Chuck Nohara – Thimbleanna

Happy July 4th!

32 Comments / July 4, 2015 July 4, 2015 / Chuck Nohara, Holidays

Happy July 4th to all my US friends! And to all my UK friends, especially Pam — Happy Pam’s Birthday!!! Pam, I hope you’re celebrating your birthday the way we do — by grilling outside and watching fireworks! ;-D

TheFirstChild, SweetiePie and Winston are here and we’re having a nice quiet weekend. We’re planning a 4th of July bike ride downtown this morning and then we’ll have a little cookout with MeMum and BigDaddy here, at our house. Followed by some fireworks — TheManoftheHouse bought a few more than he should have this year — hopefully it will be fun AND mosquito free. (We’ve had such a wet year (the wettest June on record) and the mosquitos will eat you alive out there!)

I’ve managed a little sewing while the kids have been here. SweetiePie had some homework to do, so we sat together and I put a few stitches in another Chuck Nohara block. It’s slow going, but I have 5 little blocks now — this is going to be a loooong-term project!

The latest block, with the piggies, was a fair bit of work. I think it was meant to sew the little wedges onto a background fabric, but the piggies didn’t line up with the openings, so I cut them into hexagons and stitched them back together again. Here’s a poor cell-phone picture taken before the wedges were sewn on.

I loved that I didn’t have to worry about my stitches showing on the seams, since they were covered up by the wedges. This was a really fun little block to make!

Ok — must run — lots to do today. If you’re partying in the US, have a great time!

XOXO,
Anna

Checking In

20 Comments / April 23, 2015 April 23, 2015 / Chat, Chuck Nohara, The Aunts' Quilt

Man, I have no idea where the last week went. I feel like I just posted yesterday, but according to the calendar, it’s been 8 days. Work, Work, Work, it sure makes time fly. I’m sure you’re busy out there too — it feels like it never lets up, doesn’t it?

I spent the whole of last weekend cleaning. and boy, was it ever needed. Sort of big cleaning. Like, clean the windows cleaning — I can’t remember the last time I cleaned the windows. In addition to cleaning, we had a visit from Winston for a few days while the kids had a few days away. I enjoyed being able to take him on walks in the neighborhood. Spring is finally peeking out from under winter’s rock — late, but here. And looky who we found on our walk:

Can you see them? It’s Mr. and Mrs. Duck! Winston spotted them right away and wanted to go and play. Sorry about the picture quality, but I felt lucky that I had my phone with me. Anyway, if you’ve been around for a few years, you know that our duck couple is our official sign that spring has arrived. The trees are just barely showing a tinge of green and in spite of the snowflakes we saw this week, beautiful weather is right around the corner.

In the meantime, I’ve been doing a bit of sewing here and there. When I started the Aunts’ Quilt, I mentioned to the Auntlets that they might want to think about prepping the scallops for the border as we go along, in order to save a ton of work at the end — only I haven’t been following my own advice. After I finished last month’s blocks, I started to panic a little. Only a few more months and it will be time to do those borders and I hadn’t prepped any of the scallops. So, this past week, I got with the program and prepped some scallops in the evenings while we watched tv. Very fun work. And pretty too!

And there’s been another little project too. There are a bunch of crazies over on Instagram and I’ve followed them over a cliff. They’re having a quiltalong — you make a few blocks a month from the book “2001 Blocks of Patchwork” by Chuck (it’s a woman!) Nohara. (Click on the link, scroll down, click on the book and you can view a few pages). I need another project like I need a hole in the head. But, the ladies are a fun group, and what’s another deadline anyway? It’s good to keep busy, right? I hope I can finish some of them in this lifetime LOL. Anyway, here’s my first block:

Before I go, here’s a few fun links for you:
Randi is making smoothies and this one looks deeeeeelicious!
Flossie Teacakes wrote a great post about solids. Do you have a solids stash? Mine is sadly lacking. Hey — maybe we should have a Moda Bella Solids of the Month Club and build our stashes.
Speaking of Crazies, Ms. Ric Rac has her very first line of fabric coming out at market. Here’s a peek. I can’t wait to see it.
And finally, Irene has a new book coming out and I can’t wait to see it too. Spring Quilt Market is almost here — lots of exciting things on the way.

Ok, Peeplets — I’m off to bed. Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna