Chat – Thimbleanna

Summer Zipped By …

10 Comments / September 24, 2022 September 24, 2022 / Chat, Sewing, Travel

Well, here we are. Fall Already. I have NO idea what happened to summer. It came and it went. Life spins by exponentially as you get older, I’ve decided. I seem to remember it was a mostly fun summer and not too miserably hot. But what do I know … I stay inside and sew a lot LOL.

We have had a fun summer with our cutie patootie little granddaughters. We had cookie baking, tea parties, lots of coloring, ice cream, homemade funnel cakes, sleepovers, star gazing on quilts, and one afternoon we even had HurrayAThirdGirl all to ourselves.

What a joy they all are! I find myself wishing they could stay little forever, but then I get excited to see how their little personalities will develop. I used to be so sad that I didn’t have any little girls of my own, but I think this is the way to do it — I’m loving these little girls SO much and I don’t think I would have had time to really enjoy them as a mother!

There’s been a fair bit of travel this summer. TheSecondChild decided to move to Florida in July, so I had several trips helping him with the move. I didn’t know much about Florida, having only been there for the standard Disney World trip when the boys were little, but I loved it. Even though it was hotter than hades, and moving is hard, we had a great time. One weekend, we snuck away to Key West for a little getaway. I’ve always wanted to go and see Ernest Hemingway’s home and it was the highlight of the visit. Here’s the famous author’s desk:

And, as expected, there were cats everywhere.

I had previously also been blissfully unaware of the iguana situation in Florida. I felt like I saw an iguana almost every day — they’re like squirrels. This was poolside at our hotel in Key West. Swim with a rooster and iguana anyone???

Someone even told me that they climb trees and if/when the temps get below freezing, they temporarily freeze (because they’re cold blooded) and fall out of the trees. Maybe on your head if you’re walking by. Ewwwww! One day, back in the mainland, we were in the drive-thru line at Wendy’s and I looked over to see this:

Needless to say, I became a little iguana obsessed LOL.

There’s also been a lot of sewing over the summer. I made a little dress for FinallyAGirl’s birthday at the beginning of the summer.

The pattern is Ginger from The Children’s Corner store, and the fabric is the cute Children of Liberty print in my little shop.
I also FINALLY finished the hand piecing on my Trip Around the World quilt. I think I finished with 42 rounds and it should be a double size quilt when finished. This is a picture of the back, right after I finished the last round.

It took me TWO weeks, working a few hours a day while watching tv, to get those seams ironed down in the right order. That was a job! I’ve also been steadily hand-quilting away on HurrayAThirdGirl’s baby quilt (it’s late haha) — I’m about half-way through at this point and hoping to be done by the end of November. There are also some Christmas quilt tops that are almost done, but they will have to wait for another post.

Which at this rate, may be in the spring LOL.

Happy Fall!
XOXO,
Anna

Summertime

8 Comments / June 21, 2021 June 21, 2021 / Chat, Sewing, Travel

Wow. I can’t believe summer is here and almost half of this year has gone by already. Spring came and went in a flash and I’ve been remiss in posting, but we’ve been having lots of fun here in ThimbleannaLand.

There’s been lots of sewing, which is good — it keeps me happy! I made this fun little Cute as a Button bag from a pattern published by Zakka Workshop.

I also used another print of that cute Belle and Boo fabric to make a beach bag using the free pattern from Polkadot Chair. (Now I just need a beach vacation LOL.)

Most of my sewing this spring involved machine quilting this big quilt. I think it’s about 90″ x 98″ or something like that, so it took about 6 weeks for me to get it quilted. It’s all done now (except for a label) but I can’t show it until it’s gifted, which will be in a few months.

And lastly, I made a cute little dress for FinallyAGirl, who, unbelievably, turns 5 years old today. I’m in denial — she can’t be that old yet! The pattern is “The Skipper” from Merchant & Mills and this is the second time I’ve made it for her. She loved the first one so much, but it’s almost too little for her now, so I thought I’d make her another one. As you can see, this one is a bit big (it’s a size 5), but that’s good — hopefully it will carry her through the school year. Both dresses were made out of Rifle Paper Co. rayon — the first dress was a different floral though.

It hasn’t only been sewing around here though. There has been lots of fun with the babies. I went every weekday for six weeks to swimming lessons with the girls. Or, really, I would call them survival lessons in the water. Each of the three girls had 10 minutes a day with the instructor and it was amazing to see their progress. The oldest two went from not wanting to get their faces wet to swimming and jumping in the pool. And the baby learned how to float. The instructor would flip her underwater (which is disorienting) and she would always come up and float. For graduation, they have to swim (or float in the case of the baby) in winter clothing. Here’s a picture of the two youngest in their snowsuits.

I was really surprised that the baby’s snowsuit episode was done with glasses, patch and contact but the objective is to simulate if they were to fall into water fully dressed. And I think the two-year-old is giving me the stinkeye in that picture LOL. Anyway, highly recommended swim lessons!

Also, a few weekends ago, TheSecondChild and I had a little weekend hiking getaway to the upper peninsula of Michigan. We spent an afternoon on Mackinaw Island riding bikes. Luckily, tourist season was just barely starting — we had the ferry to the island all to ourselves, but the return trip was full. I can’t imagine how crowded it must be in the summer. We were there at the perfect time too — there were lilac bushes all over the island that were in full bloom — Sooo Beautiful!!!

The second day in the UP, we made a quick stop to see the bears at Oswald’s Bear Ranch. We were worried that it would be a bit Tiger King-ish, but it was pretty interesting and they seemed to be taking good care of the bears. My least favorite part was watching people get their pictures taken with the bear cubs — it definitely seemed exploitative and cheesy, but I guess they have to pay the bills. {Sigh.} It was worth the stop though and I’d recommend it if you’re in the area.

The rest of the day we took a 10 1/2 mile hike in Pictured Rocks National Seashore. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. And, I suppose, for posterity, I should note that halfway through the hike I tripped on a tree root and face-planted on the trail. The mouthful of sand, bloody forehead and scratched glasses weren’t pretty, but it is kinda funny. I was just glad not to have broken anything LOL.

Soooo, if you stuck it out this long, Thank You! It’s been a fun spring and I’m looking forward to summer. I’m hoping to spend lots of time with these yayhoos and maybe get back here a little more often.

Happy Summer!

XOXO,
Anna

A Sewing Kit

5 Comments / December 19, 2020 December 19, 2020 / Chat

Boy Oh Boy. This month has just flown by! It’s been a messy, messy year, but I hope that this holiday season will be a good one for everyone. This is the first Christmas in years and years that I haven’t been working, so it’s been nice to not feel pressed for time to get things done. That’s good and bad — it’s relaxing, but I don’t get nearly as much done. I’ve sure been having fun playing with the grandbabies a lot though and I feel so lucky that they are living so close to us now. I’m not doing as much for the holidays this year. I didn’t decorate as much and we decided not to do a gingerbread house competition either. {Gasp!} Mostly because it’s one less event to be exposed to each other with Covid worries, but I just wasn’t feeling it this year. Baking all that gingerbread is a lot of work. I’ll get back to it next year ;-D. TheFirstChild and SweetiePie are moving into their new home on Monday, so we’ll be tending the babies. I thought it would be fun just to have the oldest two make little mini-gingerbread houses from store-bought kits (the sacriledge LOL) while they’re here. Something to keep them busy and keep up the tradition, even if in a very small way.

I haven’t sewn as much for gifts this year either, but I have managed to make a fun little sewing kit for a gift . (If by some random chance your name is Aunt Ann, LOOK AWAY! Scroll no farther LOL!) I have LOVED the sewing kit I made a few years ago when I was part of CrazyMom’s Emma & Myrtle fabric tour. I use my sewing kit almost every day and it’s so nice to have all my supplies in one handy place. So, I thought my sewing-loving-world’s-greatest-aunt might also like to have a little kit of her own. I was worried that I might not get it done in time for Christmas because I had to wait for my shipment of Rose & Violet’s Garden fabrics to arrive in my little shop. They arrived on Wednesday, so I quickly stitched up a kit and popped it in the mail yesterday, in hopes that it will arrive in time for Christmas.

