for sharing your super exciting hobby!  {Smooches}!

XOXO,
Anna

Peep Day

Happy Sunday!  Are you all having a good weekend?  I’m having a Fabulous Fall weekend!  I spent all day yesterday at a fun sewing day with my quilty peeps.  We have such a hard time getting together this year and it was wonderful to be able to spend some time with my BFFs.

Junie outdid herself by playing hostess.  She waited on us hand and foot!  We always have a potluck of sorts for lunch (there is a little planning — we each choose what “course” we’ll bring.)  She made this deeeee-licious Potato Bacon Torte.  You should try it — the recipe is HERE, and I promise, if you like those ingredients, you won’t be disappointed.

Gurney brought our salad — it was fantastic too.  I conned Gurney out of the recipe because I loved it so much.  (In a large bowl, mix together: 1 lb. cabbage that has been shredded (or you can buy the preshredded cabbage mix that has carrots too), 2 pkgs. chicken ramen noodles, 3 chopped green onions, 3/4 c. slivered almonds, 5 Tbsp sesame seeds.  Add to that a dressing that you’ve made ahead of time and chilled:  3/4 c. oil, seasoning packets from the 2 ramen noodle pkgs., 5 Tbsp vinegar, and three Tbsp sugar.  After you’ve thoroughly tossed the salad and dressing, top with 1 c. shoestring potatoes.)  It was yummy too and made the perfect side to the potato torte.

Jewels made her fantastic Lemon Dessert which we practically begged her to bring (ok, we did beg her to bring).  I posted this recipe HERE several months ago, so this is a recycled picture.  The dessert definitely wasn’t recycled though and it was even better than the first time!

I managed to be the big slacker in the group — I picked up donut holes for our breakfast and brought some fresh sliced fruit.  Hey peeps, I think that’s a tradition we should keep — the previous hostess gets a slacker day — Junie, you’re up next!

As for projects, we were all busy all day.  Gurney finished up this ADORABLE little pumpkin quilt as a gift for a friend.  Her embroidery is perfect and we all loved this piece.  Gurney gets the prize for cutest and most creative project!  (And because I know some of you will ask, hopefully maybe Gurney will read this and leave her pattern source in the comments.)

Junie worked on folding her fabric stash — when she wasn’t meeting her hostess duties.  Fabric folding is a huge project, so she’ll be at this for several more days!

Jewels worked on these adorable mini-dresden pieces.  Jewels does beautiful hand paper-piecing and I can’t wait to see this project unfold.  (Aren’t those fabrics pretty?)

I kept plugging away at my yoyos and also did a bit of handwork on a backpack that I’ve been working on.  The backpack will be just like the black and white backpack in this post, without the little bride tag, of course!

So, as you can see, we had a wonderful day.  Gurney has had a grandbaby explosion in the last few years (with another one on the way!) and since she lives two hours away, it’s made it really hard for us to all find a free weekend.  Thank you quilty peeps for an awesome day — let’s not make it so long until the next one!

XOXO,
Anna