Chat – Page 13 – Thimbleanna

Checking Off THE List

20 Comments / September 18, 2013 October 8, 2013 / Chat

Wow — I have a crowd of smart gardening readers going on here! Thanks for all the information about our black tomatoes. The general consensus is that they are some sort of heirloom tomato. They taste ok, and I didn’t keel over with stomach cramps — it’s just that they don’t really look like tomatoes. Thanks for all the info though — you guys are great!

Only 4 more days until the autumnal equinox, which means that summer will officially be over. I’m cramming to get the last five items completed on my 10 Things this Summer List. I ticked off two last weekend:

7. Clean Up the Sewing Room. I didn’t remove everything from the shelves and go through it all, but I did get all horizontal surfaces cleaned off and I have a knee-high pile of old counted cross-stitch and painting magazines and books to dispatch. Where to send? Goodwill? Do they take stuff like that? A black hole??? I do occasionally send old junk to unsuspecting victims just for the fun of it — maybe I should save the pile for all the special people in my life LOL.

Anyway, no pictures of the cleaned up room, ’cause…you know. It’s a dungeon. I will show you the picture of my trusty helper though. While I was cleaning things up, PaulKitty thought he’d make himself comfy in my fabric. BAD Kitty!

9. Go On a Picnic. Hmmm. This one was a little challenging. I couldn’t convince MeMum and BigDaddy to go to a park or a cornfield or something like that for a picnic. So, I decided to bring the picnic to them. I really wanted to spread quilts on their trampoline and have a picnic there, but I decided the food would probably bounce all over while we tried to keep ourselves upright. So, we spread MeMum’s garage-sale cheater quilt on their little patio table and I brought them some Kentucky Fried Chicken in my picnic basket. A cheater picnic on a cheater quilt. Perfect!

Must run — I’m busily trying to complete my last three items on the list. At least one of them isn’t going to get done. So sad.

Oh! Speaking of sad, can we please have a moment of silence for my beloved?

My long-time do-it-all lens is in the sickly lens hospital. I’m pretty hard on my camera stuff and my lens is feeling poorly. Hopefully whatever she has isn’t fatal and she’ll be home soon — I miss her terribly!

Happy Hump Day!
XOXO,
Anna

Five on Friday

37 Comments / September 13, 2013 October 8, 2013 / Chat, Store

1. The teeny tiny garden was a bust this year. {Sigh} Apparently the hail storm that ate the zinnias wasn’t enough. Something’s up with the tomatoes. They’re refusing to turn red. They go from green to something close to black. Is there some new black tomato that I don’t know about? I’m afraid to eat them.

2. Look at this fun skeleton fabric I picked up in New York City last week. I thought it would be perfect for the Dr. Child, but I don’t have a clue what to do with it. I’ll happily take suggestions if you have any!

3. I’ve been pouring through quilt books, thinking about what I want to work on next. I know the Steampunks aren’t done yet, but they’re getting close. Only 6 more blocks. I think I have an idea what I want to do, but, as always, selecting the colors is a big problem for me. I love them all. What to do. What to do.

4. When I saw the Le Creme Swiss Dots from Riley Blake, I fell in fabric love. I think they’re perfect for applique backgrounds and light values in blocks. I had to have them. And then I bought too much. So, I’ve put some in my little etsy shop. (Speaking of which, thank you for all the Adventure Girls love — the kits are gone now, but there are a few panels left.)

5. Thank you to Brigette for sending me a funny on Black Tomato Day.

May your weekend be full of RED tomatoes!
XOXO,
Anna

Birthday Adventure Girls

22 Comments / August 19, 2013 September 21, 2013 / Chat, Quilting

Hello, Hello! Did you have a nice weekend? I had a great weekend — with LOTS of sewing. ;-D

I gave in to the call of my Adventure Girls quilt kit. I was going to make it for me, but while I was piecing the top on Saturday afternoon, I realized that I was worrying about not having a birthday present for MeMum. Then it dawned on me — she has a flannel throw quilt for tv watching, but not a lighter quilt for the summer. The Adventure Girls would be perfect! So, I kicked it into gear (and stayed up late!) so I could finish the quilt in time for her birthday — which was yesterday.

My version of the quilt looks just like the full view I showed you a few posts ago, so I didn’t take a new full view shot. This quilt was SO fun to make. Those little Adventure Girls are so cute and it was fun to look at all the details while I was sewing away. I quilted it very simply — 1/4″ quilting on both sides of all of the seams, and then I quilted around most of the figures in one way or another. You can sort of see how I went around the figures in the picture below. (Look at the cute little dog!)

While I was quilting, it seemed like the quilt was just so flimsy and didn’t really have much substance. I remember I felt that way when I was quilting the graduation quilt for my nephew. It always amazes me how washing the quilt really makes it come to life. The process makes the batting bloom and it really makes the quilt cozy. I chose the blue flower print for the back of the quilt.

I LOVE this little quilt and I’ll have to make at least one more (possibly two)! And I love having fun, quick projects now and then, in between the longer, more detailed projects. Here are the Adventure Girls all bundled up before I gave them to MeMum (complete with a small adventure girl giving my bow the once over).

Now that I’m refreshed from a fun project, I can get back to the Steampunk blocks. Oh, and the rest of the items on my 10 Things this Summer list. Summer is almost over!

Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Five on Friday

28 Comments / July 12, 2013 August 25, 2013 / Chat

1. I’m making progress on my steampunk blocks. I’m slow, but I’m taking my time and having great fun.

2. MeMum and I went to Shipshewana last week. While I was in Lolly’s (I would link, but it looks like their website is no longer there), I noticed Primarily Quilts by Di Ford behind the cash register. I’d been checking it out on the internet, so I took the opportunity to save money on postage and treated myself.

There are some gorgeous quilts in this book. I particularly have my eye on Phebe. Because, you know. Sheepies!

3. A month or two ago, I came across Esther Alieu’s blog. Are you following along with her Love Entwined quilt along? There are hundreds of women making this quilt (which is certainly not for the faint of heart) and I think it’s going to be great fun to watch their progress. It’s SOOO tempting to join in, but. I won’t list my lame reasons. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to seeing the many variations of this quilt. You have to join the Yahoo Group to see all the pictures. Totally worth it!

4. I won a giveaway from Meredithe. She makes beautiful quilting templates and she sent me the set for this fun Cheddar star block. Thank You Meredithe!

5. Summer is in full swing around here, as evidenced by my growing coneflower bed. I love my coneflowers and look forward to seeing them bloom every year. It’s been hot and miserable and muggy (thank you rain!) for a week, but it broke yesterday and we’re in for a perfect weekend.

I hope your weekend will be great too!
XOXO,
Anna

Steampunk

32 Comments / June 29, 2013 August 25, 2013 / Chat

Well, I’m having a slow start to my 10 Things this Summer list. For the quilt block entry (#8), I have made a little progress.

Brigette and I saw the Steampunk quilt at market and knew we wanted to make it.

And then we saw this black and yellow quilt in the Busy Bee Quilt Designs booth.

So, we thought it might be fun to make the Steampunk quilt in the black and yellow colors. Plus some gray.

And, like the Busy Bee quilt, some touches of red. Berglind gave me the two fabrics below and they’re just perfect for this color scheme. (Thank you Berglind!)

I’ve noticed that the Busy Bee quilt also has some browns, so I’ll have to work on that too.

It’s been slow-going for me, but I’m having fun selecting fabric combinations.

This is a REALLY fun quilt to watch at the blocks come together.

The pattern is by Jen Kingwell (I LOVE her quilts!) and I’ve just discovered that there’s a flickr quilt group to boot. And too funny — I just clicked over there and saw that my old blog friend Nicolette is also making this quilt. You must go see her blocks — they’re beautiful!

And, I apologize in advance, if you get lost in the all of the internet steampunk blocks!
XOXO,
Anna