Chat – Page 30 – Thimbleanna

Medieval Buttons

49 Comments / June 6, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Chat

Plop. Plop. Fizz. Fizz.
Oh what a relief it is!

I had some quilting time this weekend and it felt sooooo good! I had a hard time getting organized, so I wasted half the day Saturday getting my supplies together. I popped in to our local quilt shop and received a very pleasant surprise — they’re sprucing up a bit and they have some new fabrics in. They even had fabrics that would work for the little quilt I’m working on – yipee!

I also had to make a quick stop into our local JoAnn’s and look at the little lovelies that I spied:

Some fun new buttons by Nicky Epstein! Of course, you know, those sheepies had to come home with me (thank you JoAnn and your 40% off coupon!)

And Come On! LOOK at THESE buttons:

That armor-headed guy (what do you call them?) kills me. I LOVE that button — I NEED a good reason to go back and get him. (Feel free to make suggestions!)

Once home and walking up the driveway, I glanced up to see this:

A sure sign that a quilter lives here. That’s a peek into my laundry room (through a very dirty window, which you’ll kindly ignore) to a stack of pre-washed fabrics, fresh out of the dryer.

So. That’s my weekend update. Errands and quilting (it’s a gift, so I can’t show you yet — but soon). Anything exciting happen on your weekend?
XOXO,
Anna

P.S. I’ve tried to comment on a bunch of blogger blogs tonight, but blogger is screaming out of service. So Sorry!!!

Checking In

52 Comments / June 3, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Chat

Ooops! I didn’t mean to be away from here for so long. There’s just not much exciting going on this week, so I haven’t had much to tell. I spent most of last weekend painting kitchen cupboards at MeMum and BigDaddy’s in the kickoff session of the big kitchen re-do of 2010. They have pretty new countertops and the cupboards are still in pretty good shape, so they decided to paint them. One section of cupboards are now painted — three more to go. Now we just need more free weekends!

The highlight of my week has been receiving this fabulous package from Chookyblue! I participated in her trip around the world several months ago and she sent me all of these gorgeous notecards as a thank you. I was astounded when I opened the envelope — I expected one or two notecards — that Chooky sure knows how to pack an envelope. All the notecards feature Donna’s beautiful photography and I just love them! Look at that cool old metal wheel (sorry, it’s upside down) — and all the gorgeous flowers. Thank you so much Donna — now I can write notes in style!

Oh hey — wanna see what I bought at sample spree? Here’s a peek — Anna Griffin’s new line (CrazyMom is doing her new quilt-a-long from this fabric and I’m totally blaming her for this little indiscretion), Oliver & S’s new line, Happy by Me and My Sister, and Lily and Will by Bunny Hill in pink.

I kind of went just a little bit crazy at sample spree. I think I’ve only ever bought 2 “kits” in all my years of quilting (which are still sitting in the dungeon), so I’m not sure what I was thinking. And full disclosure — this isn’t everything (I’m just too embarrassed to show you). I may or may not have purchase the green and blue colorways of Lily and Will. And quite possibly the new Flower Sugar line from Lecien. And there might have been something else in my bag, but I’m suffering from amnesia. Just in case you-know-who is reading.

For my money though, it was a great deal. How could I pass up beautiful satin ribbon with my name on it? Those Windham people — they’re so thoughtful!

I hope you have a good weekend planned. There WILL be quilting here in ThimbleannaLand – otherwise I might burst!

XOXO,
Anna

I’m a Lucky Girl

49 Comments / April 15, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Chat

It’s been gift central around here this week and I’ve been very, very lucky! First up was a wonderful package from SweetiePie. I couldn’t figure out why she would be sending me a little surprise. I mean, a BIG surprise — just look at the fabulousness:

A super cute cupcake decorating kit with cupcake cups and little birdy picks. Aren’t they sweeeeet? And LOOK at that necklace. Do you know what it is?

It’s a Brighton Lanyard! A clip for my I.D. badge at work. Isn’t it gorgeous? I Love, Love, LOVE it! Once again — SweetiePie has lived up to her name — all these goodies as a Thank You to me for the wedding quilt. My goodness, I never expected this. A MIL couldn’t ask for a better DIL! Thank you so much SweetiePie — You. Are. The. BEST!!! Smoochies!

And then, if that wasn’t enough, we arrived home one night to find a package all the way from Australia on the doorstep. I had no idea what it could be. I squealed with delight when I opened it and TheManoftheHouse came over to see what was going on as I was unwrapping the first gift. “Boy, someone sure took a lot of time to make all those packages look so pretty” he said. Ooops! He was right, so I ran and grabbed the camera. Sorry, the picture is blurry and the pretty packages are a bit disheveled, but I was in a hurry!

When all was said and done, I’d unwrapped a treasure trove of goodies from Emma of Ballarat Patchwork. And then it dawned on me — this was my package from the spring swap. Oh. My. Gosh — how lucky could I be? LOOK! My picture isn’t the best — I’ve sadly cut off the head of the orange screen printed birdy, but trust me, he’s cute. And the colors! They’re all just fantastic! I’ve been on a lime green and orange kick lately so I really love this package. Can you see it all?