I had fun choosing what to add to this kit – the first choice was a little Moda badge that says “Sewing makes me happy!” My Aunt has told me many times how much she loves to sew, so I hope she’ll smile when she opens the first flap and sees this little badge.

Then I just put some fun stuff in the middle of the kit. My kit has a needle minder that I rarely use, so I put a spool of thread in this kit instead. I also threw in a few notions before I shipped it off, including a little pair of embroidery scissors in the scissors pocket. I also included some Grandma Loves You tags — she has 27 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren and she still sews for them, so I’m thinking she’ll be able to use those cute little tags.

I’ve had people ask me about my sewing kit, so while I was making this one, I took some pictures and wrote up a little tutorial for anyone who would like to make one. It’s not a really detailed tutorial — mostly just a few ideas and measurements. The fun of these sewing kits it that you can make them completely your own and add the features that you want to have.

Ok, well, I have to get back to work! Today is present wrapping day and I’m planning to stitch up a few reusable gift bags for some of the more awkwardly sized gifts. We’ll see how that goes. Have a great last few days before Christmas — I hope you have enough time to get everything done!

XOXO,
Anna

Checking In

6 Comments / October 10, 2020 January 23, 2021 / Chat, Family

Well Hello! Ohmygosh, another few months have flown by. I have to keep telling myself that it’s actually October — I’m still in August. (Ok, who am I kidding, I’m still in 2005 or something LOL.) See, here’s proof – does this look like October to you?

My zinnias were so pretty this year that I had to take a picture. I planted mostly pink ones and I’ve loved not having so many different colors. The flowers are definitely starting to fade though, so when I need to jolt myself back into October, I just have to walk outside. It’s been so beautiful this year — I hope the good weather will last a little longer. We had a visit the other day from this sneaky little guy — he’s definitely getting ready for winter. I had to run him off before he decided to bury that nut in my seat cushion. So far, they haven’t destroyed the cushions this year, but it probably won’t be long.

I feel like I’ve been really busy in the few months since my last post, yet I feel like I haven’t done much. I spent most of August and part of September working on a new website for my little fabric shop. I decided try to move things from Etsy — their fees are just so high and when you throw in advertising fees, I actually had a few listings that were costing me money. I like being able to offer items at a discount, so I moved to a new website where the prices can still be lower. For now, the Etsy shop will remain, but with higher prices to try to offset the fees a little, and with a smaller selection. The new website also has some fun features that Etsy doesn’t have, for example, you can create a “design wall” where you can view all the fabrics that you might be thinking about purchasing together. When I’m shopping online, I love to be able to see everything on the same page so I can tell if I like it together. You can also shop by colors, themes, supplier, or type of fabric (knits anyone?)

Also, a new website meant I ~~needed~~ wanted a new logo. I had seen some cute logos on Instagram done by cerigwen_shop, so I contacted her to create a new logo for me. She was so easy to work with — she created several options and then tweaked the final one I selected. I love that big pink thimble — if only sterling silver were pink LOL!

Just as we were finishing the new website, we had a little family getaway to our favorite place in Utah. Both boys, DIL, and the grandbabies went and we had a wonderful time. It was the perfect time to be in the mountains — the beautiful trees were just starting to show their fall colors.

We did a lot of hiking, which is a little challenging with three babies who are 4 and under. The kids were SO good though! I’m sure it was all that fresh mountain air (it looked really smoky and hazy from the California wildfires, but it was heaven to us.) And luckily, we had one strong adult for each baby, so no one had to walk when they were tired. (Although, no one offered to carry meee-e LOL.)

We always took a picnic lunch on our hikes, and on this particular hike, we were having a little picnic in a meadow and a really nice guy came by and offered to take our picture — such a fun surprise!

Now, we’re safely back home and starting to think all things fall. I’m still plodding along on too many UFOs — all with not much progress to report. Hopefully I’ll finish something up soon — I’ve seen a ton of new projects that I’d like to start, but I’m trying to be good. Not making any promises though ….

