Chat – Page 7 – Thimbleanna

Dithering

25 Comments / September 27, 2015 September 27, 2015 / Chat, Store

Ahhh, this getting back into a normal work routine is hard stuff. I’ve been doing lots of little things around here, but nothing really substantial. We’ve had a gorgeous weekend (well, until tonight — drizzly, just in time for the full moon that we can’t see boohoo!) so I did a little gardening. MyDadLovesMeBestSister bought me this pretty hydrangea — aren’t the colors gorgeous?

Don’t worry — it won’t look like that next year. It will look more like the picture below. My hydrangeas have been pretty fussy the last few years and this year there have hardly been any blooms. Who knows what the problem is? There are a lot of teeny tiny wannabe blooms on them now — I’m wondering if the ridiculously wet spring we had this year made them not want to bloom — and now that it’s drier, they’re giving it their best shot. It’s going to be too little too late though — a frost is surely not too far off. Can you believe it’s almost October???

Now that The Aunts’ Quilt is almost over, I’ve been wondering what to work on next. I’d love to start a new project to attempt to make a dent in my stash, but I’ve realized I have way too many UFOs and need to get to work on them. They’re all really sloooooow, long term projects. I might have to do something quick for a little instant gratification before too long. I dragged out the UFOs — there’s the Chuck Nohara quiltalong (which I’m not really along-ing, ’cause if I were, I’d surely be kicked out by now), the Trip Around the World, some paper-pieced stars, and my little Liberty churndash blocks.

Sadly, in my search for these, I found other, older UFOs. So … no starting a new project for me! I’m thinking I’ll just work a little on each of them for awhile. I worked a little on the TAW earlier this week. It’s very slow going now that I’m on the bigger rounds — I’m estimating that one round is probably 5 – 7 hours of work. I need to prep some Chuck blocks — those are fun to do. The stars probably won’t get much attention. Not sure where to go with them and I’m really not a fan of EPP. And then there are those cute little churn dash blocks. I LOVE them — but whose idea was this??? (I’m lookin’ at YOU Jan!) I worked for several hours on them this afternoon and only got some hsts and long strips stitched and pressed. Slow, slow, work. Good thing I’m fairly patient!

There’s been a little work in my little shop too. More new fabrics (it’s that time when all the stuff ordered at spring market arrives!). These two cute little Japanese prints — a garden print and a cute little black check.

And teeny little Japanese mini-stripes by Yuwa. Love, Love, Love. These are perfect for stash-building. I first saw that little black stripe at Amitie in Australia last fall and when I saw other colors at market in the spring, I knew I we had to have them!

And, lastly, I’m still going through trip pictures. The last part of my fun trip was in London — I’ll show you more pics next time.

Ok, I’m off to trim up those little hst blocks. Have a Good Week!

XOXO,
Anna

Stop the Clock!

15 Comments / August 2, 2015 August 2, 2015 / Chat

Ohmygosh — things are spinning out of control here! Can you believe it’s August already? I can’t even remember July!

And did you see the beautiful moon the other day? On Friday, TheManoftheHouse mentioned that the moon was huge and gorgeous on his way to work, so when I woke up before 6 on Saturday morning, I thought I’d go chase the moon and see if I could get a good picture. Silly me — you get one day for those things and that’s all. The moon set much later and the sun was up way before the moon was low enough in the sky to be huge and beautiful. So what’s a girl to do when she’s up at 6:45 a.m. on a Saturday morning (which should be a punishable offense anyway — weekends are for sleeping in!)? I took pictures of corn fields. The corn is looking pretty beautiful out there!

Yeah — it’s really exciting around here LOL. I have been really busy though — August will be vacation month here in ThimbleannaLand, so I’ve been frantically trying to get a bunch of stuff done before I leave. The Aunts’ Quilt is hot off the press and put together for this month’s assignment — I’ll be gone on report in day for the quilt along, so I needed to get ahead.

Now, I just need to make a doll quilt and a pincushion or two by next Saturday. Think it will happen? I’m a little skeptical — I’m not getting home from work until around 8:30 every night, and the little doll quilt is barely started. I need a clone!

So, I’m off and running. I really just popped in to say Happy August! I’m hoping for a FUN month!!!
XOXO,
Anna

Checking In

21 Comments / July 26, 2015 July 26, 2015 / Chat, Store

Boy, I feel like all I do is make excuses for not posting these days. How is it that there’s not a lot going on, but it’s still really busy? Or, maybe there is a lot going on, it’s just not sewing and fun stuff to share???

For one thing, we’ve been put on mandatory overtime at work. Minimum is four hours, but, of course, they’d like us to work more. You can probably guess, I’ll be working the minimum. Their timing is poor — just as MyDadLovesMeBestSister and her family have gone on vacation, which means I’ll have helping MeMum and BigDaddy all to myself for 2 1/2 weeks — which means that there isn’t much spare time to be at work. Don’t feel sorry for me though — I’ll be going on vacation when she gets back.