A yoyo maker, 2 screen-printed pieces, 4 pieces of fabric, 4 reels of ribbon, 1 spool of super delicious lime green pearl cotton, 4 lime green buttons, 3 beautiful postcards from Ballarat (I so love those — now I want to visit) and the pièce de résistance:

{Squeal!} Look at that adorable little turtle pin cushion. Oh, how I love it! Thank you so very much for everything Emma — you hit the nail on the head. Scored a home run. It’s the perfect swap package and I love it all! And thank you so very much Trashy for hosting the spring swap — what a fun time!

Now, Emma, you must cover your eyes, ’cause you won’t want to read this next part. Late in the middle of the night that I received the package, I awoke to thumpy noises from the cats. I got up to check, but didn’t find anything amiss, so I went back to bed. The next morning, I found that beautiful spool of green thread unwrapped all over the house — through stairway spindles, under chairs, wrapped around piano legs and on and on. Unwrapped to the very end. Fortunately, the thread is just fine and I’ll still enjoy using it — it’s just not in a pretty spool anymore. Bad, bad Kitties! Rest assured — they’ve been punished. They’re in the corner in timeout — hoping to be allowed out by the weekend!

Thank you SweetiePie and Emma for my wonderful gifts. You’ve both made my week!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. A few tidbits for you:

How gorgeous is this Easter party? Makes me want children around again. (Thanks JunieQuiltyPeep for telling me about that blog years ago.)
Via Peabody, this interesting blog about the Top 1000 Awesome Things. Wouldn’t it be fun to start a list and write one awesome thing every day?

A Little Store

62 Comments / April 9, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Chat, Store

Well Hello There! It’s a beautiful spring day here in the heartland, and I hope you’re having a nice day too! I’ve been busy, busy all week (and then some!) birthing bunnies, as, after much thinking and deliberation and many bunny requests, I’ve decided to open a teeny, tiny little store here in ThimbleannaLand. {Eeeep!}

I should probably back up a little. A few months ago I went on a search to find Moda’s gorgeous Bella by the Bolt. What with the nine-patch quilts, the yoyo quilt, embroidery pieces, and my new-found love of quilts with solid fabric I realized that I was burning through solids and I should buy it by the bolt. A search ensued and I turned up … nothing. There are many of you out there who crank out more quilts with white and solid sashings than I do and I thought YOU might also share my Bella by the Bolt problem. So, being a Bella hungry girl with a website, I decided to open a specialized little shop and sell Bella by the Bolt.

I set about making a little store and when that Bolts o’ Bella page was done, it was looking like an empty little store, so I decided I’d pop a bunny pincushion page in there too. I’m not a bunny making machine though, so there won’t be very many bunnies in that room of the store.

And THEN, since that bunny room was so small, I thought I’d add just one more page for the occasional fun thing that might strike my fancy. I had a scare a few months ago when the source of my Patisserie Dome went out of business. I whined about this problem to my good buddy, Linda NoBlog, who also has a beloved dome, and she discovered a source for the domes. If you’ve been here very long, you know I LOVE my Patisserie Dome, so I couldn’t resist putting it in the store. While I was searching, I found a cool Bon Appetit Dome, so I plopped that in the fun stuff room too.

So, to recap, I opened a little store with three rooms:

Bella Solids — available all the time. And currently on a Grand Opening Special of 20% off through April 30th!!!
Bunny Pincushions — available once-in-a-blue-moon. ‘Cause making those little arms and legs is time consuming!
Fun Stuff — available most of the time. A few of my favorite things that I thought you might like too!

And please don’t worry. This won’t turn into a store blog. {Really. Stop rolling your eyes!} It’s too teeny tiny to take-over — my day job will keep that from happening.

If you have time — I’d love it if you’d check it out — Thimbleanna{dot}com!

And have a wonderful weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Commercials

46 Comments / February 10, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Chat

Ok, so let’s not talk about that Superbowl, ok??? Really, I don’t care who wins or loses. And I am happy for all the Saints fans! Besides, everyone knows that you watch the Superbowl for the commercials, right? I wasn’t exactly bowled (sorry) over by those commercials this year. There were a few good ones, but they don’t stand up to some of my favorites.

I’ve mentioned before, this is my all time favorite commercial:

My second favorite ever commercial is an old McDonald’s commercial that I couldn’t find on YouTube. It features a young father and his little boy enjoying a meal at McDonald’s because Mom is in the hospital, having just had a new baby. It always brought a tear to my eye when I saw it. Does anyone remember that one? McDonalds had some great commercials back in the 70’s and 80’s.

And this gem, is my new current favorite — whenever it comes on, I stop whatever I’m doing and watch it all the way through. It just makes me super happy:

Miss Jean blogged about this commercial about a month ago. She has a fantastic smiley face and you should run over there and take a peek at it — it will make you laugh, especially if you have a sewing machine. Now, I find myself looking for smileys everywhere. Here’s one in one of our bathrooms, much like in the commercial.

One I provided the smile for, and a tongue sticking out in the laundry room (it holds the odd change I find in pockets).

This little guy isn’t exactly smiling, but he’s kind of funny.

And this one is my favorite find. Can you tell what he is? I see him everyday in the ladies room at work (sneaky guy). Can’t beat that pinocchio nose!

Do you have any fun smileys at your house???

XOXO,
Anna