Happy Fall!
XOXO,
Anna

A Little Catch Up

7 Comments / July 19, 2020 July 19, 2020 / Chat, Recipes

My Oh My. I seem to have lost my blogging mojo. Or desire to be online. Or will to live LOL. These last few months have been somewhat painful and I’m sure a lot of you have been feeling it. I’ve been plenty busy, but just haven’t really wanted to blog about it much. Plus, when I spend time online, I want to be inspired by beautiful projects but this last little bit it seemed like so many blogs and instagram pages turned into their version of the news and it was just too much, so I just turned it off for awhile. Just call me an ostrich. Life is just too short, and the older I get, the shorter it gets, so, I followed Nancy Reagan’s advice and Just. Said. No. LOL.

We’ve tried to have as normal as possible spring/summer here, considering we can’t go really go anywhere. I spent most of the spring in the yard – cleaning out flower beds and then spreading 15 yards of mulch around. I love the years we mulch because after all the hard work, the beds remain relatively weed-free. My little Etsy shop has kept me busy too — who could have predicted what covid would do to the fabric industry? Thank you SO much for your orders – lots of new fabric has been arriving and my third order/restock of Liberty in just a few months is due later this week. There must be a lot of beautiful Liberty masks out there!

I’ve been spending lots of time with the grandbabies (now that we aren’t isolated from them), trying to help SweetiePie and give her a break now and then. Those three little girls are busy! When I look back over my iphone pictures, I realize we really have been having fun. We’ve had some pool days (luckily, we’re in a small neighborhood with an uncrowded pool), lots of games and puzzles (seeing FinallyAnotherGirl learn how to play Hide and Seek is just too cute!), walks and bike rides (my favorite are the walks after the sun goes down to beat the heat), and even a day at the Zoo when they were letting members-only sign up for time slots so it wasn’t so crowded. Feeding the “giraf-fez” is ALWAYS a hit!

In the kitchen there have been the usual cupcakes and cookies, and because it’s summer, I’ve tried a few batches of ice cream. A friend gave me some fresh peaches, so I made some peach ice cream. The ice cream wasn’t very good (WAY too much cream) but I made some ice cream sandwiches with it, and the cookies for the sandwiches were a big hit.

A U-pick berry farm has popped up along the route between our place and TheFirstChild and SweetiePie’s home. I’ve watched it the last few years, wondering about it, and this year, I decided to take FinallyAGirl and check it out. We picked little baskets of the most beautiful blackberries and we’ve had blackberries running out of our ears. (Because it doesn’t take long to pick them and we kept picking more because we were having so much fun. ;-D)

FinallyAGirl and I made blackberry freezer jam (using my favorite recipe and substituting blackberries for raspberries).

I thought the jam would use most of the berries but didn’t even use half of them. So, I decided to make some blackberry ice cream which turned out great. There are still blackberries left, so I think I’ll be making another batch of jam. (And I’ll definitely be making these Almond Raspberry Bars using blackberry jam instead of raspberry jam, making them Almond Blackberry Bars ;-D).

On the sewing/quilting front there have been several projects. A few masks, of course. And a few little girl dresses which didn’t get photographed before they were treated to a trip to the beach. I spent most of early spring working on a wedding quilt for CuteNiece1. I completed some applique and 80-or-so blocks. I can’t really show much of it, but here’s a peek at the applique:

And then, Covid struck and the weddding has been postponed until next year, so there will have to be some unpicking. I was just getting ready to sash all the blocks when the postponement happened, so I’ve lost my steam and the project now sits as a UFO. What’s the hurry? I have a year left, and I work best under pressure LOL. I’ve also been working on FinallyAnotherGirl’s baby quilt. When I finish the current row of quilting, I’ll be a little over half-way finished. I’m hoping to have it done by her second birthday in September. We’ll see!

So, that’s probably enough for now – hopefully I’ll be back before too long with a little sewing. In the meantime, I hope you are all having a good summer (or winter, as the case may be) and staying safe!
XOXO,
Anna