I’ve also had fun in the kitchen. A cousin that we don’t get to see very often popped in for a quick visit. One night I made the Lazy Day Overnight Lasagne with some yummy Artisan Bread. The Lasagne isn’t necessarily guest-worthy, but it is good and I needed something that I could make while visiting with them the night before we actually had it for dinner. And Artisan bread is SO good and very easy too. The other night they were here, we grilled a Flank Steak — another delicious and easy meal. Just whip up a marinade of 1/3 c. oil, 1/3 c. vinegar and 2 chopped cloves of garlic, marinate overnight, and throw it on the grill for about 15 minutes. It’s wonderful, thinly sliced with a piping hot baked potato on the side. There was also chocolate cake for dessert! ;-D

I’ve been plugging away at this month’s assignment for the Aunts’ Quilt too. Working on the corner blocks …

And prepping some of the scallops that will be used around the borders. I’ve always wanted to make a clamshell quilt, so I played with the scallops a little. I can see that a clamshell quilt would be a lot of work!

And then … two more little things —
1) Pretty new Liberty fabrics in the shop!

and
2) Did you notice I updated the Thimbleanna header? It’s been eighteen months. P-I-T-I-F-U-L. I always seem to forget about the banner somehow. Or don’t have time. Or something!

Ok — zipping off to do a little stitching before dinner duties happen. Have a great week!

XOXO,
Anna

Be a Tourist in Your Own Town

22 Comments / July 11, 2015 July 11, 2015 / Chat

All you regulars out there know that I love to travel. I’ve always been envious of people who live in really cool places where they can house swap — what a way to see the world! The problem is, I don’t have anything to swap. I certainly have a nice enough house to swap, but I don’t live in an exciting place. No mountains or ocean views here in the midwest. Although, if you’re into corn fields or Amish buggies, we’ll see if we can work a deal (ok, we do have a pretty cool little Children’s Zoo, a historic Fort, and Johnny Appleseed’s gravesite, but I’m thinking that’s not enough to entice a foreign visitor!)

If you were to have occasion to visit our ~~boring~~ quiet little burg, this might be the week to do it. Every summer, we have a 10-day festival and it started today. The first day is my favorite day. I start off with Antiques in the Park:

Anyone remember Jarts? They only sold them for a few years before they were deemed unsafe. We had some fun summers playing this game when I was a kid — and didn’t even kill anyone.

And oh man, I really wanted this little doll baby bottle sterilizer set — look how cute!

After Antiques in the Park, I moved downtown to Art in the Park:

And then, all that walking around required a visit to Junk Food Alley and the midway.

It was fun to watch all the little kids playing arcade games. If I were playing, I’d definitely want to win one of those Hello Kitties. I’m way out of touch though — all the little girls were crazy for those cute pink dolphins.

And, of course, I couldn’t leave without my yearly funnel cake. Yum, Yum!!!

On that note, I’m going to go sleep off my sugar-high. Hope you’re having a fun weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

The Aunts’ Quilt — Month 8

17 Comments / June 15, 2015 June 15, 2015 / Chat, Cookie of the Month, The Aunts' Quilt

Well Kids, it’s time for the monthly Aunts’ Quilt report — if you’re an Auntlet, I hope you’re caught up! If you’re behind, these summer months are slow and our assignments are a little lighter, so it’s a great time to catch up!

Our assignment for this month was the same as last month — 4 inset triangles. I cropped my triangles, just because the pictures were so awkward with all that triangle edge space in them. Then, after cropping, I put them all into one picture — you probably have better things to do than scroll through the four separate pictures.

The applique this month was fun and easy. This little blue flower in the middle below, is by far my favorite flower. It might be because I love the fabric on the main part of the flower.

Now, if you can believe it, my house-cleaning, weeding, trying-to-get-the-blocks-done-on-time self forgot to make the cookie of the month. The shock! The horror!!! I was just working too hard this weekend — that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. Not to worry though, because I DID pick out the cookie of the month and just because I didn’t get it made doesn’t mean that you can’t make them. This month, for your cookie-loving pleasure, I selected my blog-friend Jody’s famous Soft Molasses Cookies. Here’s an older picture from one time when I made these cookies.

Luckily, Jody shared her recipe with us years ago and I’ve been making them since then — they’re just the right combination of chewy and delicious and they’re wonderful! These cookies sort of scream fall, or colder-weather cookies, but I think they’re amazing ALL year long — Yum, Yum!!!

Back to work Ladies — Month 9 on the Aunts’ Quilt is another light month — the last two inset triangles and then just two of the corners. Maybe you Auntlets can work ahead and be working on those border scallops — those border months are going to be a lot more work. Only one more month and then we’ll start putting the quilt top together — Yipee!

Also, if you follow me on Instagram, you know that Little Joys by Elea Lutz has arrived in my little Etsy shop. It’s an adorable holiday collection (ha! I didn’t say the C-word), in case you’re starting to think about a few holiday projects. I only have a few sets left, so don’t think too long!

Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna